Black Powder firearms discussion

[DadSmith]

I had a couple friends tell me they couldn't find 209 primers, that starting me thinking about flintlocks. I passed the shortage off as strictly deer season related, but am having a hard time selling myself on that.

I have around 500 laying around from when I use to reload shotgun rounds. Haven't had a shotgun in a long time so figure they can be put to use in a muzzleloader. Give me a reason to buy one lol.

 

[JHB]

An old guy here new to black powder. INGO was great source when I started reloading wit 38/357/44. And I look here again now for black powder experience, building my own flintlock, where to find caps and powder, etc.

They don't have caps but powder and accessory's are available.

http://www.deercreekproducts.net/

 

[jaymark6655]

I have around 500 laying around from when I use to reload shotgun rounds. Haven't had a shotgun in a long time so figure they can be put to use in a muzzleloader. Give me a reason to buy one lol.

Reasons:
1. Perfect "end of the world" gun. You can cast balls, make your own black powder, patches. The hard part is ignition (part of the reason I am now looking at flintlocks).
2.Great for hunting, usually opens up time to hunt, locations, special hunts, generally can be used in any state if you hunt out of state. Can take a large range of game animal. Challenging!
3. FUN! You can take it to your bbq or family range day and shoot all day for cheap. Can be downloaded for the kids so it doesn't rip their shoulder off.
4. COOL! Its like the dad driving a old British convertible to a college town. Its going to turn heads if you are using a hand made, maple stocked, sidelock. Everybody is going to come drool over your rifle, because everyone has seen the plastic bolt gun a 1000 times.

 

[Old Dog]

When the smoke clears... I love BP. A brace or 2 of ROAs, 1860 colt, 1858 Remington, T/C Treehawk. I will be hanging around this thread.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

I like the way you think!

 

[Ark]

I am currently plugging away on a Traditions Kentucky flintlock kit. This is only the first stain coat, I'm probably doing 2 more...at least. This stain isn't turning out as dark as I hoped, though that might change a bit when the final oil finish goes on.

Took a fair amount of sanding to fit the butt plate, but the other bits fit with just a little dremel work. I'm waiting on bluing solution and pondering how I'm going to drill those two barrel pins. Seems like it might be a tricky task to hit those lugs under the barrel with the drill on the first try.

 

[hoosierhawkeye]

Does anyone have info about the Marion County Fish and Game shoots?

 

[JHB]

I am currently plugging away on a Traditions Kentucky flintlock kit. This is only the first stain coat, I'm probably doing 2 more...at least. This stain isn't turning out as dark as I hoped, though that might change a bit when the final oil finish goes on.

Took a fair amount of sanding to fit the butt plate, but the other bits fit with just a little dremel work. I'm waiting on bluing solution and pondering how I'm going to drill those two barrel pins. Seems like it might be a tricky task to hit those lugs under the barrel with the drill on the first try.

This is an easy way. Remember measure twice cut once.

 

[DadSmith]

I am currently plugging away on a Traditions Kentucky flintlock kit. This is only the first stain coat, I'm probably doing 2 more...at least. This stain isn't turning out as dark as I hoped, though that might change a bit when the final oil finish goes on.

Took a fair amount of sanding to fit the butt plate, but the other bits fit with just a little dremel work. I'm waiting on bluing solution and pondering how I'm going to drill those two barrel pins. Seems like it might be a tricky task to hit those lugs under the barrel with the drill on the first try.

I've always wanted a Kentucky rifle percussion model. I think they are some of the finest looking firearms around. One of these days I'll have to stop procrastinating and get one.

 

[JHB]

I just ordered a Pedersoli Scout Carbine kit. Now the wait begins Dixie is about 6 weeks behind on filling orders.

PK3315 Pedersoli Scout Carbine Kit .50 Caliber Percussion

This Scout Carbine .50 percussion kit is a beautiful and rugged “carbine” version of the Pennsylvania Rifle. Easy handling for bush hunting and young shooters. Fullstock with a 13 ½” trigger pull. Barrel is octagon 1 in 32” twist with a front sight blade and a rear sight –ramp adjustable for...

www.dixiegunworks.com

 

[fullmetaljesus]

Bought a couple muzzleloaders from a gentleman here on Ingo.

He was honest about the headache he was selling me. They were in very rough shape and one was mostly in a small box.

Took em up to my buddies place to use his shop. Several hours, a torch, a big ass wrench for leverage on the breech plug wrench and a lot of solvent later we had the breech plug out of one. The other came out with a little less work.

Ordered some replacement parts and cleaned the heck out of the barrels and we believe been have a couple firearms ready to fire. But we got busy with work and other stuff and never got a chance to shoot em or hunt with them this year. Next year they will see some action.

Looking forward to the extended hunting season and the new challenge.

 

[Ark]

Doing Tru-Oil on the stock today. Apart from maybe some spot fitting to compensate for the stock soaking up oil and stain, this stage should mark the end of the woodwork. Everything not directly involving the barrel should be all clear to assemble once the last coat is dried and buffed.

The Super Blue comes in later this week. That'll be a real hair-raiser, I've done wood work before but bluing is a new experience. It's a long barrel and a lot of surface area to try to keep the bluing solution's time-on-surface consistent over. I'll do multiple coats to try to smooth out the inevitable thin spots.

I'm planning one the barrel tenons being the very last thing done before the sights. Fully assemble the gun, double check everything as "final" assembly, masking tape on the stock as a place to put pencil markings, clamp the stock and barrel together, draw on the measurements, then bullseye the tenons and install the pins in one shot. I'm trying to avoid lots of repeated assembly and reassembly or having to blue around the tenons. Once it's pinned in I don't intend to substantially disassemble the gun beyond pulling the lock for cleaning pretty much ever again.

This is the one big disadvantage over the Hawken kits I was also looking at. The separate barrel tang and the brass wedge let you easily pull the whole barrel and stick it in the sink for cleaning. The Kentucky can't really be disassembled without beating those pins out and opening the holes up over time.

 

[Ark]

Calling the stock finished at this point. The stain and oil seem to have swollen it slightly, the barrel really needs to be beat into the stock to seat all the way down. Front handguard is just barely short, I either need to pull it apart at the joint slightly or ream out the screw hole a little bit to get the screw for the front cap lined up. Gonna have to really clamp the barrel hard down into the stock when drilling those pins, and probably do a sandpaper pass up the unfinished inside of the stock where it contacts the barrel. But, I'll take a snug fit over a loose one.

Rear lock screw is too long and binds with the hammer. I'll have to file it down.

 

[jaymark6655]

I need to find one of those kits!

 

[DadSmith]

Calling the stock finished at this point. The stain and oil seem to have swollen it slightly, the barrel really needs to be beat into the stock to seat all the way down. Front handguard is just barely short, I either need to pull it apart at the joint slightly or ream out the screw hole a little bit to get the screw for the front cap lined up. Gonna have to really clamp the barrel hard down into the stock when drilling those pins, and probably do a sandpaper pass up the unfinished inside of the stock where it contacts the barrel. But, I'll take a snug fit over a loose one.

Rear lock screw is too long and binds with the hammer. I'll have to file it down.

Looking good Ark.

 

[Ark]

Barrel blued today. Man, that is a long, slow grind on a barrel that long with that much surface area. I think I did five passes with the Super Blue. It's quite tough on that much barrel to keep the times consistent and not let one end blue more than the other. I wanted a darker finish but honestly after five rounds of buffing the entire thing by hand with steel wool, I was done.

Pretty magical moment when you hose that baby down with RemOil and wipe it smooth, though.

Also my flint came in today and we got ignition, baby. That first spark fully validated my decision to go flintlock.

 

[DadSmith]

 

[Ark]

I'd say I've reached final form. Stock/barrel fit is quite tight, which is good. The barrel tenons turned out to be a fairly simple matter of masking, measuring with calipers, marking, and drilling. Unfortunately the pin diameter fell between two sizes of drill bit in my inventory. On the rear I erred large, and the pin is now slightly loose. On the front I learned from that mistake, erred small, and then ground down and tapered the pin slightly to fit, It's much tighter.

Both sights were too small for the dovetail. The front had to be peened slightly and the rear had to be seriously beaten with a punch to get enough peening to actually catch the dovetail and hold. It will probably come loose if sighting in requires lots of adjustment. Not too happy with Traditions on that one, I can remove material from a sight but it's a lot harder to fill a dovetail when it's undersized from the factory. I used calipers to mark the center of the dovetail and try to get them close to centered. I honestly don't have high accuracy hopes, but I at least want to get it shooting on 8.5x11 paper at 50 yards.

There are some other minor QC issues. You can see airspace in the stock joining area. The front half is just cut too damn short. I had to slot out the screw hole at the muzzle end to fit the end cap and, if I'd really hammered the front half down to close that gap you see, there would be almost no wood for the end cap screw to grab. The end cap also rattles slightly despite the screws being bottomed out, it may need the underside filled in with acraglas or something. I might be able to find a way to inject some acraglas behind that stock joining plate just to take the slop out.

The ramrod doesn't go all the way in. I did finally figure out how to get the retaining spring installed, but the channel it sits in must be slightly short or something because it binds up before the ramrod goes quite all the way in. Not a huge deal, I plan on using a range rod most of the time. The factory ramrod is kinda useless, it's not even threaded for a jag. At least it stows securely and almost flush with the muzzle.

The lock seems small. The flint will bind up with the bottom of the frizzen. The jaws on the hammer are too small to get a lot of meaningful adjustment in the flint position. But, it sparks fine.

You can't tell in the picture, but the brass trigger guard piece is slightly...twisted, I guess? If you put a straight edge on it the rear of the piece is skewed about 1/16" to the side. Screws help but it doesn't sit quite flush.

These are things that would stop me from spending the equivalent money on a rifle off the rack in a store, but since this is a rough home build intended for shooting I guess I shouldn't be too annoyed. Some of these things could be solved if I committed some time and effort.

Pretty happy with my stock and bluing, though. Looking forward to scoring some balls and powder and seeing if it puts lead downrange.

 

[smittygj]

Reasons:
1. Perfect "end of the world" gun. You can cast balls, make your own black powder, patches. The hard part is ignition (part of the reason I am now looking at flintlocks).
2.Great for hunting, usually opens up time to hunt, locations, special hunts, generally can be used in any state if you hunt out of state. Can take a large range of game animal. Challenging!
3. FUN! You can take it to your bbq or family range day and shoot all day for cheap. Can be downloaded for the kids so it doesn't rip their shoulder off.
4. COOL! Its like the dad driving a old British convertible to a college town. Its going to turn heads if you are using a hand made, maple stocked, sidelock. Everybody is going to come drool over your rifle, because everyone has seen the plastic bolt gun a 1000 times.

It is possible to make your own percussion caps as well! A little labor intensive and you need the three tools to do it, but it can be done.

http://www.thegunmag.com/diy-percussion-caps-five-simple-steps/

 

[RustyHornet]

Enjoying reading through all this stuff. Wanting to get back into BP, my only prior experience was a Pietta 1851 Navy. I have been wanting a Flintlock rifle for a long time, getting as close to a American Revolution era look as I can. Toying with another cap and ball revolver as well, possibly 1858 Remington this time around.