• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Thoughts on Pedersoli Lyman Great Plains Rifle Kit

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jan 3, 2022
Messages
209
Reaction score
458
Location
Huron, South Dakota
I finished the 50 caliber Great Plains flintlock rifle kit made by Pedersoli and sold by Lyman.
This was the rifle discussed earlier on this forum with the touch hole positioned too low which I corrected by using Brownells Acraglas Gel to "shim" up the barrel and tang. I was very impressed with some aspects of this kit, much less so with other aspects of it.
The inletting was more or less complete when received. All metal parts were already installed into the wood and fit was excellent. You get two sets of hardware with one set of screws/bolts already installed that you can sand on etc. when shaping the stock and then use the other pristine set for final assembly. This makes working the stock much easier since you can sand, rasp, file, etc. right over the hardware knowing you are going to replace it anyway. The barrel keys are pinned in place through a slot with a small screw which I like. The entry thimble, trigger guard, nosecap, lock, etc. are either completely smooth or much less rough than many kits I have built and therefore require a lot less effort to finalize and finish. The lock seems to function well and sparks are produced in abundance.
There were aspects of this kit that left much to be desired. The low touch hole as mentioned above was one. The ramrod was complete manure because it was about 3/4 inch too short and was made out of some weird, very ugly wood with very cheap and ugly tips on it. The buttstock was cracked in the toe plate area almost all the way straight forward to the bottom of the butt stock. I didn't know this until I banged it against the work bench and it fell off. I had already stained the stock and you could see where the stain ran into the crack about a quarter of an inch deep on both sides almost all the way forward so it was cracked when I got it. How I missed this with all the sanding of the stock, raising the grain in the wood and so on I will never know. The crack ran right horizontally through the middle of the screw hole for fastening the butt plate onto the stock. I assume that the hole for the screw was either not drilled deep enough or large enough. When they tightened the screw into the butt stock it stressed the wood enough to cause a hairline crack which I then broke off when I banged it against the workbench. I epoxied the piece back on and sunk two screws covered in epoxy up from the bottom under the toe plate which should be a permanent fix. The crack is only visible when the light is just right but it is there (see third photo).
Overall, this is not the best kit I have ever worked on but I do love the lines of the rifle and the way the metal was prepared and the fact everything was completely, and accurately, inletted into the wood. The stock is a pretty nice piece of walnut and while it looks dark in the photo taken inside my house, it actually came out a nice reddish brown shade. Now, if black powder ever becomes available again, I can see if it shoots.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4682 (2).jpg
    IMG_4682 (2).jpg
    27.2 KB · Views: 11
  • IMG_4646 (3).jpg
    IMG_4646 (3).jpg
    131.7 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_4639.jpg
    IMG_4639.jpg
    115.7 KB · Views: 0
The rifle looks great. Nice job on the assembly. Although that crack is now merely cosmetic after your repair, it would still tick me off. Most others won't even notice it, but it would still bug me knowing it is there. Did you take pictures of the damage before the repair? I'd let whomever you bought it from know about it, especially if you can document it with the pictures.
 
Nice write up on the kit. It useful to have some one that clearly states the high and low spots of these kits.
 
The rifle looks great. Nice job on the assembly. Although that crack is now merely cosmetic after your repair, it would still tick me off. Most others won't even notice it, but it would still bug me knowing it is there. Did you take pictures of the damage before the repair? I'd let whomever you bought it from know about it, especially if you can document it with the pictures.
Thank you for your kind words. I never thought to take a picture showing how the stain ran into the hairline crack that I never noticed before the piece broke off. Since I ordered it from a large supply house, I doubt they would say much if I notified them except for "contact Pedersoli or Lyman."
 
The toe cracks on these seem so common that it might be wise to just routinely drill and dowel under the plate before finishing the kit. Seen a number of finished GPRs with grain in toe that gives me pause. Same may be said of the wonderfull front TG screw attachment area,
 
Back
Top