Asperly Aimless

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If I have posted this before, please forgive me...... Even if I haven't, please forgive me......
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..........I recently came across the name of Proff Brutus Asperly in some casual reading, and recalled his remarkable firearms invention, the Asperly Aimless series of rifles. In fact I had been almost successful in expunging from my memory the fact that I did in fact still own one. I felt that by now I might be safe in re-acquainting myself with the piece.

I then went outside and removed the Asperly from where it was propping up a corner of my wife's potting bench. As I stood there holding it, my mind went back to when it had become mine. I'm sure all of you can recall such incidents yourselves. I had the 'Need', and you know how that goes. The haggling was long and drawn out. Both the owner and I were growing weary of the back and forth offers and counter offers. It was becoming acrimonious and I could get him to go no higher.

Giving up, I pocketed his hard earned $30 and shouldering the Asperly, I went home. Reference material on these is scarce to the point of being non-existent. I suppose it wasn't well advertised and owners may have been reluctant to mention owning one?

Regardless, I have done my best in determining the model of which I became the owner. I have come to believe that this is the Asperly Grande Deluxe Spontaneous Model, MkII. The Target version at that. I further believe it had been owned by a target shooting team, as the initials AT&SF are branded into the stock. As further evidence of it being a target model, what I thought at first were spare cartridge receptacles are in fact places for addition weight.

There are 4 such places and after much experimentation I have found that cheap and easy to come by railroad spikes fit handily into each hole. This allows weight regulation. The stock is also very well weatherproofed. The stock is also fully checkered in what appears to be the rasp and hammer method, an early forerunner of the more common impressed type checkering.

Beyond ascertaining it to be the Target version, strong evidence of it being also of Grande Deluxe lineage (and the MkII at that) is how the stamped sheet metal breech block and cotter key breech locking device are both fully engraved. Bear in mind too that the cotter key is retained by a BRASS bead chain. The engraving is very tastefully done with what was apparently a prick punch and single jack.

As an example, on the side of the action, what some have thought to be a dog pointing at a turkey, is in fact a dog pointing. However under close examination it comes to light that he is using his left rear leg to point not at a turkey but a bush. There must be quail under it. Scenes of this type are not often seen on the more mundane firearms.

To leave the firearm for a moment, we should know the reason for the good professors development of these rather unique firearms. While not a hunter or even a 'Gun Guy' himself, he felt that there was no longer any real sport in game hunting with the modern cartridges available. Add to that the magic of range finding scopes, scent killing clothes, etc and etc. In addition to that, with such things, the poor hunter's entire experience is over way too fast. So our exceptional Prof Brutus Asperly conjured up a means to give both the game animal and the hunter a much richer experience.

In the next installment I'll explain and describe the rather unusual sights, loading procedure, and if I feel up to it we might even fire it.

...........I can assure one and all that it is real, and in fact I shot it today. Those of you who read this and remembered you had one, I commiserate. I know that the average age of cast bullet disciple is slightly , ah, er .......... advanced. And I apologize for your having had to crawl under the house, jack up the outhouse, or drain the cesspool in order to find your Asperly to determine which model it might be.

A bit more history. As mentioned previously Proff Asperly desired to increase the hunter's length of time in the field, and to enhance the "Fair Chase" aspect of hunting season. To this end he created the vaunted "Totally Random Shot Placement Theory". He also carried this over to his target rifles.

Inasmuch as he felt that underachievers, or those who didn't practice sufficiently should have the same chance as those who applied themselves and worked diligently, the TRSPT target rear sight would be a big seller at the range. As you may have noted, this is serious business as it has been adopted in our schools. So as you might have gathered by this time, Proff Asperly was well ahead of his time.

As I previously mentioned, I believe my Apserly is the Asperly Grande Deluxe Spontaneous Model, MkII (target version). I say 'believe' as info is sketchy and also the rifles were assembled by committee, so finding any 2 alike is extremely slim. In addition the good professor being the humanitarian he was, used the handicapped to a great degree. As those poor folks being blind are discriminated against to a great degree in the manufacturing sector, they formed the larger part of the workforce.

To get on with it, I did take it out and shoot it. If no one gives me too much grief I'll explain why doing your target shooting inside a barn or a 2 car garage is the best.

The cartridge cases were called the "Everlasting" type, as they require no strenuous resizing. After firing you merely drag the now empty 'case' out with you fish gutting blade, bent tine of a salad fork, or the common fingernail will suffice. The cases are made using the cheap and ever available aluminum foil. The spent primer usually just falls out. Shake the foil out to clean and re-wrap around the supplied wooden mandrel to reform.

The other end of the mandrel has a cavity to 'wad' the foil up, and form the primer pocket and a pick to puncture through the flash hole. I personally prefer Reynolds Quilted foil to be the best. For fixed ammunition the bullet is best held by Lepage's library paste or 2lb monofilament. If using the monofilament a double clove hitch on a half bite, finished off with a bowline gives it a nice flourish to the completed round.

However, I much preferred to breech seat as the target shooting greats of yore practiced. However if you shoot this way your targets had to all be uphill, and it worked well for targets in trees. I sometimes used targets tacked up over the bottom cross arms on telephone poles. Otherwise, if the muzzle was lowered the bullet had a bad habit of sliding out the muzzle onto the ground.

To overcome this, you MUST paper patch. I find that 1 sheet of 2 ply bathroom tissue (like me you'll probably prefer white, unscented) works great merely chewed thoroughly with common mouth variety saliva. This wad is then inserted first into the breech and pushed home with the case extracting tool (finger, fork, fish gutting knife blade, stick, whatever). Then the bullet and then the freshly made case.

Once these actions are completed, the breech piece is swung over, which cocks the action and totally randomizes the floating aperture of the rear sight. If you don't see the aperture at the time, don't worry as it will put in an appearance at some point. You then drop the cotter pin on it's bead chain through the 2 holes to lock the breech piece, and you're ready to fire.

I'm still recovering a bit and tired so I'll have to post about the shooting tomorrow or so.

...................As I said I shot the thing the other day. One nice thing is that there is no utility whatsoever in taking sighters. The Random Floating Aperture rear sight, by design, makes such an activity fairly useless.

I had found a suitable barn for my shooting range, with no one at home and the animals all out to pasture, a reasonably safe distance away, or protected by topography. Repairing to the barn, I went inside and closed the doors at both ends.

I dragged out a bale of hay, and tossed a bag of oats on top as a rest for the Asperly. Then I went to the far wall (maybe 30 feet) and chalked a mark to aim at that was high enough to keep the bullet from rolling out of the barrel. I settled down behind the bale of hay, settled the Asperly on the bag of oats. Carefully inserting the 'cartridge' I then closed and locked the breech.

This action randomizes the floating aperture in the rear sight. There is also no elevation or windage adjustment, which amazingly simplifies it's use. However, the rear sight is no simple object in itself. I believe it's action is affected by static electricity, planetary alignment, barometric pressure, and the current state of the stock market.

With a fevered brow I had my cheek to the stock. I placed the 3 fingers on the "Asperly Patented Safety Trigger" required to pull it. I patiently awaited the aperture to appear in the rear sight. After some tantalizingly quick glimmers of it's edges, or of it zooming past, it finally presented itself (although a bit obliquely) long enough for my brain to send the urgent signal to my fingers to "YANK NOW!".

The trigger oozed backwards as only the Asperly Safety Trigger can. Kind of like squeezing a plum. The sear tripped, the intermediate lever slammed down releasing the clock spring to unwind in well oiled fashion, powering the eccentric cam to rotate around and open the path for the 3/4" ball bearing to begin it's tortuous path to smack the striker a good one.

With a hearty boom and amidst a cloud of crimped oats I reloaded. I put out the fire on my bale of hay and resolutely refused to view my handiwork. I've seen shooters pop up and down like jack in the boxes to look through their spotting scopes, but not me.

By the time I'd fired the 5 shots for a group, my deodorant had quit, my hair was singed back to mid-scalp, my eyebrows were gone, and recoil had about done me in. I suspect I was the only person in 3 counties who could clap his shoulder blades together.

As I walked forward amidst a cloud of dust, crimped oats, and the occasional falling cedar shingle to check my target, I found not one bullet hole. A careful survey of the interior of the barn turned up 3 very recently deceased rafter rats, and one hole in the loft behind my shooting position. Ah yes, nothing like the ole Asperly!

After recovering sufficiently enough to drive, I walked out to my car and saw a power company truck pull up, obviously to replace a couple insulators, as the lines were sagging low. Hmmm, wasn't like that when I arrived?

As I drove home with the Asperly dragging on the ground from the bumper hitch, I realized the old piece still had it. If I set my mind to it, in the next few months I may be able to save enough money to possibly move the Asperly on to someone else who doesn't know where I live.

To those of you who've replied to this opus, with advice, and further information, I thank you. To those having freely admitted to having owned, or currently owning an Asperly (of whatever description) I will take your name and pray for you. You are of stout heart, and rapidly diminishing number.