GPR kit

[Southlander]

I found a reasonably priced GPR flinter kit. This is going to be my first build and I am new to BP. I am going with .54 because I want to hunt moose, elk, and bear, in addition to target, rondy, etc.

My question is this: besides the rear sight, what else should I do to make this more period correct? What kind of barrel/lock/breech plug finishing should I use? Or should I just keep it in the white and grease it?

If it matters, I am working on a persona that is mid-to-late-1820's Missouri signing up with someone like Ashley for the upper Missouri trade (yeah, I know the caliber is probably not HC, but I am not the stitch counter type). This persona is a working man. Not rich, but not dirt-floor poor either.

 

[jdkerstetter]

Use car wax on parts left in-the-white and refresh occasionally. Grease is, well, it's greasy. :grin:

More correct? You are going to get a lot of answers. There were a lot of plains rifles produced during that period by a lot of different makers.

For starters, that style gun won't be very correct with a flintlock. This will be a bone of contention with some, but this gun represents a rather late gun and I'd like to see somebody come up with documentation to support something different. Butt who's to say it didn't happen.

There's been some really good posts on here about making this gun more correct and a search should reveal them.

Couple things I would do? If you got one of the locks with the cast in engraving I would do away with that. Another thing would be to take a lot of the "fish belly" out of the buttstock. In other words, the line on the bottom of the stock to the wrist is more appealing straighter.

This kit is furnished with a lot of extra wood. Besides removing the fish belly, you can make the gun more convincing by giving it a forend that is more accorn shaped in profile....rounder than the factory guns....and make it thinner. This will require some work on the nose cap though.

A key feature of early guns, if that's what your going for, is that the cheek piece was rectangular, not round as it appears on the GPR. Somebody on here did one like this and it did set the rifle apart from the herd.

As far as metal treatment, from what I've studied, browned their barrels and the rest of the hardware and lock were cased, so a blacker finish would be appropriate.

It's up to you, it's really your build and you have to be happy with it. Enjoy, J.D.

 

[Southlander]

I'm going for the flinter, because I want to go with a custom build one day and I like them. But the butt stock notes you gave are worth the notice. :thumbsup: I am trying to come up with something approximately like what some guy might have gone to a no-name gun maker to get. I am not going gung-ho HC on this. This is to break me in, if I decide to go this route. I am considering a couple other options, too.

 

[jdkerstetter]

Sounds like your on the right path. Enjoy the journey, J.D.

 

[Swede50]

Sounds like you are on the right track be sure to post some pics of your rifle while in the assembly mode. :thumbsup:

 

[Birddog6]

If you are going to keep it, do as you wish. However, if you plan on letting it go later on, I wouldn't do anything to it other than go out & shoot the H out of it. Regardless of what you do, it is a GPR & a good rifle. Very accurate with some load work. You say you want to advance to a dif. gun later & possibly more PC, it will retain it's value better if you leave it alone rather than modify it. Un-modified you can sell it reasonably & fast later on.

The GPR's are a great rifle. LEARN it, don't buy special parts & modify it & etc. as you end up with a bunch of money in it & at resell time it is still a GPR & worth the value of a used one. (Nutherwords, you can easily put $900. in a $350. rifle & it is still worth $350.)
It will function fine with a lil lock & trigger polishing & learning from You. The main part will be You learning what makes it tick, especially if you are new to flintlocks.
I shot 3 of them for years, no special parts, could shoot consistent 1 to 1.25" groups off a bench at 100 yards with them with peep sights. All 3 had the original parts. One I shot over 5000 rounds thru it. All sold immediately when I decided to sell them at a reasonable prices.

Keith Lisle

Note: I have a friend that has one he has been trying to sell at the gun show for over 2 years now. He thinks because he changed the lock, trigger, sights, etc. it is a Custom Rifle & it is now worth the $875 + he has invested in it. Best offer he had was $ 375. a year ago. My suggestion was to put the original parts back on, sell the rifle, then sell the upgrade parts separately & he would come out better. IMHO, if it has not sold in 2 years, obviously he is wanting way too much for it :idunno: but what do I know.

 

[F.G. Ford]

The Lyman rifles that I get, I modify only slightly.
(1)Get rid of the fish belly on the stock
(2)Get rid of all that ridiculous stampings on the left rear flat of the barrel. That takes a little guidance to do.
(3)Gently sand blast the barrel & tang then brown ( that will give it a uniform browning )
(4)Take the square out of the forestock
(5)Increase the flash hole size to 1/16" or 5/64"of an inch.This will improve ignition.
(6)Make sure the touch hole is about 1/8" above the bottom of the pan.Others have given good tips as well.
The lock and trigger are just fine, just clean them up ( on the inside ) polish and remove all burrs.
You have one of the best production muzzleloaders made.
Practice with it and you will become very good with it.
Fred

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

I took heed of Birddog’s advice and I am glad I did. The GPR is fine production rifle kit but don’t try to make it out to be more than what it is. I had great plans for my GPR build, which I just finished and you will find pictures of it a few post down in this forum, but after fixing as many of the production gaffs as I could and making some very minor cosmetic changes, like filling in the ramrod retention spring mortise and the plugging the screw hole in the tang, I am glad I didn’t add the cap box or cheek inlay. I end up with a good, trim rifle that looks period correct for the 1850s and most of all I learned a lot and am starting on my next build because of it.

 

Find yourself a copy of "The Plains Rifle" by Charles E. Hanson and study it for a bit, then go from there. That's what I did. Do a search on me and "Lucifer" and you can see my finish gun.