Michael,
I have seen a photograph of some of the single shot rifles that LRF has scratch built, now he has a set of Borchardt Plans, I fully expect he will have built his before I have finished mine.
Thanks Harry, kind of you to say so. The samples of the drawings look interesting. Now to decide what I do next.
If I build a Borchardt like gun I will plan to use the good parts and may make improvements in some of the areas that could stand further development.
The following is my opinion:
The Borchardt rifle was an attempt to salvage a business share that was in serious decline. It was implemented with haste and therefore was not fully thought out or developed. If the gun had been brought into life without the financial crush the company was under, more design refinements would have been implemented prior to marketing. Unfortunately the buying public realized the negatives and also the entire market shift to mult shot guns spelled the end.
The Borchardt has 2 unbelievable attributes, that were very apparant. The graceful lines and the strength of the action (something that had never been in question with either this or the 1874 action)
To its negative were as most of you know, The trigger, The slow cocking with respect to the firing pin nose dragging on the spent primer, The difficult in manufacture and timing of the camming plates which added cost along with the wear on the plates which only add to the slow cocking. There is another issue less apparant and that is the lever spring which bears on the barrel, all though not significant this feature can be changed to a better design concept that I have used on my Farrow and Fraser rifles.
Mister Zischang fully under stood the trigger problem and he had a good solution if you are using the gun for target shooting (yes I know D Set triggers can work for hunting but are not as good as a good single trigger) Mr Niedner also understood the problems and added a target shooters solution to the cocking issues.
If I move forward with a build it will be using the plus' of the Borchardt and I will attempt to resolve the negatives.
Again remember that the above is only my opinion and what I want to do.