My Traditions Kentucky poor mans Brown bess/trade rifle build conundrum! (Rob M comments please)

So I bought a Traditions Kentucky rifle kit and ordered a 7/8" octagon to round (last 4") 54 cal smoothbore barrel from Colerain. My intention was to make it look like the Brown bess in the picture below. I made a mistake on measuring the existing barrel length by 1" (short). I wanted the octagon to go right to the end of the nose cap and I would drill and tap the screws for the nose cap in the new barrel. So in my pictures below you can see that the nose cap extends past the octagon portion to the round. I have a few options. I can eliminate the nose cap altogether and round the front of the stock like how Rob has done trade rifles in his last threads. I can leave it as it is, put one screw in through the stock only and leave the front screw hole open. (think this might be a bit flimsy) Or my third option would be to remove some stock wood on the front and just move the nose cap back to the octagon portion and drill and tap my screw holes into the barrel there. The barrel is a blank and I need to solder on tenons, tap nose cap holes and drill and tap vent liner so I don't have to work around any existing holes. Rob if I don't have a nose cap screwed to the barrel are two
pinned barrel lugs enough?
Thoughts fella's?

There ya are bud ! ....pics are slow to download out here in the boonies .... Just a few ....

Rob M. said:

There ya are bud ! ....

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What option do you think would work best? Or something completely different?

Yeah , just take some wood off and slide that cap back a bit . that ought to give you the look you want bud ....

Throw away the nose cap.

Trim off the wooden nose cap tip at the end of the stock.

Make a wooden spacer that extends the end of the stock to within 1/8th inch of the end of the stock.


With respect, nothing you do will turn a Kentuckyish into a Brown Bessish.

You have the makings of a nice rifle. But not with the path you're on.

As far as barrel pins ...on my canoe length trade guns I use two pins ...the barrel is usually 26-30" long . Anything over that I'd use three pins

64Springer said:

Throw away the nose cap.

Trim off the wooden nose cap tip at the end of the stock.

Make a wooden spacer that extends the end of the stock to within 1/8th inch of the end of the stock.


With respect, nothing you do will turn a Kentuckyish into a Brown Bessish.

You have the makings of a nice rifle. But not with the path you're on.

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In the end I’m just happy to have reasonable looking smoothbore. Down the road maybe I will able to afford a nice trade rifle! I’ll use 3 pins on this barrel. It’s 36” total length, 32 in the stock.

Rob M. said:

Yeah , just take some wood off and slide that cap back a bit . that ought to give you the look you want bud ....

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Thanks Rob. Will head down that path.

OP.

I don't know your wood working skills, but you could remove the curvature of the butt stock and graft in a piece of wood.

Then inlet that area for a butt plate more suitable for a fowling/smoothbore piece.

Painting the stock would hide the joints and would be in keeping with trade muskets.

Sounds like a plan . I love my smoothbore trade guns . As you saw in my thread ...I'll have myself another one soon . Good luck on your project bud , hope all goes well . Post pics when its done and shooting ...

64Springer said:

OP.

I don't know your wood working skills, but you could remove the curvature of the butt stock and graft in a piece of wood.

Then inlet that area for a butt plate more suitable for a fowling/smoothbore piece.

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That was my initial thoughts was to square it off, but the butt is pretty thin and not sure how it would turn out? Looked at Fowler butt plates at Track and they’re all considerably bigger than my butt stock.

Rob M. said:

Sounds like a plan . I love my smoothbore trade guns . As you saw in my thread ...I'll have myself another one soon . Good luck on your project bud , hope all goes well . Post pics when its done and shooting ...

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Thanks Rob. I’ll be giving you a ring to chat about soldering the lugs on.

For Post 11

They make a brass sheet metal trade musket butt plate that is 90 degrees.

Yes it's big. But it can be worked down with ease.

I used that butt plate on a recent smoothbore build.

Another option would be sheet steel and make your own butt plate.

Fatboyz said:

Thanks Rob. I’ll be giving you a ring to chat about soldering the lugs on.

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Yeah. Do that bud .... Biggest thing is to remember to keep that flame moving , heating up barrel and tenon but always moving ....but we'll talk about that later ....

Rob M. said:

As far as barrel pins ...on my canoe length trade guns I use two pins ...the barrel is usually 26-30" long . Anything over that I'd use three pins

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If I use two pins and then the end of the barrel will be held with the two nose cap screws. should that be enough. The new barrel is only 4” longer.

Fatboyz said:

If I use two pins and then the end of the barrel will be held with the two nose cap screws. should that be enough. The new barrel is only 4” longer.

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Yeah , I'm sure it will be bud ...

Well I've been getting a little bit done. I got my barrel from Colrain and got the breech plug installed and the tang cut and formed. Also draw filed the barrel flats today. The doner kit I'm starting with is a percussion kit. I tried to get a flint lock from tradition's for this rifle but they wanted almost as much as an L and R lock for it. I took the flint lock from my original kentucky rifle for this build, and installed the percussion lock n that Kentucky. I browned that barrel and got it all fitted up. I got to practice my browning and like the finished product much better than the blued barrel that was on that rifle. I'm staring to fit the barrel into the Kentucky stock, but it seems to be slightly thicker than the Traditions barrel so will need to do a little sanding. Once the barrel is fitted to the stock I'll solder on the barrel tenons and front sight.