Just before Christmas I was able to obtain a slightly used Mares Leg for $225, a pretty good deal since the cheapest I could find was $349.95 new. Later I found it had a spent casing inside the action but a complete disassembly and needle nose pliers removed it, very much worth the $100 savings. (How a spent casing got inside the action is bizarre to me, but who am I to complain:bthum
)
Here it is, stuck in the tool loop of my Carhartt overalls (you would think it was designed for this duty).
After some time playing around and shooting it, I basically confirmed my earliest opinion of the Mares Leg. Lots of fun but just not practical. Now it was always my intention to mount a regular butt stock on this gun but the short sight radius on the Mares Leg seemed an obvious limitation on accuracy. After some research and help from folks in the Blackpowder and Antiques section regarding tang mounted peep sights, I put in an order to Brownells for one. Now I have a compact 12-7/8" barrel but a decent 19" sight radius.
The factory front sight on the Mare's Leg is functional (steel at least) but there is always room for improvement. A bit of work with a grinder, and lots of elbow grease using a three corner file, and I had a dovetail to mount a front sight into. Here she is with a Williams, medium height gold bead front sight installed. (Hood removed for closeup, also revealing a lot of lint)
The factory rear sight was removed and set aside with the intention of replacing it with a folding rear sight that I had removed from a Ruger 10/22 barrel many years ago. Unfortunately it could not be found so I filed and polished a piece of brass to fill the dovetail.
Next step was to obtain a full rear stock. I lucked out on the EE came across a set of used Henry wood moments after it was posted. More utilitarian than show but after stripping, steaming and refinishing with Tru-Oil they are handsome enough. I have always been of the opinion that a lever gun should appear "olde tyme". No offense to those with telescopic sights on thier lever guns but that's not gonna happen on my Henry. That being said, I felt that a crescent butt plate was what was needed to keep with the classic lever action style. Another order to Brownells, (keeping under $100
) and I got an Allan Foundry Marlin buttplate. I wish I had taken a photo of the butt plate as I received it, (a raw casting is not pretty) but being a welder I have done plenty of grinding. Fitting to the wood stock was another task altogether. Unlike steel, when working with wood, you can only remove material; never add. Trying to perfectly fit the butt plate to the wood was an impossible task. I eventually had to call it "good enough" or else I would keeps filing and sanding until I end up with another "Mares Leg" stock. Once satisfied I polished the butt plate to a mirror finish and then used an acetylene torch to heat it and bring out some color. (A tip I stole from a fella I know who makes decorative bits and other cowboy stuff).
If you are someone like me (who is very detail oriented) you will notice that I need to replace the regular Henry Philips head screws with Flat or Blade head screws (more "olde tyme" period correct). A small detail, but one that will constantly annoy me until I remedy it.
Another small detail was the Saddle Ring. When I received my used Mares Leg it did not have the Saddle Ring with it. So back to the EE and I obtained a reproduction of a Winchester Saddle Ring and enlarged the hole and tapped it to the 8-36 thread used in the current reproductions.
Its was a bit to cold for enjoyable shooting today. (About -20) but it think I much prefer the peep sight over the traditional rear "V-notch" or "buck-horn". Though the past several years all I used were scoped guns.
My future plans involve stripping the receiver cover and giving it the faux case hardening look. Or perhaps replacing it and the barrel band with brasslite replacements should they come avaliable again.
Anyways let me know what you think.
)Here it is, stuck in the tool loop of my Carhartt overalls (you would think it was designed for this duty).
After some time playing around and shooting it, I basically confirmed my earliest opinion of the Mares Leg. Lots of fun but just not practical. Now it was always my intention to mount a regular butt stock on this gun but the short sight radius on the Mares Leg seemed an obvious limitation on accuracy. After some research and help from folks in the Blackpowder and Antiques section regarding tang mounted peep sights, I put in an order to Brownells for one. Now I have a compact 12-7/8" barrel but a decent 19" sight radius.
The factory front sight on the Mare's Leg is functional (steel at least) but there is always room for improvement. A bit of work with a grinder, and lots of elbow grease using a three corner file, and I had a dovetail to mount a front sight into. Here she is with a Williams, medium height gold bead front sight installed. (Hood removed for closeup, also revealing a lot of lint)
The factory rear sight was removed and set aside with the intention of replacing it with a folding rear sight that I had removed from a Ruger 10/22 barrel many years ago. Unfortunately it could not be found so I filed and polished a piece of brass to fill the dovetail.
Next step was to obtain a full rear stock. I lucked out on the EE came across a set of used Henry wood moments after it was posted. More utilitarian than show but after stripping, steaming and refinishing with Tru-Oil they are handsome enough. I have always been of the opinion that a lever gun should appear "olde tyme". No offense to those with telescopic sights on thier lever guns but that's not gonna happen on my Henry. That being said, I felt that a crescent butt plate was what was needed to keep with the classic lever action style. Another order to Brownells, (keeping under $100
) and I got an Allan Foundry Marlin buttplate. I wish I had taken a photo of the butt plate as I received it, (a raw casting is not pretty) but being a welder I have done plenty of grinding. Fitting to the wood stock was another task altogether. Unlike steel, when working with wood, you can only remove material; never add. Trying to perfectly fit the butt plate to the wood was an impossible task. I eventually had to call it "good enough" or else I would keeps filing and sanding until I end up with another "Mares Leg" stock. Once satisfied I polished the butt plate to a mirror finish and then used an acetylene torch to heat it and bring out some color. (A tip I stole from a fella I know who makes decorative bits and other cowboy stuff).
If you are someone like me (who is very detail oriented) you will notice that I need to replace the regular Henry Philips head screws with Flat or Blade head screws (more "olde tyme" period correct). A small detail, but one that will constantly annoy me until I remedy it.
Another small detail was the Saddle Ring. When I received my used Mares Leg it did not have the Saddle Ring with it. So back to the EE and I obtained a reproduction of a Winchester Saddle Ring and enlarged the hole and tapped it to the 8-36 thread used in the current reproductions.
Its was a bit to cold for enjoyable shooting today. (About -20) but it think I much prefer the peep sight over the traditional rear "V-notch" or "buck-horn". Though the past several years all I used were scoped guns.
My future plans involve stripping the receiver cover and giving it the faux case hardening look. Or perhaps replacing it and the barrel band with brasslite replacements should they come avaliable again.
Anyways let me know what you think.
