kit thinking

Hello,I am thinking of building from a kit a .36 flint for small game and target shooting so accuracy is important.Would you folks recomend a colerain or green mnt barrel?Also if I get a stock inletted for the lock will it be a given that the touch hole and all will be lined up?The first step of a book has been taken, and given the current situation in the firearms world most of my shooting this year will involve smoke.

There's a lot of talk on this forum about the word "kit" when associated with muzzleloading firearms. I'll only speak from personal experience. My first "kit" was from Peacatonica River Longrifle Supply. The barrel was inlet back to thebreech end where some careful fitting was required to set it all the way in and down and back. The lock was 90% inlet but had to be deepened all around. The lock was in a good enough place to properly place the drum/touch hole. The breech plug was not inlet at all, nor were the thimbles. I chose to use a different trigger than the one offered so all that was up to me also. The buttplate was also only roughed in near my pull length. I had to final fit it too. The nose cap was comepletely up to me and of course the final stock shape was up to me. The gun shoots great but it will never be posted here because of the glaring HC/PC inaccuracies and the many little mistakes I made during the build. Some day I may go back and strip it and redo it, but for now it's my 1st choice all season deer rifle. It has a Green Mt. barrel in 54. I also have a .36 from Rice Barrel Co. thats a real tack driver. I recomend you stock up on blackpowder and lead and get a mold to cast your own balls, JUST IN CASE.

+100 !!

you should not mistake a 'kit' to make a rifle with the 'kit' with which you made a model airplane when you were a kid... think "almost all of the necessary parts."

you should get a copy of Recreating the American Longrifle, and a copy of The Gunsmith of Grenville County (i'm pretty sure Shurlock publishes both - -they're available at Track of the Wolf) expensive, but more than worth the price if you count the parts you didn't ruin.

since i didn't follow the advice i just gave you before i built my first rifle - didn't know any better, it is something of an embarassment. subsequent rifles have improved, not through any great skill of mine, but by following the directions in these books. (but, having said that, you probably don't need all the tools Alexander describes in his book.)

additionally, there are a bunch of really good DVDs available. most for rent.

the rifle will take longer than you think, especially if you go slow and take care not to make too many mistakes ... remember, this is supposed to be fun.

having said all that, makinng your own rifle is a really cool thing to do.

good luck with your upcomming build!

The book I got is the gunsmith of grenville co. wich I will use as a guide for my build.The kit will probly be one of tracks or pecotonicas.There may be more questions to come :wink:

I would go with Pecatonica. And if I wanted a straight barrel with straight cut rifling, I would go with a Green Mountain barrel. If going with radius cut rifling or round bottom rifling or a swamped barrel, I would go with a Rice barrel. The Rice barrel will be as close to perfect as you can get & a perfect breeching job. A Colerain ? you get what you get, sometimes OK, sometimes it has issues. But definitely not close to the quality of a Rice barrel. I have bought over 75 Rice barrels & on every single one the finish, bore, rifling & breechplug fit was as perfect as the eye can see.

I have used allot of Colerains & they all shot well, but have issues in either the bore or the breechplug fit on about 50% of the time. First thing on a Colerain you may have to do is rebreech it, as I think they are machine breeched, not hand breeched & about have of them are not correctly fitted. Then you have to check it carefully for loose spots in the bore. And this for sure needs to be addressed before building the rifle, as you may have to swap it out with a dif. barrel.

This happened with me on one years ago. Forgot to check the bore. Got the rifle In-the-White & took it to shoot it. Shot OK. Got to cleaning it & had 3 loose spots in the barrel. Send it back & got a replacement. Not breeched correctly. Sent that one back, breeched OK, bore OK, barrel is larger than original so had to reinlet & that was really tedious (to say the least) as I had the rifle built & sanded down & SLIM of the forestock.

From that time forward I build it In-The-White but don't touch the forestock other than inletting the barrel & pinning the barrel in, and I go shoot it right them. If I have to swap barrels, I want to do it before... I trim the forestock down & put the nosecap on, not afterwards.

Keith Lisle

Good info bird dog,I currently shoot a gm in .54 its a goodun. Thanks

Birddog6 said:

And if I wanted a straight barrel with straight cut rifling, I would go with a Green Mountain barrel. If going with radius cut rifling or round bottom rifling or a swamped barrel, I would go with a Rice barrel.

Keith Lisle

Click to expand...

So this all begs the question; what's the practical difference between all these different rifling styles? Does one shoot or clean better than the other? Is one safer than the other? there must be some sort of difference, or else they wouldn't make them differently. And, there's quite a difference in price, so there must be some (real or perceived) value difference too.

There is also a gent on the site who is videoing parts of his build and you can go view those on Youtube. His name here is duelist1954. It won't show you everything there is to a build, but it gives you some good hints. Many of the video's that are out there are outstanding, but the ones that I own all deal with rifles built from blanks and not pre-carve's so it is a little different. The Duelist1954 video's shows what you will have to do with the kits as sometimes it is more difficult as you have less options to work with on the precarve's.

The Round bottom or Radius grooved barrels are easier to load & easier to clean, IMHO. Accuracy wise..... :idunno: who knows. ALL of them shoot better than I can hold them. I have never had a Rice or a Grn. Mtn. barrel I could not get to shoot accurately.

The swamped barrel changes the balance of the rifle, putting more weight back on your shoulders, rather than on muzzle & them being so muzzle heavy. Some like the straight barrels with the muzzle heavy, I don't care for it myself. Once I shot some swamped barrels, I never looked back. I own 1 or 2 with straight barrels, but all the others are swamped.

The Rice barrel comes with a breechplug & it will be breeched perfectly. The finish inside & outside on the Rice used to be better than on a Grn. Mtn. The Grn. Mtn barrels used to come without a breechplug (don't know if that is still true) and you have to buy a plug & fit it properly.

Green Mountain barrels used to hold more match records at Friendship than all others. But of course they were the most popular barrels too. Don't know if this still holds true or not.

Keith Lisle

I spoke with a local builder tonight and am looking forward to a visit with him.He builds em from scratch and was my shop teacher a long time ago

You can most likely learn more & retain more in a day from him, than you can learn in a month of reading. You get to actually SEE it all In Hand....... that is very important.......

Keith Lisle