What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

I finished my cherry longrifle today. I would love to get to the range tomorrow, but the forecast is for a wash out.

Finally found a .530 bullet mold. Woo hoo!

Finally calm enough to shoot the new .32.
First two shots at 50yds.


Then after a couple more shots she shut down on me. Even cleaning out the touch hole with a pin to get in there deeper was not allowing the flash in the pan to reach the charge. But I finally got it to go off

Me thinks the black gunk that was in this gun was also in the Patent breech and I was just pushing it in deeper every time I loaded it. Plus the trigger pull was terrible. So now that I know how she shoots I'll give her the fluff and buff.

But I was happy with the way it grouped. I just wasn't happy not to shoot it after filing the front sight down.

Trigger inletted, fitted and pinned through the stock.

Love me some 3 to 4 pound trigger pull.

Made the trigger guard.

Next Up: Making and fitting a tang screw nut that will be inletted under the trigger guard.

Cleaned and oiled three new barrels. These will be stored until I get my current build done so I lubed them up with some 30 weight motor oil and put them away. I also worked on the butt plate for the Moravian build. Put a wedding band on it based on a Christian Oerter.

Good Job.

I've yet to screw up the courage to file wedding bands into my barrels.

So much can go so wrong so fast and once committed there's no replacing that lost metal.

Worked on my first powder horn. It’s not pretty or PC but I hope it will be functional. I go with the idea that I’ll make the mistakes on the first one then hopefully not as many on the second.

Kept going on the Ketland build. I've inlet the ramrod thimbles and today I inlet the side plate. Somehow though the edges of my inlets are always a little too large, a bit rough, or both. Any and all suggestions welcome. I really admire those among us here whose inletted parts are tight and perfect. How do they do it?

Finished engraving a horn. Tomorrow it gets stained and a carved plug.

Alan O said:

Kept going on the Ketland build. I've inlet the ramrod thimbles and today I inlet the side plate. Somehow though the edges of my inlets are always a little too large, a bit rough, or both. Any and all suggestions welcome. I really admire those among us here whose inletted parts are tight and perfect. How do they do it?

Click to expand...

File a slight angle on everything you are inletting, use inletting ink of some kind, and use very sharp tools to remove the wood as you go.

I inlet and pinned the front thimble and pinned the triggergaurd on my 58 Kibler this morning,

Just bought these today hope they work great! Never used a flintlock so got 8 of them incase i mess up knapping in the future.

Went to southern VT primitive Biathlon yesterday. a LOT of driving and very non pistol friendly course quite a few pistol shooter got skunked with the big 00. I ran it twice and managed to only hit 3 targets on each run . station 4 was 2inch squares at 25yrds I hit two of those little fckrs on my first trip through and missed all 3 of them on the 2nd try but i did over the course of two runs hit targets at all 4 stations which means that they are hittable with a pistol. Flycaster did really well with his rifle and hit 8 targets! very impressedI Brian hit 4 with pistola and all nine with smoothebore!!! one of the vendors had a fugly origonal 1858 with non stock grips and a completly pitted bore that didnt show any rifleing for 700.. he had a nice ROA for $700 but you can only shoot one gun at a time by the time I was done with both my runs not much time left to take pictures but a did get a few. If felt like mid April down there. Global warming is real

I am daily amazed at the artisan skills of the members here. From gun building to possibles there are some great items made.

Off to the range, wind warning and all.

I filed a notch in the nose of my mainspring vise.
Then I took apart the lock on my new Pedersoli KY 32 and polished and filed on things.
It has to be better, but is still way too heavy.

But I'll give everything a try here shortly.

PathfinderNC said:

Finished engraving a horn. Tomorrow it gets stained and a carved plug.

Click to expand...

I envy your talent. My builds will never be that decretive.

Looking over my newest member of my mountain gun collection.this one is in .50 already have .45 .54 and .58. This one will be mint. The gun above is an original from 80's in .54

Shooting pedersoli .50 caliber at 50 yards tried 3 different points of aim the last being the 10 ring shot

Went out and shot a few plastic bottles with my T/C Seneca .36.

Also made a tentative decision as to what to do with my ugly-a$$ T/C Hawken .45 with the broken/repaired stock and the rough ringed barrel: Thought I would cut the barrel in half, ask Mr. Hoyt if he could bore out and re-line the rear section of the barrel, get a local 'smith to install a Williams ramp and front sight, ask Mr. Hoyt to bore out the front half of the barrel to a smoothbore, and find someone to install a breech plug.

I considered having it rebored to .50 or .54, but I got enough of those already and don't really need another one.

Toni is happy I am not going to order the Pedersoli Kodiak or Baker Shotgun, so it all works out.

This seem feasible?

I plan to send Mr. Hoyt a letter next week with my idea and a SASE so he can reply and shut me down if it is a stupid idea. I figure most busy people would rather deal with a letter at their leisure than have to answer a ###### phone call that demands immediate attention.