Stock Ammo Sleeve & Sling for Mossberg Brush Gun

[Josh Ashman]

The title pretty well says it all. I was less than thrilled with how the lacing finished out on the ammo sleeve, but it's one of mine so I'm not going to bother re-doing it. HO 8 oz for the body of the sleeve with 4/5 oz bullet loops sewn on. The sling is 10/11 oz HO. Both were dyed with an old bottle of Tandy cocbolo water based eco dye that I have watered down several times. 2 coats of NF oil after that and then some Aussie wax and a day in the sun. 

Pretty fun little rifle! Anyway, thanks for looking and have a great day folks! 

Josh

[Double Daddy]

A craftsperson is, generally speaking, their own toughest critic. Excellent work as always, Josh...love those lever guns!

Edited July 16, 2019 by Double Daddy

[Rockoboy]

18 hours ago, Josh Ashman said:

I was less than thrilled with how the lacing finished

It all looks pretty good, but as a suggestion (from somebody who knows little about lacing), would the lacing lay better if the holes were slightly elongated, like a football shape rather than round? 

[Josh Ashman]

18 hours ago, Double Daddy said:

A craftsperson is, generally speaking, their own toughest critic. Excellent work as always, Josh...love those lever guns!

Thanks Chris! I sure love the lever guns myself!

3 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

It all looks pretty good, but as a suggestion (from somebody who knows little about lacing), would the lacing lay better if the holes were slightly elongated, like a football shape rather than round? 

Thanks Brian! Elongated holes would have helped. Although, I think the main issue I had on this project was that the lace, which was cut at 1/2" had stretched out to where it was only 3/8" or even a little less out at the tailing end.  Since I started wrapping at the pistol grip and finished up at the end of the stock it leaves more of a gap as you move back, with the last wrap being the worst. Adding to that, the last wrap is also leaned "out" from pulling the slack back under the previous wraps making it look even worse.  The lace I used was cut from the hide that's under the rifle in the pictures. It's getting pretty low on the side. I think that a better lace, cut closer to the spine and more consistent  tension on my wraps would have gone a long way towards cleaning the lacing up.  Elongating the holes would clean up the "bunches" where the relatively wide lace goes through the much smaller hole, although those "bunches" are fine with me if they lay flat enough. Making the holes elongated would also have given the lace a little more room, which in turn would have made for less stretching. It's a good suggestion, thanks for making it!

Have a great day folks! 

[dikman]

Would narrower lace be better? I've no experience with lacing, just wondered.

And yeah, there's something about lever guns that just looks "right". I have a Winchester 92 saddle ring carbine, made in 1897. It shows it's age, of course, but has a wonderful patina on it and still shoots well (plus another 3 levers). I love my lever guns.

[Josh Ashman]

13 hours ago, dikman said:

Would narrower lace be better? I've no experience with lacing, just wondered.

And yeah, there's something about lever guns that just looks "right". I have a Winchester 92 saddle ring carbine, made in 1897. It shows it's age, of course, but has a wonderful patina on it and still shoots well (plus another 3 levers). I love my lever guns.

Narrower lace, or a bigger round hole, or oval holes as Brian suggested would all work fine. With each you get a different look, none "right" and none "wrong", just different. I'm certainly no lacing expert (obviously, if I were mine would look better!), but what I was looking for on this was lace that touched at the edges, or at least was close to it. I missed that, so to me it doesn't look right. With the hot weekend forecast (100 + for SW Missouri) I may cut this off and re-do it just as an excuse to stay inside under the AC

I absolutely love model 92's! yours sounds great!

All the best, Josh

[Treed]

I think your holes look fine I would have just added more holes bring them closer together thus getting the lace edges to touch.... Fine looking rifle

Bobby

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Bobby! Semper Fi! 

[dikman]

Now I can see what you're trying to achieve and, correct me if I'm wrong, I reckon you'll need bigger holes and slightly wider lace?

[Josh Ashman]

Good morning folks! 

On 7/19/2019 at 5:58 PM, dikman said:

Now I can see what you're trying to achieve and, correct me if I'm wrong, I reckon you'll need bigger holes and slightly wider lace?

I think wider lace would have done the trick. And really, if my lace hadn't have stretched out at the working end (getting narrower in process) I would have been able to let it be. The hole size was fine for 1/2" lace and really OK for 5/8" too. It takes a little more work to pull it through, but it'll still pull.  

I did go ahead and re-do it. I went with a braided lace this time. I cut it from the same hide, and it stretched again, however it's less noticeable with the braid. It's quite a bit more work to braid them, but they do look nicer! 

Thanks to everybody for taking time to look and comment. 

Have a great day folks! 

[Rockoboy]

WHOAAA! This is a great look. I like the colour scheme with the darker lace on the mahogany leather. The extra lace does hide any small errors 'design changes'.

[dikman]

That looks better! As Brian said it tends to hide any slight inconsistencies, being a "busy" pattern.

[bullmoosepaddles]

I would be happy carrying either version. Except I need the bullets on the opposite side. 

As always you do great work. I must admit the reworked version is more pleasing to the eye. Thank for sharing your work.

I still miss my old Winchester 45-70.  

[Double Daddy]

Well...don't that purdy!?! Love that braided look!

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks everybody! The braided is better, no two ways about it! I better get back to making orders instead of personal gear so I can afford to buy a new hide to cut lace from  ! 

BillMossePaddles, I can see why you would miss a Winchester Model 86! They are an excellent rifle! 

Have a great day folks!

Josh

[noobleather]

A great effort their. Did you use any particular pattern? Or just designed it yourself. I have to make one for my Uberti 1873 lever gun soon 

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks NoobLeather! I just used my own pattern. I've built a number of these over the years and just use the stock and a piece of paper to make a pattern. I'm happy to try and walk through how I make mine if it would be helpful to you, but there's really not much to it. Also, by using paper you can fuss with it until it fits right with nothing more than scissors and tape. I will note that once you get a piece of paper to wrap around the stock just how you want and have the edges come together perfectly you'll need to add some length to get leather to do the same thing. To figure out how much to add use a piece of scrap leather the same thickness of your sleeve. Wrap it around the stock at one end of the sleeve and mark where it comes together. Then measure your paper pattern at the same edge. Add half the difference to each end of the paper pattern, minus 1/8". At least, that's how I do mine. 

Good luck on your project! Shoot me a message, or reply here if there's anything you'd like to ask. I don't know that I could be helpful, but I'm fine to give it a try. 

All the best, Josh

 

[dougfergy]

Wow!  That braided version pops.  I've got one that is waiting to be laced but it meets on the bottom edge not the side.  It also covers the entire stock including the butt piece.  Now I'm going to have to figure out how you braided that!  Fabulous work!

[PigasusStudio]

Nice, and your knife holster a thread back, too. :0)

Newbie question: what's "HO"? I know it's not Santa Clause's laugh, or a woman of hmmm, skip that, and that it has something to do with the leather, but .... 

[dougfergy]

Hermann Oak Tannery Leather, nice stuff.

[noobleather]

Hey Josh 

Thanks for the offer.

Cheers

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks again everybody! 

DougFergy,

I picked that braid up from Bruce Grant's excellent book Leather Braiding. It's surprisingly simple and easy to do. I'd take a picture of the page where he shows how to do it, but that seems like a disservice to him and likely violates copyright law and forum rules. The good news is that with a quick Google search you can find his book which is very affordable and I think also downloadable. 

Becca, as Doug noted HO = Hermann Oak. Excellent leather and surprisingly affordable in their Craftsman grade. 

All the best, 

Josh

[dougfergy]

Thanks Josh!  It's coming Saturday.  Don't mind paying for that!

[Josh Ashman]

48 minutes ago, dougfergy said:

Thanks Josh!  It's coming Saturday.  Don't mind paying for that!

Nice! the braid I used is the applique of a single thong ( from memory, I think that's what he called it ). It's shown towards the back of the book. It's a great little book with a ton of information on braiding!

All the best, Josh 

[roo4u]

oh dang that is sweet...i can see im going to have to try that for my 30-30 lever gun.  wonder how it would work for a .22mag and .357 lever guns...hmmmm