My observations on kibler colonial build.

Just finished my kibler colonial build
It was pretty simple straight forward assembly sanding and finishing.
Only thing that I myself would give any advice to that is different then
Jim's videos on assembly.
Would be.
To install the two small ramrod thimbles and sand the ram road and fit it into the forearm wood .
Then step 2 proceed to fit the barrel.
Doing this greatly stiffens the fore arm for future removal of barrel from your rifle,
And reinstaling and removal is alot less stressful.
I know every timeI remove my barrel
My ramrod WILL be installed
It may just save your wood someday.

Yukon said:

Just finished my kibler colonial build
It was pretty simple straight forward assembly sanding and finishing.
Only thing that I myself would give any advice to that is different then
Jim's videos on assembly.
Would be.
To install the two small ramrod thimbles and sand the ram road and fit it into the forearm wood .
Then step 2 proceed to fit the barrel.
Doing this greatly stiffens the fore arm for future removal of barrel from your rifle,
And reinstaling and removal is alot less stressful.
I know every timeI remove my barrel
My ramrod WILL be installed
It may just save your wood someday.

Click to expand...

After assembly you should never remove your barrel.....

Uncle Miltie said:

After assembly you should never remove your barrel.....

Click to expand...

I was more mentioning it for the guys building and setting the barrel for transfer marks and turning the rifle upside down and tapping the but so the tang releases and the difficulties of getting the barrel and rifle wood manipulated into two separate entities without dropping either or while working about the fragile fore end wood.

Yukon said:

I was more mentioning it for the guys building and setting the barrel for transfer marks and turning the rifle upside down and tapping the but so the tang releases and the difficulties of getting the barrel and rifle wood manipulated into two separate entities without dropping either or while working about the fragile fore end wood.

Click to expand...

Got it, I misunderstood you.

"never" seems extreme

Not a bad idea, but not necessary. We constantly take barrels in and out of stocks here without issue, but we're used to this sort of thing.

Jim

Uncle Miltie said:

After assembly you should never remove your barrel.....

Click to expand...

… I guess you stay indoors then, and don’t hunt in the rain or the wet snow, LOL!

James Kibler said:

Not a bad idea, but not necessary. We constantly take barrels in and out of stocks here without issue, but we're used to this sort of thing.

Jim

Click to expand...

As stated it's more of a suggestion.
I first got the barrel in and removed,was a bit nerve racking.
Barrel in one hand and the stock in the other. My biggest issue was my work room upstairs has a low ceiling
And I whacked the ceiling several times.
Then I thought of the ram rod and put in the two small thimbles and that made things alot less nerve racking..I still hit the ceiling but didn't have any heart failures ..
It stiffened that forearm up 5 fold.
Beautiful kit buy the way Jim
Your putting out a superior product
Keep up the excellent work.

It helps to have high ceilings when building these things! Mine is 9' but the ceiling fan....that's another hazard entirely.

akroguy said:

It helps to have high ceilings when building these things! Mine is 9' but the ceiling fan....that's another hazard entirely.

Click to expand...

Lol yeah a ceiling fan in my upstairs shop would be terrifying

Flint62Smoothie said:

… I guess you stay indoors then, and don’t hunt in the rain or the wet snow, LOL!

Click to expand...

No, and just like the old timers with fullstock rifles I leave the barrel in the stock!

I learned the hard way when I removed my barrel out of a Lancaster build years ago and took maple splinters out with it.

Uncle Miltie said:

After assembly you should never remove your barrel.....

Click to expand...

Nah. Too much chance of rust or such under the barrel. If you shoot a lot, I’d take it off once a year. Anyway, that’s what I do.

Uncle Miltie said:

After assembly you should never remove your barrel.....

Click to expand...

.. you might want to fact-check that.

Hi,
Hooked breeches and tangs (also called standing breeches, false breeches, and break off breeches) along with barrel keys were developed so you could easily remove barrels for cleaning after shooting. No, never removing barrels was not what all the old timers did. You don't need high ceilings. To remove the barrel, don't lever it from the muzzle. Take out the pins and tang bolt and remove the lock. Hold it low and upside down over a bench with the muzzle resting on the bench, and tap the bottom of the stock near the breech with your hand until the barrel drops out. I usually roll a towel up and put it under the breech end of the barrel to cushion things and keep the rear sight from hitting the bench top. With respect to your barrel pins, grind them a little short so when tapped in from one side and flush with that side, the pin is a little short of the other side leaving a shallow hole. Use that hole to guide your pin punch when tapping the pin out. That prevents the punch from ever slipping off the pin head and denting the stock.

dave

Turned myself a cleaning jag for the opposite end of my Ram rod.and have it counter bored for a 58 cal round ball.
Just need to pin it and peen it

akroguy said:

It helps to have high ceilings when building these things! Mine is 9' but the ceiling fan....that's another hazard entirely.

Click to expand...

I once performed an inadvertent living history experiment with a 42” ramrod and determined that Daniel Boone did not have a ceiling fan in his cabin.

Reminds me of a story from Chuck Edwards... He was apparently showing his wife a stock he had been carving. There was a ceiling fan in the vicinity and you can imagine the rest.

James Kibler said:

Reminds me of a story from Chuck Edwards... He was apparently showing his wife a stock he had been carving. There was a ceiling fan in the vicinity and you can imagine the rest.

Click to expand...

I'm sure chunk chunk chunk chunk.
I'd b sick

My what job to steam those dents out.