Hot off the bench.....

[GANGGREEN]

Still "in the white" and it will probably still get tweaked a bit before I brown the metal parts and stain/finish the stock, but here's a southern mountain rifle that's mostly put together. I enjoyed building this one.

 

[Juice Jaws]

I really respect you guys who can build muzzle loading firearms. A friend build me a flintlock rifle and it just amaze me to watch him take a block of wood and parts and turn it into a piece of art. Very nice. Keep the photos coming.

 

[GANGGREEN]

Believe me Juice, if I can do it, anyone can. I was never exposed to tools, woodworking or anything "handy" when I was young and was probably in my 40s before I began trying to teach myself a few things. I tend to be a bull in a china shop and I'm just now learning the gift of patience. After 5 or 6 other builds, I've finally learned how to do some of this stuff, but I'm still blown away when I see guys' first builds that I'd be thrilled to make today after several years of working on this stuff.

 

[Gowacky]

I would love to bring in a Lyman kit and build a 45 cal Plains Rifle. From what I can read Lyman is the best when it comes to good but not too expensive. Please tell me, is all the action the same as a new gun or does that require work too?

And the wood work ... do it really require using a chisel? I have serious doubts about my ability with a chisel! If it was just sanding, I think I could handle that but I gather it’s much more?

 

[GANGGREEN]

I've never built one of the CVA or Lyman kits Gowacky, so hopefully someone will come along and answer your questions. That said, if you have a sharp chisel, it's quite easy to make small modifications to a lockplate mortise for instance. They need to be sharp, but when they are and you go slowly and patiently, there's really nothing difficult or mystical about them. When I started, I had very

 

[Gowacky]

Since asking you I’ve been watching a very well done piece on YouTube and this was done by someone who has done many and evidently some much more difficult than the Lyman. I can see that for me it should be a really long term project as it would be easy for me to get frustrated. This man took the wood down to a flush fit with the metal .... especially on the stock. Looks like he leaves it a bit thicker around the hammer. Now he did some pretty extreme work around the cheek piece that would not be necessary but still I see many hours of sanding and more sanding. He had to use the chisel inside the stock to clear a little wood that was rubbing but that didn’t have to be exacting work. Then polishing the metal looked to be a long job too.

I’ll watch more videos on the subject before I decide but I’m retired and finding something to do is just what I need!

I just bought a 32 cal Crockett so I’ve got something to shoot but if I want to hunt in Utah next year I need at least a 45 cal to be legal.

 

[GANGGREEN]

Just my opinion, but if you're going after big game, I'd go with a .50 or even a .54 if that's the goal. I built this one in .45 because I got the barrel cheap and wanted a .45 for plinking anyway (I didn't have one), but if I wanted it expressly for big PA whitetails and I was ordering the parts new, I would have gone with a .50. I know that some/many of the SMRs were in smaller calibers, but I'm not as hung up on historical accuracy as some are and I'd rather be safe than sorry when hunting big game.

 

[Staggerwing]

Looks really nice, Ganggreen! What kind of finish are you planning to put on it?

 

[longcruise]

The Lyman kits do go together pretty easily but the inletting is often poorly done. Most common problems are too deep or out of place. After building four of them, only one (purchased in the early '80's) was fairly trouble free. Don't get me wrong, they are pretty good guns and worth the price IMO. In many respects building with less done for you such as a precarve without lock, TG, trigger and butt plate inlet is easier than fixing factory mistakes.

 

[GANGGREEN]

Looks really nice, Ganggreen! What kind of finish are you planning to put on it?

I actually just flew by the seat of my pants. I had a couple of partially filled bottles of LMF stain and didn't want to use them alone, so I took some medium walnut Danish oil and mixed in about an ounce of LMF nut brown, tried it on a scrap piece and liked it well enough. I put two coats on the stock, but it still needs a coat or two of Tru-oil, BLO or something else to give it that nice satin sheen.

 

[MSW]

nice work - I really like the color! If you're going to use the rifle in the field, I'd go with the LMF finish, otherwise a TruOil. That's just one guy's opinion, and no doubt well worth what you just paid to get it.

Keep up the nice work - and let us know how it shoots!

 

[Cowboy]

Very nice!

Came out looking really good my friend.

Thank you for sharing!

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[azmntman]

That is a SWEET rifle. And I covet your shop too! Dang, looks kinda like working out in the ol barn at grampa's!

 

[PeteDavis]

Heck Yeah!

PD

 

[GANGGREEN]

nice work - I really like the color! If you're going to use the rifle in the field, I'd go with the LMF finish, otherwise a TruOil. That's just one guy's opinion, and no doubt well worth what you just paid to get it.

Keep up the nice work - and let us know how it shoots!

Shot it for the second time today. Long story short, I purchased the barrel "as new" from a guy and when I got it, not only was it not even remotely "as new", but it had been used in a rifle before, was signed by the previous builder and had the touch hole installed at the same level as the breech plug, requiring the former builder to hog out a small cavity in the plug to allow ignition. Geez Louise, what did I get myself into? I contacted the seller (who wasn't the builder and honestly didn't know what he was selling) and he did refund me $60 of the $160 that I had paid for a breeched and "as new" Colerain B-weight 42" barrel. I went with it because it was what I had and I finally got everything worked out. It was also pretty gummed up on the inside, but I cleaned it up good and it shoots fine. I'm shooting about a 1-1.5" group at 50 yards, which is the best I can really hope for with my old eyes. I did that with 70 grains of FFFg, a .445 ball and a .015 pre-lubed patch. The group is 2" high at 50 and windage is perfect, so I'm good to go for my state's late flintlock season (and the regular rifle season if I hunt any) but I'll monkey around with loads and the sights a bit more after the season's over.

 

[rja72]

Nice gun!

That bench looks pretty simple and really functional. I would like to see more pics of it.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Smile on your face says it all, certainly savor and enjoy the process of creating such a beautiful rifle!

 

[GANGGREEN]

Nice gun!

That bench looks pretty simple and really functional. I would like to see more pics of it.

The bench is pretty simple and very poorly built. I built it with green pine that I cut here on the property and had milled locally and it twisted after I put the bench together, so I have to use shims under the legs to get it to sit flat, but it's still productive. I purchased the plans off of one of the members on this forum if I'm not mistaken, maybe someone will see this and post the information about the plans again. If I think of it, I'll take some photos of the bench, but like I said, I just whipped it together and it's not very attractive at all.

 

[MSW]

if you really want to tighten up your groups, check out Dutch Schoultz' method.

here's a link:

drat … couldn't find it - perhaps you'll hev better luck … last thing I had was blackpowderaccuracy.com or something similar

 

[Headhunter]

Now that is a real nice piece! Nice color too!

A great job you did sir!

HH