Pecatonica Fusil; Novice Build

TDM said:

As @PathfinderNC said. Good advice. Definitely have them solder the barrel lugs.

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I just saw a film on barrel soldering on You Tube done by Clay Smith, the Grumpy Gunsmith, he does a great job of showing how to do it.

Go with the pre inletted there is still a lot of fine tuning to do.

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I'm a complete novice but I know good advice when I see it, and Dave's is just that. Reference material is worth its weight in gold IMHO. Also keeping a working full drawing of the gun being built is something I plan to do for my second rifle. I've yet to make any fatal errors on my first rifle, but two mistakes that I think could have easily been avoided if I had a layout drawing guiding my actions were the barrel lugs breaking through to the ramrod channel because I didn't make the connection in my mind between a 3/16" thick web and a 1/4" tall lug, and a wonky rear tang bolt that should have been located about a 1/2" up the tang to hit the trigger plate perpendicularly. If I had to recommend one book to own it would be The Art of Building the Pennsylvania Longrifle, it's probably the one I've used the most over the course of my first rifle build. And if you decide to build from a blank, I highly recommend getting your hands on an original or contemporary example of what you're building. There are some parts of the stock like the lock panels, wrist, and comb that I think are a lot easier to understand in three dimensions than two.

Listen to Dave about reference material, and remember; there is no such thing as a dumb question but there are a lot of really dumb answers. Learn to separate the wheat from the chaff, and there’s a lot of chaff.

Again thanks everyone for the encouragement and advise I am overwhelmed, thanks

Also buy the book through Pecatonica-"The Fine Art of Building a Pennsylvania Long Rifle" It is a wealth of information. I think they offer it for $15 if you order a rifle parts kit from them.

Any progress on this Fusil?

I have posted this a dozen times or more, take heed! DO NOT LET THEM INLET THE LOCK FOR YOU! A good percentage of the lock inlets by any precarve company except Kibler may be off a little or a lot, sometimes so far off a beginner won't be able to complete the rifle or fowler.

Lock inletting is not that hard to do although it seems like a daunting task for a beginner. Watch some you tube videos on the process and you are good to go if you have sharp tools, patience and don't use a Dremel. If you use a Dremel on your build and are not very experienced with one you are going to mess up big time.

Check this out, talk about a lock inlet being way off, the X marks the spot where the top of the pan should be.




It took this to fix the goof-up and get the lock up where it should be.

Eric Krewson said:

I have posted this a dozen times or more, take heed! DO NOT LET THEM INLET THE LOCK FOR YOU! A good percentage of the lock inlets by any precarve company except Kibler may be off a little or a lot, sometimes so far off a beginner won't be able to complete the rifle or fowler.

Lock inletting is not that hard to do although it seems like a daunting task for a beginner. Watch some you tube videos on the process and you are good to go if you have sharp tools, patience and don't use a Dremel. If you use a Dremel on your build and are not very experienced with one you are going to mess up big time.

Check this out, talk about a lock inlet being way off, the X marks the spot where the top of the pan should be.


View attachment 245702

It took this to fix the goof-up and get the lock up where it should be.

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I have had really very little issues with Pecatonica doing the lock mortise inlets for the eight or nine rifles and pistols I did. The one biggest challenge was just to move a barrel forward to line-up, which took me making a 1/4" spacer which came out great (done on a customer's special build using a different lock and barrel than what they milled it for.)

Agree with Eric, do not get the lock inletted and I will add do not get the trigger/s inletted. It is a TON more work to fix the inlets than to do them in the first place. Add to that being green and not knowing what you don't know can completely derail the whole project. The barrel inlet will likely be OK meaning you can get the barrel in the stock without a bunch of work, the ramrod channel and hole will likely be OK meaning that you can get a ramrod in it. You can get the stock precarved and that will save some time, but you WILL NEED the plans Dave talked about to lay out the rifle to get the components in the proper locations to work together. Without the plans you won't know if anything is where it needs to be.

HSmithTX said:

Agree with Eric, do not get the lock inletted and I will add do not get the trigger/s inletted. It is a TON more work to fix the inlets than to do them in the first place. Add to that being green and not knowing what you don't know can completely derail the whole project. The barrel inlet will likely be OK meaning you can get the barrel in the stock without a bunch of work, the ramrod channel and hole will likely be OK meaning that you can get a ramrod in it. You can get the stock precarved and that will save some time, but you WILL NEED the plans Dave talked about to lay out the rifle to get the components in the proper locations to work together. Without the plans you won't know if anything is where it needs to be.

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Interesting. Have you built Pecatonica kits ?

PathfinderNC said:

Interesting. Have you built Pecatonica kits ?

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Yes, I am stating my opinion based on actual experience.

HSmithTX said:

Yes, I am stating my opinion based on actual experience.

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Cool. Me too

Kywitetalehntr said:

Hello Group,

I am about to order my first parts kit and take a stab at building a rifle. I have read in old threads about the quality of Pecatonica kits and have found some valuable information. Could you please advise on some of the smithing services you would reccomend I a complete novice, should allow Pecatonica to complete?
I plan to have them do the breech plug, and
I have no way to do the ramrod hole, and would like them to cut the barrel channel. Anything else that I should avoid diy as a novice?

Also, would it be more historically accurate to get walnut stock with iron furniture?

Thanks

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So much good advice from the folks responding to this thread: and it isn't all cookie-cutter. I just enjoy reading the wisdom imparted. Wish I'd had it years ago.

I've used 2 pre-carved stocks from Pecatonica. I had them inlet the barrel and drill the ramrod holes on both. One is an octagon to round barrel. Both stocks have been fine. I agree about not having any more inletting done but then I've never had Pecatonica do it. As has been mentioned, a full scale drawing is a must for a novice. An old timer told me years ago that if I can't get it right on paper I sure won't get it right in the wood.

Pecatonica stocks are what drove me to making guns from planks. Too many built in issues.

I guess I was lucky with the stock I got from Pecatonica. Everything seemed to line up with very little tweaking. But I'm still pretty new to the game and I am positive more experienced eyes could pick it apart. Someday I will post pictures and wait for the critique onslaught with open mind and tools at the ready.

Well, I never even thought about the ramrod groove on this precarve build from the same place, I never looked at it. I put everything together and my rod wouldn't go in the forestock, what's up? Turns out it was trying to go in sideways, the channel was bowed. I could have filled the groove with scrap wood and recut it but by this time I was so fed up with this precarve and the dozen major other flaws that I had to fix that I just let it go.

Eric Krewson said:

Well, I never even thought about the ramrod groove on this precarve build from the same place, I never looked at it. I put everything together and my rod wouldn't go in the forestock, what's up? Turns out it was trying to go in sideways, the channel was bowed. I could have filled the groove with scrap wood and recut it but by this time I was so fed up with this precarve and the dozen major other flaws that I had to fix that I just let it go.

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Swamped C weight right?