flintlock kit rifles?

[texas77325]

Hi,

I know they are a bit expensive but Jim Chambers (www.flintlocks.com) makes some beautiful kits. I have his York County in 45 cal with a Rice barrel (his recommendation). I haven't had time to get to it yet, but the parts are beautiful and compatible with the French and Indian wars (well, maybe at a stretch) and the Revolutionary period.

Jim has used his for hunting mule deer and turkey with some success.

I also shoot a T/C Hawken with a drop in Green Mountain barrel. It's a percussion cap but a lot of fun. No hunting yet but some target. Love the annual chunk gun competition.

 

[Cosmoline]

Just to clarify this discussion, there's a hierarchy of kits and it's important not got get them confused.

1--Traditions or other pre-boxed factory kit. These are 99% finished with everything ready to just stick together and the wood to be given a final sanding and have stain and finish applied. These are the least expensive, but also the least authentic and have good but not excellent barrels and locks. No drilling and tapping is typically needed, and only minor fitting.

2--Ready-prepared kit from Sitting Fox, Track of the Wolf, or any number of other outfits. These have stocks already 85-90% finished often with the lock already inletted. Some additional sanding and shaping will be required, as well as cutting the stock to your fit and installing the buttplate. These vary in difficulty from simple trade gun kits to more complex Jaegers and the like. All the parts have been pre-selected and you just choose brass or iron. The barrel is usually in the white, but the plug is either installed or can be at a small extra charge. Drilling and tapping required, as well as final fitting for all metal parts and inletting for smaller ones.

3--Parts with plan. This is where you piece together your own rifle from parts offered by Track or one of the other places. There's less guidance and you need to do a lot more preparation and study yourself. These are usually called "advanced kits" or something like that. The wood may be little more than a blank.

4--Building yourself w/ factory lock and barrel. This is where you do everything yourself from selecting the blank to making the simpler metal parts. But you still get a factory barrel and lock. This is similar to how it was done in the old days, when you'd buy a lock and have the blacksmith build everything else.

5--Total scratch build. This means you make everything from lock to stock to barrel. It's the most difficult approach but frees you from any set of parts.

On top of this, if you know how to do engraving on metal or wood you can add that level of complexity to the project.

From the sound of things, I think the OP is ready for No. 2 or No. 3 to start with. No need to waste time with No. 1.

 

[animus_divinus]

i think ill buy the kit... so i have something for hunting with this season, and to give me more experience around flintlocks... this way i have something to fool around with while i get the tools to do number 5, entirely from scratch which to me sounds a bit more fun.. the bigger the challenge, the bigger the accomplishment.... however that total scratch build is probably going to be a wheellock

i have the full blueprints and plans to the wheellock action, and the general rarity and exoticness of it really attracts my attention, so as a winter project im going to get some mild plate steel, some files and start shaping the parts to the wheellocks lock, and go from scratch with that setup, then after that i may do a pennsylvania rifle to replace the origional, but i guess the kit will easily be suitable for now, to get my foot in the door with shooting flintlocks (ive toyed with caplocks, and cap and ball stuff before though)

 

[mykeal]

Unless you're planning on selling tickets it doesn't matter whether anyone frowns or smiles at your technique. What matters is the final product.

The 'time-honored' technique is to use chisels to get the rough shape, then scrapers for the final finish shaping. Scrapers for barrel inletting are available from Brownell's and do a fantastic job; they are not to difficult to make from scratch.

 

[animus_divinus]

i actually just did a price check on parts to build one from scratch.. barrel, buttplate, lock, trigger guard, double set trigger, breechplug, and other small pieces comes out to about $300 shipped... i can get a beautiful piece of figured maple for another $20... end result is for the price of buying the traditions kit i can make one thats more authentic.. or shall i choose to mix components, more unique... have that double set trigger, and higher quality parts... im probably going to do this when i can decide which book to buy

 

[mykeal]

Where in the world are you getting those prices? A quality lock alone is $150, the barrel another $150. And a plain maple blank should be at least that much again.

 

[animus_divinus]

green mountain barrel is $105, siler as cast lock is $80ish, and maple blanks? maybe if you buy an actual blank but not if you buy a piece of maple lumber and cut a blank from it

 

[denster]

Animus. With all due respect you might want to go to the library and see if they might have access to such books as Recreating the American Longrifle or Gunsmith of Grenville County or others or in the final extreme buy them and read them. While assembling an as cast Siler lock is not complicated for someone with the proper equipment for drillng, tapping and heat treating it is beyond the talents, generally, of someone with little experience. The same goes for generating a stock from a plank. At least then you will understand what you are getting into. There is a reason the semi finished quality kits cost as much as they do.

 

[animus_divinus]

well denster, i have no problem carving a stock from a plank.. if you think thats hard, try carving a guitar neck with precision, and ive build other guns in the past, so an as cant setup.. not much more difficult for me at all.. so in all i think i will build from scratch once ive determined which book to buy for blueprints and plans

and what is a library? i have seen one of those in over 10 years

 

[denster]

Well best of luck to you. By the way a library is a place that has books, some of them even have books on guns.

 

[animus_divinus]

thought most of those had been converted to internet cafes