Tell me about your guncart

[Chubbo]

Hi, Marshal Halloway:
Where would one find the type wheels shown on the gun cart being pulled behind the covered wagon, shown in your picture? They look to be iron tired, wood wheels. They look just great. are they available in different sizes? They look like the wheels on the two wheeled push carts that peddleres pushed when I was a kid. The picture of the cart and wagon, has my head churning with ideas.
Thanks.
Chubbo

[Marshal Halloway]

Howdy Chubbo,

The pics shown is not of my carts, but maybe someone else can add some info here.

[Coal Stoves]

Very Mobile, I travel lite like a cowboy, built her myself from a picture of an Off The Wall  design and a couple a Rolans ideas and a little engineerin on my part

[Doc Neeley]

Mine was made for me by Dandy Don when I first started out. It's great and easy to break down.

[Micheal Fortune]

Well since I posted those pics on page one of this topic my gun cart has had several alterations.  Most noteably an umbrella and ammo box.

Hard to see but on the left side is a cup holder....

[Rolan_Kraps]

Nice piece of furniture there, TB!

I've been thinking about designing (another ) cart, one with a removable rifle rack that can be put into a bracket mounted on a wall, so it can be used as both cart and display.  Still playing with the idea.

Adios,

You mean like this Hext? 


Here is a picture of my latest cart, folded down for travel.  Now that I look at it, it's a LOT like the modification that Sgt. Chapman made.



All, thanks for the kind words on the plans.  I've got another set in the works.  it'll be for an Easier to build cart for the "tool challenged"

[tarheel mac]

No Pics of mine yet...but is a "modified CalGraf design" built by none other than Col. Mark Flint also known as J. Mark Flint.  Really good guy and great example of the cowboy way.  Its take down, made of oak (so it is heavy) and 'bout the only mod I plan for it to add some PVC pipe for a beach umbrella, for some place to hide from our NC summers...

[Captain Lee Bishop]

I figure that I'm never going to impress too many people for a massive collection of Western stuff or having more guns than anyone else, as my focus has been into my WW2 collection (which is quite head turning at displays) and I can't repeat the same commitment into CAS. I just don't have that much money.
I figured, however, that while I'm no gun cart maker, I could turn some heads with what I did with it afterward. My intention was to paint it a dark green color and trim it with various insignia. If there was space, I was also going to be painting a SAA on each side of it somewhere, to look like my own pistols. I also have other ideas, but I wasn't sure if there'd be room or not. I have quite a bit of experience in such things, after painting pilots' jackets and steel pots for re-enactors and veterans. I had originally intended to make it into a showcase of what I could do, something that would really stand out. I had ordered the cart from a local guy who makes good simple carts. I liked the others of his I'd seen, so I told him to have one ready for me this past weekend.
When I got there to pick up the cart, the closer I got to it, the more the realization hit me:
Holy Crap, it's varnished! 
I don't recall the other carts of his being varnished, but now I wonder if I just never noticed. I'd have to take it totally apart, strip it completely down then start over. As I was putting it into my vehicle, I realized that just wasn't going to happen. So, my plans have been put back only slightly. After doing some painting on it, here's what it looks like:

I will be putting other things on there as I can think of what would look good. I still want to paint a side-view of one of my Rugers, maybe on one side of the box. I'm still not sure yet. I have the "CAS guidon" insignia on the handle sides, if you look closely.
Check out my website, it'll give an idea of the kind of stuff I can do, even if it's really not CAS-related:
http://www.freewebs.com/willysmb44/

[SGT John Chapman]

I reproduce a few other things also, even did my own uniform with most of the leather...............I'm working on some WWII 20 Round box labels right now too......

[Johnny McCrae]

Attached are pictures of a gun cart I've just completed for myself. The tool box is removable. I'm estimating that it cost me around $160 for materials including the tool box. Oak boards & brass hardware are expensive. A neighbor helped me with the use of his table saw. Mostly straight 90 degree cuts with the exception of the uprights & the gun slots.

[RattlesnakeJack]

I've posted pictures previously (although not in this thread) of the half-scale Red River Cart I completed last year.   This Spring I produced hoops and a canvas cover (both removeable) for rain protection ..... (Click on thumbnails to enlarge.)





The rather unattractive contraption at the front end of the shafts in the lower photo is something I rigged up for attachment to the shafts to hold them horizontal when the cart is "at rest", and also to afford someplace to sit down.  (The lower plank has dowels projecting from its upper ends which engage in holes drilled into the underside of the shafts, and the upper plank pivots over the top of the shafts to hold the unit in place.)

However, I am not impressed with either the stability or appearance of this system, so my next project is to make something along similar lines (as far as operation/attachment are concerned) but which utilizes the nail keg shown in the upper photo for the support system.  The whole thing will just lift up and come along with the cart when being pulled, but when the unit is "at rest" it will hopefully have a more appropriate appearance - as if someone placed a plank over the top of a barrel or keg to support the shafts and level the cart.

It seems logical that cart shafts must have been propped up in such a fashion "back in the day" (at least once in awhile) though admittedly most period images I've seen show them resting on the ground ....



You may be able to tell that I shortened the shafts a bit after the first photo was taken, and will likely shorten them again slightly to minimize over-all length for ease of transport.  Note that the shafts on original carts were often quite short - about the length of the "basket" section, if not less.  Only a single draft animal was used, with the usual harness system requiring the shafts to reach no farther than the shoulder ...

[Johnny McCrae]

Enclosed are pictures of a removable insert that fits into the bottom section of my gun cart. I've taken a piece of rubberized-bottom outdoor carpeting and folded it to form a cradle to hold my rifle & shotgun in place. It is glued together with Barge Cement. I'm hoping it will protect the butts of the guns.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Howdy Pards

              I guess I cheated, I bought mine from Bill Bower of Oak Tree, it has a large storage box in front and a box in the bottom back and a smaller box in the upper back , I did a little leather work on it and added a few do-dads and lined the gun box with green felt . I think its going to work just fine for me .

             Jonhny McCrae and Rattlesnake Jack , You Pards did a Rightous job on you gun carts , they should give you years of service..
Take care and shoot Straight  ;
                                                       Ten Wolves 

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

heres a close up   


                                Ten Wolves

[Deadeye Don]

My gun cart is in my avatar.

[RattlesnakeJack]

My gun cart is in my avatar.

Ahhh ... a true-blue NCOWS shooter: acts as his own packmule!   

The main reason I built my half-scale Red River cart was to have a 'NCOWS-legal' conveyance ...
though admittedly it's just a mite cumbersome to transport to shoots, it definitely can be done,
because I made it with the axle and wheels easily removeable.   Matter of fact, I hauled it about
1200 miles to the Grand Army of the Frontier Muster at Ackley, Iowa, just last month ....
(click to enlarge)


Prior to that trip I had shortened the shafts somewhat to make it fit better in the back of my SUV,
having noted from 'period' images of these Metis carts that the shafts were frequently quite short,
in keeping with the way the single draft animal was harnessed up:
   

I've also rigged a new 'shaft-support and sitting-down system', as seen in the first photo above. 
The previous system (visible in the photo in my first post showing the canvas cover in place) was
frankly rather 'chintzy-looking', and also none too stable as a chair ...  This version also temporarily
attaches to the shafts while in use as a guncart (top plank pivots to 'lock' it into position, or remove)
and thus just 'comes along' with the cart when moving it from position to position using a leather
strap affixed to the lower plank on either side of the keg ... just visible in the first photo.  Hopefully
it looks more 'realistic' - i.e. meant to appear like the cart shafts have been set up on a plank atop
a barrel, with another plank laid across the top to form a table or work surface ....  Have not yet
located a period image showing such, but it seems like a plausible thing to have done, and at any
rate this system is definitely much more solid for sitting down!

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Your rig looks good, Jack. The barrel is a nice improvement over the other brace. It looks more plausible, not to mention more stable.

[Arcey]

Awful nice lookin' werk.  I'd just hate ta push (pull) it some places I shoot. Ya need small 'n light.  Real muddy in places too.

When I was a kid, Mechanics Illustrated had plans for a scale '03 curved dash Oldsmobile.  Really like to convert them plans o'er to electric motivation 'n make a gun cart outtah the thing.  I'd have ta have a trailer to take it places but that ain't difficult ta come by.

Pipe dreams...

[RattlesnakeJack]

Thanks for the kind words, Gents!

Awful nice lookin' werk.  I'd just hate ta push (pull) it some places I shoot. Ya need small 'n light.  Real muddy in places too.

Well, Arcey ... 'muddy' ... or even worse ... was a very traditional set of conditions for the original carts,
so I'm OK there, I think ... (click to enlarge)

   

FWIW, the third image above comes from the sketchbook of a fellow who was part of an 1862 overland expedition
from Fort Garry on the Red River (near present-day Winnipeg, Manitoba) to the Cariboo Goldfields in north-central
British Columbia ... about 2000 miles or so 'as the ox plods'.  (Which reminds me ... everyone keeps telling me to get
a miniature ox to pull my cart .....    )


Actually, as for ease of use, I've found that the bigger the wheels, the better a cart traverses rough or uneven ground. 
This cart is actually quite light and well balanced, and thus pulls quite easily, which is especially noticeable when I pass all
the other folks struggling with the more common smaller-wheeled guncarts in the ruts and bumps so often encountered ....

[Arcey]

What I was thinkin' is them pretty wheels in the mud.  Nasty.

I've hoarded a dozen ¾ X 24 plywood disks.  Broken from wire spools from the building under restoration next door to my office.  I build carts from plans supplied by Russ N. Hound on kansascas.com I've modified. 

If  I ever get back to the state shoot, I'm buildin' one just wide 'nuff for two long guns 'n usin' the salvaged disks for wheels. There's one stage set there ya walk straight up ta get to 'n ta leave ya walk straight down on a red clay path.  My four wheeler ain't real heavy but I thought it was gonna drag me down the hill 'fore we made it to the bottom.  The incline is such the cart rode on it's hind wheels all the way down.  One slip.....................