Chambers "York" Rifle

Being new I am still figuring out what forums to appropriately post in. My apologies if this is not in the correct one.

As I have been reading the posts many say that Chambers is one of the best.
I was on their web site and have an interest in the York Rifle.
Has anyone built this kit or better yet willing to share pictures of the finished product?

thanks in advance

while I haven't did the York Kit I am working on a Chambers Early Virginia right now. I am down to the sanding phase. It took me about 3 hours to get the barrel in. Probably another 2 for the lock. You can actually get by using sand paper to fit the lock plate in. I didn't have to do any wood removal to get the side plate in, just clean up the side plate with a fine file. The dovetails are cut for your underlugs and the front site was dovetailed for me. You will have to soder the front site to it's base and cut the dovetails for the rear sight. The trigger guard needed a minimum amount of wood removed as did the trigger plate. You will have to gouge out the slot for the trigger. The buttplate was inlet as well but did spend half a day fitting the long top piece correctly. You'll need to drill and tap for your lock screws and drill and tap for the tang bolt. You'll also need to inlet the nose cap and drill the barrel pin holes. I'm sure I'm missing something but I think that pretty much covers it. The parts are top notch and the Chambers family are great folks to do business with. Good luck

Ito am new to the forum and am very interested in a york rifle.I ordered and just recieved the Chambers dvd on building one of thier kits and it is well worth the money. It will probally be a while before I can afford one, so if you get one let me know how it turns out.Good luck


judget :thumbsup:

Chambers kits are the best! I have a York 45 cal. and a Issaic Haines 54 cal. The York is my favorite! The balance is awesome and the gun is a tack driver. Get it you will not be disappointed. However can't help with assembly, I did not put it together, not talented like that. I will post some pics of the York when I get a chance. If you click on my membership name and go to topics posted by member you can see pics of the Issaic Haines I have, also a great gun. Enjoy!
:thumbsup:

I put together the Chambers Isaac Haines Rifle. It was my first Rifle, not counting the 3 of 4 T/C's and CVA's I've put together. I made quite a few mistakes, but I think it still turned out very nice. Shoot's great too.

I built the York rifle about a year ago. It was my first (and currently the only) build, and was a great experience. It's got a .40 Rice barrel, along with the rest of the standard hardware and lock. I'll post pics when I can, but I made it for my dad who lives about 500 miles away.

As far as the build itself, it was not that difficult. I've got some experience doing cabinetry, which probably helped, but there were still many things I did for the first time on that rifle. Still, it was a bit easier job than I expected. The parts really were about 95% inlet, which made getting a good fit pretty easy. I think I went too fast in a couple spots, but all in all it was great.

Next one I do, I think I'll used some scrapers instead of as much sand paper, and make sure to get a smaller chisel (the 1/4" was fine most of the time, but a 1/8" would have been good). Make sure to get a good sharp exacto-knife, as it makes things much easier when cutting out the inlets.

I purchased a York kit at Friendship in September. I got all the hardware there except for the barrel. I also have a wooden patchbox.

I'm STILL waiting on the barrel.................


But, that wait has allowed me to do a lot of research that I should've but probably wouldn't have done if I had the barrel earlier. The Turpin video is very helpful, it gives you a lot of visual keys to building the gun.

Take the time to watch a video and read some books. If there is something you havn't done before (carving, drilling metal, tapping, etc) PRACTICE.
I've read Foxfire 5, Gunsmithing Tips and Projects, Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in it Golden Age, Recreating the American Longrifle, Building the Pennsylvania Long Rifle, Building the Kentucky Longrifle and varius articles on the internet.

I've also worked on carving, inleting and staining and finishing.

I now feel prepared to tackle this rifle and I can't wait to get my barrel so I can get started!



Jim and Barbie Chambers were excellent to workwith! I'm just frustrated with it taking so long to get my barrel.

I'm not that talented. It took me about 150 hours to put it together. Of course that does include fixing my mistakes.

I have the Turpin Video and the APV video with Ehlert and IMHO, the APV video is the best of the 2. Turpin brins out a couple of good points, but Ehlert is more detailed oriented better filmed. Again, my humble opinion, since I own both

Jim through in the Turpin video with my kit.. so i'm biased

I called and spoke with Jim this evening and he said they shipped out my barrel yesterday so hopefully the big brown truck will have a nice surprise for me tomorrow or friday!

It looks like you did a wonderful job. Beautiful rifle.

Ohioan said:

Jim through in the Turpin video with my kit.. so i'm biased

I called and spoke with Jim this evening and he said they shipped out my barrel yesterday so hopefully the big brown truck will have a nice surprise for me tomorrow or friday!

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It does surprise me that he (Mr. Chambers) carries the Turpin video and not the APV video as he (Mr. Chambers) actually appears in the APV video. Again I'm not saying the Turpin video is bad, he does bring out some good points. Of the 2, and I have watched both of them several times, when I started building my rifle I relied mostly on the APV video.

FPDoc said:

It looks like you did a wonderful job. Beautiful rifle.

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Thanks for the kind words. It was definitely a labor of love. I just about drove my wife insane with it. I was going a little nutso with it as well, I even built a special, gun-only work bench for myself to build it on :youcrazy: