Just sharing my experience for the benefit of others that might find this information useful. This is not intended to infringe on the rights of the forum's premium members to review stuff.
Got my .54 GPR percussion model from an on-line dealer. (this is not a kit). Upon opening it I was a little disappointed with the wood to metal fit around the lock. Sure its supposed to be a replica of a primitve gun I realize that. Then I noticed the inletting around the tang was equally poor. Tried to assemble the barrel to stock and found the wedges could not be pressed in, tried a brass hammer, light tapping didnt work either. Visual inspection with a bright light proved the under barrel lugs were about a 1/8th inch too high and or the stock had warped enough to prevent the wedges from entering. (so much for any factory test fit).
A bit of file work later and she snapped together but only with a forceful hand squeezing of the wood forearm to the barrel. During all this process I noticed the stock's profile (shaping) in the butt stock area. It looks like a kid with a belt sander did the final shaping. Too thick in some places too thin in others and just wavy and uneven overall.
The inletting around the toe piece and butt plate were erratic as well. The pin that holds the nose cap on was sticking out almost a full 1/16th and had a sharp burr that caught my hand, easy enough fix by driving it on through part way and Dremeling off one end a bit. The inletting inside the lock and trigger assy area was rough and a bunch of loose wood splinters fell out when removed! Again some unskilled factory worker getting a little too agressive with the dull rotary file. Lots of fuzz and splinters suggest this one got made late on a Friday afternoon.
Ok, call me nit-picky but... the metal finish isn't all that good either, lots of tool marks still visible on the barrel flats that I think shouldnt be there after proper polishing, its obvious too these were done with the barrel moving in opposite directions giving a kind of striped contrasting flat to bright effect which looks more odd than anything and doesnt really show up in my lousy digital pics.
Mechanically the hammer is a loose, almost sloppy fit in the spindle, even tightened down fully (it was loose) its still sloppy. This lock uses a coil spring its kinda weak but seems to function Ok. When I removed the trigger assy the pin holding the front trigger just fell out. Its so loose you have to use care when reinstalling the assembly so it doesnt fall out.
So deciding most of this, at least most of the wood problem could be resolved, I went ahead and took her to the range. Ran a moist patch down, first came out black and grundgy. took three more to clean whatever was in ther out. First round @ 50yds w/factory adjustable rear sight was on the paper, in the 9 ring! 100grs FFg behind a swaged .530 ball and pre-wonderlubed .015 cotton patch (Ox Yoke brand)
Second round was a little low and hard to load, third round almost in the same hole so I adjusted the sight, back in the bull. Long story short I wound up cleaning after every third shot then every other shot, got all the adjustment I could out of the rear sight so I tried 110grs before I went to filing on the front. Made a significant difference this gun / ball combo really liked 110grs better, by the end of about 45-50 round session we had an inch and a half group all around the 10 ring consistently.
Had to clean the ignition orifice twice after a couple of hang fires which I attributed to the left over T/C powder solvent I used, I probably got the breech channel a little too wet. Tried .018 pillow ticking and it was way too tight. Balls were Speer, swaged as noted.
So this is just my experience performance wise not bad, appearance wise I have to say I am a bit disappointed, if I rework some of the poor workmanship out of the stock the exterior will never be more than about a 6 out of 10. Some places cant be fixed unless some wood was added back where there is too much relief. Around the tang for example its too high in front too low in back.
Anyway hope this helps anyone trying to decide if this ones right for you. Maybe I got an unrepresentative crude specimen, I recall looking at these before (years ago) and never noticed the poor workmanship. Dont think for this price you are getting a "fine arm" personally I think Interarms/Lyman's price point is a bit out of line on the GPR least the one I got.
Got my .54 GPR percussion model from an on-line dealer. (this is not a kit). Upon opening it I was a little disappointed with the wood to metal fit around the lock. Sure its supposed to be a replica of a primitve gun I realize that. Then I noticed the inletting around the tang was equally poor. Tried to assemble the barrel to stock and found the wedges could not be pressed in, tried a brass hammer, light tapping didnt work either. Visual inspection with a bright light proved the under barrel lugs were about a 1/8th inch too high and or the stock had warped enough to prevent the wedges from entering. (so much for any factory test fit).
A bit of file work later and she snapped together but only with a forceful hand squeezing of the wood forearm to the barrel. During all this process I noticed the stock's profile (shaping) in the butt stock area. It looks like a kid with a belt sander did the final shaping. Too thick in some places too thin in others and just wavy and uneven overall.
The inletting around the toe piece and butt plate were erratic as well. The pin that holds the nose cap on was sticking out almost a full 1/16th and had a sharp burr that caught my hand, easy enough fix by driving it on through part way and Dremeling off one end a bit. The inletting inside the lock and trigger assy area was rough and a bunch of loose wood splinters fell out when removed! Again some unskilled factory worker getting a little too agressive with the dull rotary file. Lots of fuzz and splinters suggest this one got made late on a Friday afternoon.
Ok, call me nit-picky but... the metal finish isn't all that good either, lots of tool marks still visible on the barrel flats that I think shouldnt be there after proper polishing, its obvious too these were done with the barrel moving in opposite directions giving a kind of striped contrasting flat to bright effect which looks more odd than anything and doesnt really show up in my lousy digital pics.
Mechanically the hammer is a loose, almost sloppy fit in the spindle, even tightened down fully (it was loose) its still sloppy. This lock uses a coil spring its kinda weak but seems to function Ok. When I removed the trigger assy the pin holding the front trigger just fell out. Its so loose you have to use care when reinstalling the assembly so it doesnt fall out.
So deciding most of this, at least most of the wood problem could be resolved, I went ahead and took her to the range. Ran a moist patch down, first came out black and grundgy. took three more to clean whatever was in ther out. First round @ 50yds w/factory adjustable rear sight was on the paper, in the 9 ring! 100grs FFg behind a swaged .530 ball and pre-wonderlubed .015 cotton patch (Ox Yoke brand)
Second round was a little low and hard to load, third round almost in the same hole so I adjusted the sight, back in the bull. Long story short I wound up cleaning after every third shot then every other shot, got all the adjustment I could out of the rear sight so I tried 110grs before I went to filing on the front. Made a significant difference this gun / ball combo really liked 110grs better, by the end of about 45-50 round session we had an inch and a half group all around the 10 ring consistently.
Had to clean the ignition orifice twice after a couple of hang fires which I attributed to the left over T/C powder solvent I used, I probably got the breech channel a little too wet. Tried .018 pillow ticking and it was way too tight. Balls were Speer, swaged as noted.
So this is just my experience performance wise not bad, appearance wise I have to say I am a bit disappointed, if I rework some of the poor workmanship out of the stock the exterior will never be more than about a 6 out of 10. Some places cant be fixed unless some wood was added back where there is too much relief. Around the tang for example its too high in front too low in back.
Anyway hope this helps anyone trying to decide if this ones right for you. Maybe I got an unrepresentative crude specimen, I recall looking at these before (years ago) and never noticed the poor workmanship. Dont think for this price you are getting a "fine arm" personally I think Interarms/Lyman's price point is a bit out of line on the GPR least the one I got.
