Good barrel or tomato stake?

Call the PoPo, you have been robbed.
Return it

My last production rifle's name was "Ye ole Fence Post"

that's not something that i would want getting out of my shop. mention was made of colerain, but no stamp ... this is suspect, to be polite about it ... you probably paid about half of the average working man's take- home pay for this, so i'd get pretty stiff with the cust service people if they say anything other than "this is a big embarrassment. Would you like a complete refund or a replacement barrel"

MSW said:

that's not something that i would want getting out of my shop. mention was made of colerain, but no stamp ... this is suspect, to be polite about it ... you probably paid about half of the average working man's take- home pay for this, so i'd get pretty stiff with the cust service people if they say anything other than "this is a big embarrassment. Would you like a complete refund or a replacement barrel"

Click to expand...

You are correct in every aspect of your comment.

Stay tuned in to this thread. I'll give a more complete rundown once everything gets squared away.

Looks like the OP is making progress.

My experience with barrels that have run out is not good. The problem is that if you have more steel on one side of the bore, when it heats up it will bend. That means that during load development if the barrel get a little warm the bullet holes will walk across the target. It may be fine for the first few shots.

Second problem is that if the curvie bore is side to side the sights will look goofie. I do not like that. Yes, you can bend the barrel. But you get back to the problem described in the first paragraph.

Third point, the OP's barrel is rifled "wrong". IT was also not as advertised. Track had some off brand barrels rifled like that a while ago.

Life is too short, I would not own such a rifle, I would not work such a kit. IF it were me, I'd send the whole thing back for refund. They broke the trust when then tried to pawn off a junk barrel. What is the rest of it like??? It is a good chance you will have more problems.

First build??? Get a Kibler.

Scota@4570 said:

First build??? Get a Kibler.

Click to expand...

Yes, much progress.--There were several issues with this kit which disappointed me, not just the barrel. Let's just say I'm very glad I went over everything with a fine comb as I took it out of the box. I will elaborate more once all of this taken care of. So far, it is being well taken care of.

And yes, the Kibler kits are great from what I've seen. Very minimal work to fit together. One fellow posted that his Woodsrunner was so nearly finished when he opened the crate, all he had to do was give it a light sanding.

For my first build I want something that is a little bit more in depth than that. Not a full blank by any means, but one that isn't quite as finished as a CNC kit. I don't have any hours to speak of manning a chisel or a gouge, and this will be a good chance for me to develop those skills. Also, this kit, which includes the lock, is considerably more affordable than others. That will help me to feel a little better when I do something wrong.

Dusty, your last sentence above is probably true, But if you go slow, slow, slower, and contemplate every move before you do it, those "wrong somethings" will be minimized. best of luck.

Ok, the update!!

The refund went through, and everything was taken care of!

Here's the story with its twist:

Rewind several months back. I saw a kit on Sitting Fox's website that grabbed my attention. It was advertised as a Tulle rifled canoe gun. This is a stretch though, because it has a 36" barrel. French fusil-type stock, L&R Queen Anne lock, Colerain barrel. Probably nothing historically correct, but I loved the looks of it. I called Ray, ready to place my order. Instead of taking my information down, he directed me to purchase online. I'm guessing he was busy with hurricane cleanup. His online purchasing setup rather confused me, so I just let it go for the time being.

Not too long after that, I decided that I was again ready to purchase the kit. I returned to SF's website, and could not find the kit. I got the 404 page not found error. I --ASSUMED-- that the kit wasn't being sold anymore.

A week or so after that -early November-, I find a kit on Gun Broker that is exactly the same kit. Same title, Same barrel, same lock, same stock. Everything advertised is the same. I ask the seller, "Just out of curiosity, where did this kit come from?" His reply was, "I build historically accurate muzzleloaders as a hobby. I tend to
amass quite a few extra parts. When I get enough to put together a
kit, I do. I've built over 200 guns." The price was practically the same, so assuming the other kit wasn't available anymore, I went ahead and purchased.

Once delivered, I began inspecting the components. The barrel, as pictured in the OP, is definitely not a Colerain 6 groove deep radius bottom rifling, as advertised. Also, it had the off center issue.



The stock had a crack beginning in the lock inlet at the corner of the breech that ran forward, up through the mortise and continued on into the forestock. I understand that some cracks close to the surface are superficial and will disappear with removal of material, but this crack was traveling deep from within the inlet from the bottom up. I could not get good photos of the crack origin without prying it open, and I wasn't going to do that.

Pardon the dirty thumb, I was pulling injectors when the UPS truck pulled up.



Also, the ramrod that was supplied for the 36" barrel was only 32" long.

I contacted the seller with pictures and requested a refund, which was given, as well as a return shipping label.

After all of this, I went back to Sitting Fox's website, and realize that he had just MOVED the rifled kit in with the rest of his smoothbore canoe gun kits. But now, there aren't any pictures or description of the rifled kit, it's just a part number at the bottom of the page

I continued browsing the pages of SF's website, and came across some pictures featuring the work of one of his builders, Rick Baker. In them I saw a workbench that looked familiar. It is the same workbench that the kit I purchased was sitting on in the GB listing photos.

So, in answer to your question @BruceHH , Mr. Baker is who I bought the kit from.

Scota@4570 said:

Looks like the OP is making progress.

My experience with barrels that have run out is not good. The problem is that if you have more steel on one side of the bore, when it heats up it will bend. That means that during load development if the barrel get a little warm the bullet holes will walk across the target. It may be fine for the first few shots.

Second problem is that if the curvie bore is side to side the sights will look goofie. I do not like that. Yes, you can bend the barrel. But you get back to the problem described in the first paragraph.

Third point, the OP's barrel is rifled "wrong". IT was also not as advertised. Track had some off brand barrels rifled like that a while ago.

Life is too short, I would not own such a rifle, I would not work such a kit. IF it were me, I'd send the whole thing back for refund. They broke the trust when then tried to pawn off a junk barrel. What is the rest of it like??? It is a good chance you will have more problems.

First build??? Get a Kibler.

Click to expand...

Run out is no big deal. Most of the old Douglas barrels had run out because they were drilled from octagon blanks. Douglas stamped their name on the flat with the run out and you were supposed to use that as the top or bottom flat so you could compensate for it with the sights. Unless your Douglas barrel had XX behind the name the barrel had run out. In over 40 years of shooting I've had several Douglas Barrels and have never had any problem with the barrel bending when it heated up, They are just as accurate as any barrel made today when properly assembled. In fact I still have a Douglas barrel that has never been used that I will be making into a rifle soon and yes it has run out. If I get an opportunity to purchase another one I wouldn't hesitate. The problem here is false advertising. The barrel definitely isn't what it was advertised.