Ash's bOOmstikK: Transforming the White Tominator

[Sloppy_Snood]

Once upon a time, Sloppy bought a brand new White Rifles LLC "Ray Eye Series" Tominator 12 Gauge muzzleloading shotgun. It began its boring life looking like this (poor, pathetic, anemic-looking thing ) :

I have never been very impressed with Hastings Wad-Loc barrels (.726” bore with .731” in the straight-rifling grooves) but I must admit the factory 25” White Rifles LLC muzzleloading shotgun barrel (it is a Hastings Wad-Loc barrel) performed admirably with its factory .665” Hastings turkey choke and 1 ½ to 2.0 ounces of number 6 Hevi-13 shot.

Here is the factory setup Tominator patterning shot I shot a while back. It was absolutely is smoking (pun intended) on the patterning cardboard and par on the course for a White Rifles LLC product (thanX DOC!)

After being “bit” with the black powder shotgun bug (thank you to NWTF Still Target competition’s black powder shooting class), I decided what better of a platform to build a customized 12 gauge muzzleloading shotgun than an in-line #11 percussion cap ignition White Tominator! After a month of playing around with drawings, dimension numbers, steel specifications, etc., I came up with my desired design and began “the building process.”

First up? Purchase a super strong (118,000 psi tensile strength) piece of 4140 PH (Precipitation Hardened) chromoly alloy steel round bar for a barrel blank. A local Hoosier company called Huff Steel had just what I needed: a 36-inch long piece of 4140 PH round bar with an outside diameter of 1 ½”.

I always like to gundrill solid round bars for custom barrels (rather than using steel tubing) so I had my friend Mike at Davis Machine & Tool gundrill my round bar to an original, unfinished bore of .726” (this is also the size of the drill bit my gundriller had that was closest to a true .729” twelve gauge bore).

After the bore was gun drilled, Indian Creek Shooting Systems (Click Here) profiled the barrel’s exterior (1 ¼” constant for 3 inches from the recoil lug then continuous taper to 1-inch at the muzzle), threaded it to fit a Tominator receiver, threaded internally for the factory White Rifles 1-piece nipple/breech plug and drilled 4 new Weaver base screw holes in the receiver and barrel (the factory scope mounting holes were too far rearward for my liking). Overall barrel length ended up being 34 3/8”!!

It was at this time the shotgun’s new name came to my mind upon suggestion from a friend: Ash’s bOOmstikK (this is also a reference to the classic, B-rate, 1992 movie called Army of Darkness Preview (Click Here for Video Preview)).

 

[Sloppy_Snood]

Once Indian Creek Shooting Systems was complete with their barrel work, Sloppy and his steel traveled to Ohio to the world class turkeyshoot gunbuilding shotgun shop called Gunworks by Denny Tubbs (Click Here). Gunworks reamed the bore to a bore diameter of .730” and began their honing process of the barrel bore to its final .7??” finished bore diameter.

After backboring and bore honing were completed, the barrel was mounted into a CNC lathe for 12 gauge Invector Plus choke tube threading (many, many thanks to an unnamed black powder afficiondo [who prefers to be unnamed] who helped me locate and purchased the “harder than heck to find” 12GA Invector Plus reamer and tap for this particular shotgun project).

To actually see a “raw” piece of gun drilled steel threaded for screw-in choke tubes was probably one of the most interesting machining techniques I have personally seen. It should suffice to say that there is much more time, equipment requirements, and technique required to properly thread a shotgun barrel (advice?: let the professionals perform this service kids! It is worth the $75-$95).

Ensure perfect barrel bore alignment within the CNC lathe

Mount the reamer in alignment in a fixed position

Mount the barrel through the spindle (in an aluminum bushing) and align with the 12GA Invector Plus reamer (Dave Manson Precision Reamers).

Begin reaming by properly lubricating the reamer flutes and advancing the reamer into a spinning barrel blank. The reamer is equipped with a 2-inch pilot lead and fitted with a brass bushing. This ensures the reamer remains perfectly on centerline of the bore.

Ream, ream, ream,……just a little at a time, clean the steel chips away, and re-lubricate. Repeat, repeat, repeat until complete.

 

[Sloppy_Snood]

Thread the reamed barrel with a Dave Manson Precision Reamers' 12GA Invector Plus tap and whallah! INV + choke tubes screw right in. I stuffed Ash’s bOOmstikK with a .6??� Indian Creek Black Diamond Strike with integral wad catchers.

Of course, when increasing the barrel size to a bull barrel, the original stock requires inletting. Gunworks inlet my original White birch laminate Tominator barrel channel to 1 ¼â€�.

By using the original stock, I was able to utilize the original Brownells Acra-Glas receiver bedding I installed over a year ago.

Once the barrel, recoil lug, and receiver were reconnected, the barreled action assembly squeezed right down into the inlet White stock with little effort. A quick installation of the single action screw and my bOOmstikK began to reappear as a brand new muzzleloading shotgun: Ash's bOOmstikK!

 

[Sloppy_Snood]

After reattaching the Weaver #83 and #84 bases to the receiver and barrel with the packaged 6-48 scope base screws, 1-inch Burris Signature Zee rings and a Nikon Omega 3-9x40 riflescope found their home atop of Ash’s bOOmstikK.

The combination mounted perfectly to the bOOmstikK with the Omega scope having just the right amount of scope clearance at the objective (i.e. bell).

A quick look down the assembled muzzleloading shotgun setup confirmed that the configuration would be acceptable for future shooting efforts. A "Woodgoat Custom" 304 stainless steel ramdrod lays beside the bOOmstikK, ready for reloading!

Woodgoat Custom turned brass ramrod attachments and a black Delrin muzzle guide allow for consistent black powder shotgun loading.

 

[Sloppy_Snood]

The end product of the building effort produced a “more than acceptable” 12GA muzzleloading shotgun henceforth to be known as

Ash’s bOOmstikK !

Enjoy the following bOOstikK pictures. Comments/questions/suggestions are very welcome.

Load, choke and pattern information is forthcoming.

 

[trkyhntr70]

Scott,
that thing is awesome; lets see some patterns!

 

[Dub]

Very interested in seeing the patterns, too.


What does that beast weigh?

 

[Sloppy_Snood]

Very interested in seeing the patterns, too.

What does that beast weigh?

I will shoot some patterns for you guys once the darn temperature here in Indiana increases to at least above freezing! Dang cold here right now.

I previously shot 38 number 6 Hevi-Shot pellets in a 3" circle at a measured 40 yards for NWTF still target competition (did not count a 10-inch circle , sorry). In short, it hangs performance-wise with most "dedicated 12GA turkey shotguns (cartridge shooting)".

Weight is around 13 pounds with the bathroom scale ....I will try to get a more accurate weight in the near future.