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My first time building a muzzleloader

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biggrizz338

32 Cal
Joined
Dec 20, 2020
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I have received the first of my parts the stock I went with Pecatonica river long rifle supply.
I went with the A Verner style in a flintlock with iron furniture and double set triggers. The stock is in curly maple there #4 and it is very nice better than I thought I was going to get
 
I have received the first of my parts the stock I went with Pecatonica river long rifle supply.
I went with the A Verner style in a flintlock with iron furniture and double set triggers. The stock is in curly maple there #4 and it is very nice better than I thought I was going to get
WTG! Tell us a little more about the components. Keep us posted as you progress.
 
I will post pics of all the parts after they arrive the rest of the parts shipped yesterday
the lock is a large Siler flint
davis #4 double set trigger
green mountain 7/8 x 42" 50cal barrel
no patch box iron mounted
 
My squirrel rifles stock came from Pecatonia river. It is not the top shelf wood they sell but like one step down from the top. It is a very nice piece of wood.
 
Iron mounted Verner? Interesting. To each his own. You do you and have fun with it. It would be nice to see how much curl their CM#4 stocks have. Any chance you could post some pics?

Best Regards,

Josh Sawyer
 
Josh I like the shape of the verner stock as for iron furniture I do not have a muzzleloader thats hung in iron my first muzzleloader was a used cva Kentucky kit 45cal percusion with brass furiture my second muzzleloader was a used thompson center hawken 50cal percusion brass furniture again. as soon as the rest of my parts get here I will start posting more pics this is not the best picture
 

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First thing to do is to inlet your barrel to an appropriate depth. Is it a straight or swamped barrel? If swamped you are pretty much stuck as to the location. If straight you can move it back if you want to. Inletters like Peticonica are notorious for inletting barrels with too thick of webs
 
First thing to do is to inlet your barrel to an appropriate depth. Is it a straight or swamped barrel? If swamped you are pretty much stuck as to the location. If straight you can move it back if you want to. Inletters like Peticonica are notorious for inletting barrels with too thick of webs
Thanks for the info I have been watching alot of videos and reading multiple books on the process of building the muzzleloader any advise is greatly appreciated
 
Back in the late 1970's I built my first rifle from a Sharon Hawken kit. Lordy. It was nothing like the CVA kits I saw! It took me a considerable amount of time to finish. There were times I tired of working on it and let it be for a while. I had convinced myself I was going to take the time to make it as good as I could, even though I had limited building skills. I had seen a couple of other similar kits that did not take the time to do some of the detail work and it showed. To this day, I continue to use this rifle on a regular basis. I am glad I took the time, then. Hopefully you will do so, too.
 
Seems that Pecatonica always sends a higher than expected grade. :thumb:
Yes they do. I've purchased 2 stocks from them in CM3. Both had nice curl throughout the entire stock. Was going to buy from Dunlap for my John Armstrong build but changed my mind and will be ordering again from Pecatonica.
 
Back in the late 1970's I built my first rifle from a Sharon Hawken kit. Lordy. It was nothing like the CVA kits I saw! It took me a considerable amount of time to finish. There were times I tired of working on it and let it be for a while. I had convinced myself I was going to take the time to make it as good as I could, even though I had limited building skills. I had seen a couple of other similar kits that did not take the time to do some of the detail work and it showed. To this day, I continue to use this rifle on a regular basis. I am glad I took the time, then. Hopefully you will do so, too.
For myself if I spend a bunch of money on something I take my time with it like my first modern gun I built if I need a tool to do it right I will purchase it
 
Update I have the barrel and lock fitted to the stock question on drilling the tang bolt to keep it lined up what is the best way
 

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Update I have the barrel and lock fitted to the stock question on drilling the tang bolt to keep it lined up what is the best way
The best way is to use a center to center drill jig in a drill press. First take a lock bolt and eye ball it square to the top of your tang. Draw every thing out on the side plate side of the stock. Make sure the bolt head is square with the top of your tang. Determine where the bolt will come out in your trigger plate. Center punch and drill a pilot hole smaller than the tap drill size at as close to the approximate angle into the plate, it doesn’t need to go through. Do the same with your tang. I like to use a 5/64 dia drill as I’m doing these holes with a hand drill. Check your start mark first to be sure your on center fudge as necessary. Your eye can tell that’s something wrong when your done if you’re as much as .005 off center so get it right. Set up your jig in the drillpress the point of the center jig must line up with the point of your drillbit in the chuck and still allow you to fit the stock in between. I like to cut the countersink first. Go a little at a time making sure your not drifting off center finish your countersink smaller than the finnished dia. Replace the countersink with the clearance drill put the stock back in the jig with the point in the pilot hole in the trigger plate again drill through from the countersunk side till the bit touches the trigger plate. Pull the trigger plate and check. If you did everything right the hole will touch the hole in the trigger plate. Reverse the stock and drill the trigger plate for the tap size. If need be fudge the hole in the stock as necessary, before attempting to tap the hole in the trigger plate. Then tap the hole in the trigger plate through the stock and tang so every thing is properly aligned you break a lot less taps this way. Now breathe...... BJH
 
You have a LOT of wood yet to remove in the breech area, which also means filing the tang down too. The dreaded breech hump. Take a look at the originals as to where the curve for the wrist starts its' bend downwards. It's right there at the end of the barrel, or maybe even a little in to the top flat of the barrel. Right now yours extends backwards on to the beginning of the tang---the part you can't bend. The only way to get that bending is to file it away. The tang itself is 1/4" thick on the extension part, and you only need maybe 1/8", so filing it thinner won't do you any substantive harm.

Wait until the tang and breech area is fully shaped before you locate and drill your tang bolt hole. Use clamps on the barrel to hold it down enough while you are filing and shaping. You want the bolt to be tangent to the curve so it intercepts the trigger plate in the spot you want it. That way the edges of the bolt head will be drawn flush fore and aft. If you drill it too soon, (before everything is shaped and that breech hump is filed away, it will wind up too far aft, and the front of the bolt head will wind up proud to the tang when it's drawn down tight.
 
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Col B hit the nail on the head about that dreaded breech hump. The profile of a long rifle depends on not having one.
 
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