Is the Woodsrunner that easy?

[50calBoone]

So I guess a true house builder is one who mills his own boards and doesn't buy any 2x4 at home depot .

 

[Kmcmichael]

I’ve done other kits for others. I would not go out of my way to do anything but a Kibler these days. When I had a shop, I wish I had done one from a board but that opportunity and ambition has passed.

 

[MDHunter]

So I guess a true house builder is one who mills his own boards and doesn't buy any 2x4 at home depot .

You beat me to it! Assembling and building are the same thing. Degrees of difficulty can certainly be different though.

 

[French Colonial]

Maybe I am too picky.....

It took me almost a whole day to polish the frizzen, that bloody thing is HARD! In retrospect it probably would have been easier to soften it, then polish, then reharden.

Brass is all polished except for the butt and I need to do final polishing on the cock and side plate and then I will start on the wood.

 

[BillyC]

I polish mine quite a bit but these are going to be hunting rifles so I don’t sweat getting that final 1 or 2% more polish. Im easy on all my rifles but inevitably they get a ding of a scratch if you spend enough to using them.

 

[Frontstuffer070]

So I guess a true house builder is one who mills his own boards and doesn't buy any 2x4 at home depot .

Yep ya even gotta fall the timber, mill the boards, cure em, clear the land, grade it, make the concrete, pour the foundation, make the bricks from clay that you dug up yourself. And unless you mined the ore, cast and forged the barrel, lock, you've never truly built a rifle at all. Anyway, I have been salivating at these kits for a long time. I can't wait to get my paws on one. I have never built (err, uhh assembled ) a kit. Kinda high diollar for my first maybe but I'll just go slow and make it happen. Is it worth it to choose the Extra fancy over just the Maple or Fancy maple. What would I get by the three different grades of maple? Thanks for the post Phil, keep those pics coming.

 

[tenngun]

I have thought about getting one but don’t know if I want to try one. I am a carpenter by trade and have made about everything but blueing a barrel and a few other things not sore about that.

LRge percentage of guns were left ‘in the white’ the barrel and steel parts not blued or browned.
Cold blue, wiped on then removed with naval jelly produces the French Grey color, easy pest and hc

 

[tenngun]

Yep ya even gotta fall the timber, mill the boards, cure em, clear the land, grade it, make the concrete, pour the foundation, make the bricks from clay that you dug up yourself. And unless you mined the ore, cast and forged the barrel, lock, you've never truly built a rifle at all. Anyway, I have been salivating at these kits for a long time. I can't wait to get my paws on one. I have never built (err, uhh assembled ) a kit. Kinda high diollar for my first maybe but I'll just go slow and make it happen. Is it worth it to choose the Extra fancy over just the Maple or Fancy maple. What would I get by the three different grades of maple? Thanks for the post Phil, keep those pics coming.

Bough a kit one time’for the ‘experienced builder’ twenty pounds of iron and brass, and a package of maple seeds

 

[Kmcmichael]

twice I’ve gotten the extra fancy wood. Once I paid extra For an above grade stock. This one is for me. I hunt from a blind and carry them in a case on my back.jg

 

[Kmcmichael]

finishing the barrels is easy. I rust brown but have used the brass finish also. I don’t rust the lock. I still use the brass finish on that..

 

[64Springer]

No offence but every time I here the " I built a Kibler " I crack up...build no, assemble yes... I've helped two people put the SMR kits together. They are the most precise kits out their by far....! Plus you end up with a historically precise gun.... The way Jim has been improving them. His next kit will just pop out of the box and assemble it's self.....lol

You speak as if the snap together car model kits that Revell and Monogram put out in the 70s were a bad thing.

Maybe a handle on the box that you can crank.

do do do do do duty do do pop goes the rifle.

Humor aside, they are fantastic rifles. Especially for those who aren't hardcore tinkerers who own a million tools.

My next build will definately have a Kibler lock on it. Bone tired of crappy locks from companies who's entire business model is building locks.

 

[Kmcmichael]

Bough a kit one time’for the ‘experienced builder’ twenty pounds of iron and brass, and a package of maple seeds

That is funny.

 

[tenngun]

That is funny.

Got it from one of Sam Fadala’s book or book by George Nonrte one of them was writing on kit building in the ‘70s

 

[mikesto44]

You got to admit. There's a world of difference between making a gun by buying a lock,barrel and board. To doing one of Jim's super fine kits...!
Do what you want... I just like more of a challenge. To each their own....

 

[TDM]

Luckily, there’s a place and customers for all the different kit levels. And that’s the way it should be.

 

[Blackbeard4590]

So I guess a true house builder is one who mills his own boards and doesn't buy any 2x4 at home depot .

Just like the model planes, cars etc. we all "built" as kids. you are building (or assembling) a rifle. There is still room for creativity, personalization, and skills involved.
IMO: What you did was build a gun, just as you built models in your youth. What you would not have done, is MAKE (in the modern vernacular) a gun, if we need to assign definitive terminology to the process. Even this term can be picked apart as you are not forging and casting you furniture and barrel but simply purchasing them. You can nit-pick these terms for a long time.

Even the term "scratch built" can get caught in the "forged or bought" argument for barrels and furniture goes.

So some term needs to be applied or understood to each category of ending your efforts with a functional fire arm where you started with some degree of a collection of materials and parts in various forms of completion in a box or crate.

That term or terms would then need to (apparently) differentiate those degrees of "crafting" from the few masters that start with a tree, a saw, a fire in a pit and bucket of iron ingots.

I am too new to this to start trying to assign terminology and be taken with any credibility.
Perhaps the more seasoned and experienced gents can do that, IF it is actually necessary.
Personally, since our language does not actually have a term for these various levels of "built", I don't actually care.
Obviously, some gents do.
If you can come up with these terms, for the sake of clarity when communicating, I will do my best to use them correctly.
Otherwise, if a gents the likes of the House brothers, don't take umbrage to someone saying they "built" a rifle (from a kit), then I certainly don't have an issue with the choice of term anyone else uses, trying to describe the process they completed to get from a crate of parts to a functional firearm that they want to post for others to see.

Hope this made you chuckle and think a bit.
Off the soapbox now.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Did you make that soap box all on your own?

 

[Snooterpup]

Just like the model planes, cars etc. we all "built" as kids. you are building (or assembling) a rifle. There is still room for creativity, personalization, and skills involved.
IMO: What you did was build a gun, just as you built models in your youth. What you would not have done, is MAKE (in the modern vernacular) a gun, if we need to assign definitive terminology to the process. Even this term can be picked apart as you are not forging and casting you furniture and barrel but simply purchasing them. You can nit-pick these terms for a long time.

Even the term "scratch built" can get caught in the "forged or bought" argument for barrels and furniture goes.

So some term needs to be applied or understood to each category of ending your efforts with a functional fire arm where you started with some degree of a collection of materials and parts in various forms of completion in a box or crate.

That term or terms would then need to (apparently) differentiate those degrees of "crafting" from the few masters that start with a tree, a saw, a fire in a pit and bucket of iron ingots.

I am too new to this to start trying to assign terminology and be taken with any credibility.
Perhaps the more seasoned and experienced gents can do that, IF it is actually necessary.
Personally, since our language does not actually have a term for these various levels of "built", I don't actually care.
Obviously, some gents do.
If you can come up with these terms, for the sake of clarity when communicating, I will do my best to use them correctly.
Otherwise, if a gents the likes of the House brothers, don't take umbrage to someone saying they "built" a rifle (from a kit), then I certainly don't have an issue with the choice of term anyone else uses, trying to describe the process they completed to get from a crate of parts to a functional firearm that they want to post for others to see.

Hope this made you chuckle and think a bit.
Off the soapbox now.

Yep ya even gotta fall the timber, mill the boards, cure em, clear the land, grade it, make the concrete, pour the foundation, make the bricks from clay that you dug up yourself. And unless you mined the ore, cast and forged the barrel, lock, you've never truly built a rifle at all. Anyway, I have been salivating at these kits for a long time. I can't wait to get my paws on one. I have never built (err, uhh assembled ) a kit. Kinda high diollar for my first maybe but I'll just go slow and make it happen. Is it worth it to choose the Extra fancy over just the Maple or Fancy maple. What would I get by the three different grades of maple? Thanks for the post Phil, keep those pics coming.

Well, there is expense, and some would call it high dollar, but think first of the quality of the parts (particularly the lock and barrel) and the historical accuracy of his products. Kibler kits are a great return on your investment. With reasonable care and skill you will have a finished product that is worth more than you paid for it.
This can only rarely be said for a first time kit assembler attempting other kits of questionable quality. The satisfaction of finishing it yourself is real and adding whatever personal adornments your skillset allows you to make it truly yours. In my opinion, Jim’s locks are the best in the industry. A poor quality lock is a recipe for misery.
Snoot

 

[mikesto44]

Jim's kits in my opinion and it's just that are the best out their period....! No other kit maker is even close to helping either experienced builders or the true amateur from having a well done custom rifle that they are proud of or as a blank canvas for the skilled builder to do their own creativity too....!
The statement that they all look a like is the farthest thing from the truth their is.. It's a blank canvas to work with and all the shaping and in letting is just done for you... I'm just one of those stubborn people that likes to do things the hard way.....

 

[Kmcmichael]

Yes they are that easy. I only used a chisel for the notch in the patch box.
The ease of the kit has encouraged me to possibly do some carving in this one.