I'm already frustrated, and I've had the gun 30 minutes!

Saw a punch set in my local Walmart yesterday - it included a 1/16" punch.

WEAVER 849719 Deluxe Gunsmith Tool Kit

Indispensable.

wm

I got her all put up for today. I'll jump in head first tomorrow. Since I have to anyway to finish the stock, I'm going to punch out all the pins and take the brass hardware off. Jim has a video on how to remove the barrel after the pins are out without damaging the tang.

Also, I'm gonna get a set of thin bladed, untapered screwdrivers tonight. My regular screwdriver just ain't a gonna work!

GAHUNTER60 said:

Also, I'm gonna get a set of thin bladed, untapered screwdrivers tonight. My regular screwdriver just ain't a gonna work!

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You may want to consider a ‘gunsmith’ set of screwdrivers, and even then, you have to customize or fit a few for specific screws. Just go slow.

And one way to keep track of components ( at least the steel ones), is to use magnetic bottomed stainless steel part pans. Just a thought.

Please remember that once the barrel is removed, the stock becomes somewhat fragile and can easily be damaged or broken. Treat that long, slim beauty with tender hands.
Walk

Ace Hardware carries small punches, that way you don’t have too buy a whole set... most of which you may never use..

Keep your pins separate, don’t mix and match them.. Some may be longer than others.

If you bend one , straighten it, or replace it with one of appropriate size.
Be extremely careful putting them back in as not to blow a chunk of wood out the other side!
Use a scrap piece of wood as a backer..
On the opposite side from where your putting the pins back in...
Make sure the barrel is completely seated before push the pins in as well..

Don’t ask me how I know this

Enjoy your build!
Congrats on a fine gun.

GAHUNTER60 said:

BTW, It looks like a 1/16" drill bit (held backwards with my needle nose pliers) will punch the pins out without damaging the hole.

My frustration simply stems from not having any directions specific to what I'm doing. I kinda figured I wouldn't get such directions since only a small amount of rifles are sold in the white.

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That drill bit is hardened steel ,as is the hammer face. It Will Shatter when struck. Use a pin driver.

I would suggest contacting Mr. Kibler for his advise. I mean, really.

Suggestion if the ends of the pins are not all ready rounded a bit, perhaps take a bit of fine emery cloth and ever so lightly burnish the ends a bit just enough to to kind of smooth the shoulders, will lessen the chance of a blow out on the opposite side stock wood, also use a brass or nylon headed small hammer to replace the pins and a brass or nylon pin punch, these are specially dimpled to lessen the chance of the drift slipping off the pin. and use multiple light taps. Do not force anything.

Nit........Great idea using a bicycle spoke for a barrel pin punch. Years ago I was looking for a cheap tool to include w/ the builds I do , so folks will have a chance to take the pins out of the stock w/o ruining the wood. At a salvage store , I found a quantity of just the right size Allen wrenches . I ground the "L" off each wrench and super glued the remaining piece of wrench into a 2 " section of 1/2 " dowel rod. They don't bend , or break. I think a bicycle spoke would work as good and not cost 20 cents each................oldwood

Watch the Kibler you tube on how to remove barrel from the stock, The breech end needs to come out of the stock before the muzzle.

GAHUNTER60 said:

I just got my Kibler Colonial in the white, and there is not one word on how to remove the barrel from the stock for finishing. There's like ten pins on the stock, but no instruction on which, if any, have to be removed to separate the stock and barrel. I guess if I had built the gun, I'd know these things, but I didn't, so I don't!

I assume I'll have to remove them all to sand and finish the stock. Where in the world do you get a punch that small (especially one that's not tapered)? At the moment my blood pressure is rising so fast, I'm about three minutes from having a stroke! The funny thing is all the people on here who told me how easy it would be to buy the kit and put it together, and I can't even handle the simple task of removing the barrel and hardware!

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Once the pins are removed....watch this video at the 1:20 minute mark till the 1:30 mark. Its show how to remove the barrel:

As was said, a slight chamfer on the pins will help with managing tear out. It wouldn't hurt to measure and index the pins too. You will be taking them (the barrel pins mostly) out a lot, and mixing them up can sometimes happen. If you lose one (it happens, that will make making a new one that much easier.

When you do your finishing, the varnish will go in the holes and swell them or clog them up some. Before you put your pins back in, use a drill bit of the appropriate size (probably 1/16") to drill out the holes again to help reduce the risk of tear-out. You should always remove the pins from the same side too. (usually the left).

jsb30 said:

Watch the Kibler you tube on how to remove barrel from the stock, The breech end needs to come out of the stock before the muzzle.

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Exactly right. If the tang is tightly inlet, lifting the muzzle end first can chip out a piece behind the tang. Invert the gun over a padded surface such as a blanket & while holding the muzzle in place, bump the butt & hopefully the tang end will fall out. Re the pins, the "norm" is "in from the right, out from the left". A little rounding of the ends (if not already done) will help avoid tear outs. Likewise, if the pins are a little bit shorter than their holes, even 1/32" will give the punch a starting point that will avoid an easy miss that can occur when trying to center a punch on a pin that is flush or worse, standing above the wood surface. So many great guns have suffered needless damage from careless pin removal.

GAHUNTER60 said:

I just got my Kibler Colonial in the white, and there is not one word on how to remove the barrel from the stock for finishing. There's like ten pins on the stock, but no instruction on which, if any, have to be removed to separate the stock and barrel. I guess if I had built the gun, I'd know these things, but I didn't, so I don't!

I assume I'll have to remove them all to sand and finish the stock. Where in the world do you get a punch that small (especially one that's not tapered)? At the moment my blood pressure is rising so fast, I'm about three minutes from having a stroke! The funny thing is all the people on here who told me how easy it would be to buy the kit and put it together, and I can't even handle the simple task of removing the barrel and hardware!

Click to expand...

Hey @GAHUNTER60 I hope you got your blood pressure down. Don't panic you can learn all of what is needed to disassemble and finish the hardware and wood and reassemble it. Did you receive the tools list and steps on how to finish it from Jim? If not shoot him an email and get a PDF copy. Watch his video series on YouTube. Go to playlists and pick the one for your gun kit. He also has some videos on finishing the stock. You won't have to fit anything seeing Jim has done that, but you will still need to file and sand the metal and maybe blue, brown or age it. Sand and stain or oil the wood depending on the finish you want.
You will need some tools such as a 1/16" pin punch, a small hammer, and a pair of vise grips to remove the pins.
Good luck!

Okay guys. Thanks to y'all, the rifle barrel is out, and all the brass hardware with the exception of the nose cap, has been removed. I used the reverse end of a 1/16" drill bit as a punch (worked perfectly). I did a rendering of the rifle profile and taped all the pins to it in the place they go back in on the rifle. The hardware pins are taped in the hole in the hardware with a label orienting the piece to the rifle when it's reassembled. I left the nose cap and trigger itself in place on the stock. Neither will get in the way when I start sanding and finishing the stock.

What I find interesting (and challenging) is the fact that these rifles are in no way similar to a modern rifle, mechanically speaking. I've been working on rifles and shotguns for 50 years. On modern guns most of the screws are interchangeable. You just throw them in a pile when disassembling it, and grab one from the pile when you put it back together. On this dadburn thing, every piece, every screw, every pin is unique to its placement in the rifle, making it imperative that you place it back in the gun exactly as it came out.

BTW, I removed the barrel exactly the way Jim Kibler showed us how to in his video. It fell out easy peasy, lemon squeazy! First thing in the a.m., I'll start sanding the stock. It won't take too terribly long, as it is actually in pretty good shape. Jim says it's sanded to 80 grit, but it seems smoother that that to me.

I hope get the first coat of stain on tomorrow evening. With any luck, I'll start browning the barrel on Sunday.

Again, thank you so much for your help and encouragement. Like I said, this ain't nothing like any gun I've every worked on before (and I have three percussion Hawken-style rifles, but in all honesty, this longrifle has little in common with a hooked breech, wedge pin percussion, other than how you load it and what you load it with).

Really enjoying your posts and I hope you stick w/ it. I'm a beginner and would say that at some point, you might just embrace and accept the oftentimes maddening intricacies. View the time considering, planning, and executing as a sort of therapy or like you would if you were hunting a big old elusive buck. These things require multiple skillsets and you quickly learn where you lack, I know I have. When I'm going into those areas, I especially slow down. Two new rules for me are to never touch my build when life has me worked up and agitated and to never go to bed w/ build uncertainties I could/should have previously considered.

I'm not sure if its been said before, but you always remove the lock before you remove the barrel.

GAHUNTER60 said:

I just got my Kibler Colonial in the white, and there is not one word on how to remove the barrel from the stock for finishing. There's like ten pins on the stock, but no instruction on which, if any, have to be removed to separate the stock and barrel. I guess if I had built the gun, I'd know these things, but I didn't, so I don't!

I assume I'll have to remove them all to sand and finish the stock. Where in the world do you get a punch that small (especially one that's not tapered)? At the moment my blood pressure is rising so fast, I'm about three minutes from having a stroke! The funny thing is all the people on here who told me how easy it would be to buy the kit and put it together, and I can't even handle the simple task of removing the barrel and hardware!

Click to expand...

There are videos on youtube that show you how to remove the barrel, and how to do it without breaking the stock. When frustrated, put down whatever you are working on and walk away. Tomorrow is another day.

Make sure you mark what thimble goes where and front to back. The holes may not line up otherwise. Also put a slight chamfer on the pin holes in the thimbles and the barrel. It will help re pinning them