What Muzzleloading Stuff Did You Do Today?

I was happily carving moldings along the Ram Rod channel of the walnut stocked Kentucky when Lurch (my wife's Brother, 6' 8", what else would he be called?) came stumbling in and asked me to teach him to draw file. then he produces the GM swamped barrel from his Kiblers woodsrunner.
at first glance it looked like just sanding would get it done. Then i hit it a lick with some 320 and the milling marks really stood out. the breech to muzzle pass was very smooth but the return pass was a little chattery. will draw file out quickly. showed the technique to Lurch and he thanked me, took the barrel out of the vice and left with the parting comment, "i don't do much after noon". never saw him do anything before noon so i guess he is consistent.
Went back to cutting Mouldings and fitting the nose cap. discovered my epoxy had jellied so i can't affix the cap.
I could go out and rough polish the butt plate and inlet it, or make a trigger, or prep the trigger guard, or inlet the RR thimbles, or clean up the barrel for browning, or take a nap.
maybe i will shoot my Colonial. haven't shot it since I finished it and proofed it. or take a nap.
PS. found some Acraglass so back to the nosecap. no rest for the wicked.

Finished fabricating paper cartridges for my Kibler .45 cal SMR. Hoping to try them out tomorrow:

Made a buttplate for a Carolina Gun ....formed it and the stock then attached it to the buttstock ...

Rob M. said:

Made a buttplate for a Carolina Gun ....formed it and the stock then attached it to the buttstock ...

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Always happy to see another of your builds come along!

Had a number of chores and repairs to do before I got to gun time today. What I did get done was put a coat of Iron Nitrate Gun Stock Stain on the patchbox cover. Let it dry and took the hear gun to it. From a green to a rich brown and with a first coat of Tried & True oil brought out the curl. Looking forward to see what the stock looks like finished.

Anybody that undertakes building a flintlock rifle from a kit or scratch knows that it's a labor of love. This is my first rifle build. It is a Kibler Woodsrunner. This is only the second time I have ever done relief carving. First time was in master gun builder Mike Miller's class last year and then again this year. The classes were put on by the NMLRA at Western Kentucky University. I highly recommend Mike's relief carving class. I thank the Lord for guiding my hands and Mike Miller for his incredible teaching.

Got to do some prospecting today.

PathfinderNC said:

Always happy to see another of your builds come along!

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Thanks bud . Just another d@mn ole dirty , ugly , inaccurate , useless ole trade gun !

I took advantage of some North Carolina heat and humidity to brown the barrel of my Fowler. Barrel is absorbing some motor oil overnight.
In between coats, attached ramrod pipes. Coming right along.

1851 and 1850 ASM’s with no safety pins.

I bought two ASM revolvers from a member a bit ago. Cleaned them, polished and smoothed the actions, stripped removed all milling marks and cold blued.
I like them both a lot, timing and lock up great, both made in 1998.
One thing bothered me. They did not have the safety pins that would allow for loading all six chambers. I guess if Sam Colt thought they should be there I needed to agree and attempt to comply.
I decided to have a go at driliing and installing the pins. Below you can see the brass drilling jig made to guide the drill bit for the holes. By loosening two percussion nipples at a time, and using the protruding nipples to index into the brass jig I could drill one hole at the cylinder’s back end. Screw one nipple in, unscrew the next, reposition the brass guide and continue until all six were done. Then move on to the next cylinder to repeat the process.
I drill the holes initially at .043, the moved to .050, finally .0625. I had some leftover pin material from my Kibler Colonial build, hammered the pin in and cut to length, repeated this process 12 times to finish both cylinders. Both guns reassembled and tested, all working great. Now to load six at the range!
Snoot

My stock duplicator still works !

Really busy today. Sighting in my Tenn rifle, Had to bend the barrel to get POI to move right it was shooting maybe 3-4 inches to the left and I was running out of sight movement. As you can see it's pretty much on ( lower left target, 40 yds. I stopped there as I had about about a 20 mph plus wind from the right so if the POI goes right I have enough sight adjustment to correct it. This is the rifle I started in Feb. from just a blank with swamped barrel.ttps://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/inletting-swamped-barrel.177171/#post-2584101

Got my horn finished and listed Done with horns for a while, too much work.

Sir Boniface Harrison said:

First time out with my recently acquired .58 Remington Contract Rifle (Zouave) by CVA, shooting Minies. I havent posted a photo of the target because all but three shots out of 15 missed the target altogether! That was at 50 yards. It wasn't until my 12th shot that I realised it was shooting about 18 inches high, and I remembered old stories from the Civil War and Crimea about aiming low when the enemy got inside 100 yards. My final 3 shots hit the target, with two of them in the 'black'. I think maybe it is a waste of time shooting this rifle at less than 100 yards.
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You need a taller front sight. If your sight is fixed you can file out a taller blade that will fit over the existing sight and epoxy it on. When it comes time to return the gun to original condition a little heat will soften the epoxy for removal.

Lock and side plate installed, entry pipe installed. Currently working on inletting triggers. Then onto moving the butt plate forward.

Shot the Kibler SMR with paper cartridges as described in previous post:
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...did-you-do-today.134755/page-744#post-2645639

Very happy with results. Frankly, I think the SMR shot better with the cartridges' paper-patched and pre-lubed balls, and was certainly easier to load, than with the usual measure/pour/lube/patch/ball/ram manual of arms. Of course, the trade-off is the prep time and effort needed to fabricate the cartridges.

WRT to my previous question about which way to load the ball's "pigtail":
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...all-tail-up-or-tail-down.182056/#post-2645161
I didn't really notice any difference, and so for purposes of fabricating future cartridges, I'll probably orient the patched ball so it's easiest loaded with pigtail down.

Another coat of wax on the Colonial. Time to start mounting up some of the hardware.

Psycho Mike said:

Another coat of wax on the Colonial. Time to start mounting up some of the hardware.

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So, what brand of wax do you like?

My first try at making a small shooting bag and second lock cover.

Made ramrod pipes for the Carolina Gun and inlet and pinned then in the stock ...