Sitting Fox "Mich-I-gun" Kit Gun

[luieb45]

I was looking around the sitting fox kit guns on their site and this one caught my eye and fits all of these needs I've been looking for in ONE gun. What I've been looking for is to do a kit gun that wasn't too difficult, get a squirrel rifle which .45s I've heard work decent on squirrels, and getting a nice, new deer gun. They say it's an easy gun to build because it's already inletted and the barrel has the underrib already on it and everything on the barrel is already installed. However it's a .45 but I've heard that you won't notice a difference between a deer killed with a .45 rb and .50 rb.

 

[luieb45]

Oops. I fogot to ask if anyone has dealt with this gun or built a gun from sitting fox. I'm just wanting to know if it is truly an easy build. To me it looks like all that is needed is fitting of all the furniture to the stock, finishing of the wood, and bluing the barrel.

 

[Zonie]

The Mich-I-Gun is shown in this link http://www.sittingfoxmuzzleloaders.com/k/K38 Mich-I-Gun Halfstock/K38 Mich I Gun Halfstock.htm

From the looks of it this "kit" is much like any of the kits from the advanced kit suppliers.

Although the dovetails etc are done and it looks like the breech plug has been fitted to the barrel there is a lot of work involved in finishing it from locating, drilling and tapping the necessary screw holes to installing the butt plate.
It is not a drop together type of kit.

If you feel like you want to spend over 100 hours putting it together and finishing it that's great. It is the sort of thing that adds a lot of enjoyment to muzzleloading.

If your not good with using hand tools it can also be very frustrating too so give this some serious thought before leaping into it.

Many of the Mid-Western states had gunmakers with their own style and the guns made in these areas tend to be of the later style.
The Sitting Fox ad is correct about the cheek pieces. For reasons I've not quite figured out guns like this made in that area sometimes came with a cheek piece on both sides of the stock.

Maybe there are a lot of Left Hand people living there?

 

[luieb45]

Do you know of any place where I can get a cva kit or are traditions the only ones around anymore? I was wanting to do a kit gun early on in the winter but wanted a cheaper one so I can still buy a new lyman gun. I've heard of deer creek before. Do they have good prices of cva kits because I heard they still carry the old cvas. But then again I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone if I did a lyman gpr kit but I don't know the difficulty of those and it sounds like finishing the metal would be very difficult.

 

[Capt. Fred]

I did a Lyman a loooooong time ago and it was a much easier build than a type of kit like the sitting fox kits. The Lyman's still require some work, but it is nothing like the hours and skill required for the other kits.

I don't really recall the details, but I don't remember having any trouble with finishing the steel on the lyman.

There are ton's of guys on this site that have done them and lots of options for finishes to.

 

[RJL]

i did a GPR kit 5-6 years ago. finished the metal in the kitchen oven and plum brown from birchwood casey. i dont remember anything being over my skill level ,and thats a pretty low fence :rotf:

 

[Zonie]

CVA quit importing all sidelock guns a few years ago. That includes their sidelock kits.

They were buying their guns and kits from Ardesa in Spain. Likewise, Traditions buys their sidelock guns from Ardesa so you could say they are now importing the guns CVA used to import.

There are undoubtedly still a lot of old CVA kits owned by folks who never got around to putting them together but finding them is not easy.

The Traditions kits have all of the old CVA traits, ie, low cost and questionable quality of their locks.
The Spanish guns also use wood that is rather hard to stain.

The Lyman kits are imported from Italy and are usually of a higher quality but a higher price to go along with it.
The Lyman guns usually use European Walnut for their gunstocks which require no stain, just sanding and finishing oils.

All of these large factory kits are basically production gun parts that are basically finished except for the final sanding, shaping and finishing steps.

The metal parts usually require a bit of finishing and the stocks wood will need to be sanded down to match them.

Applying a wood finish is fairly easy, even for a novice. Applying the barrel finish can vary from giving it a fast browning using Plum Brown or a slow browning using one of the solutions like Laurel Mountain Forge makes.
Actually, if you have a very humid room like a bathroom with a shower the cold browning method is quite easy. It does take a few days though.

Other barrel finishes can range from leaving it "in the white" where nothing is done to using a instant cold bluing like Birchwoods Purma Blue to using yellow mustard or vinegar or Naval Jelly to produce various gray colors. It's up to you.

 

[Old40Rod]

A Lyman GPR kit is a good first starter kit, but I don't think its probably going to meet your requirement as a "squirrel" gun.

 

[luieb45]

No, but I guess I can't have it all though. What has caught my eye lately is the finishing that makes it look grey with tiger stripe things in the metal. Is that finish hard to do?

 

[sutherland]

Others will disagree, but I think the .45 round ball is too light, as least for Iowa deer. A buddy has killed four deer with one shot apiece. The trouble is, by the time he got to the end of the blood trail, each deer had already been tagged and field-dressed by other hunters. A .50 is a better choice for deer.