Kibler kit

I cant imagine any harm would come to the wood, just don't leave it in a garage or something. Just stick it behind your bedroom door or some other conditioned space.

I would not leave the kit untouched. I would get the barrel inlet into the stock. there was another member here a while back that left the kit untouched for a few months and the forearm warped due to changes in humidity. once the barrel is in it can sit.

I left my SMR in the box for 2-3 months before I started on it. I did have the box in stored in the spare bedroom.

I would put the barrel in. You don’t have to pin it. You could put the trigger plate in, the tang bolt and use a plastic tie or two.

I bought a second hand Kibler kit in the box, the previous owner had taken it out of the box put the barrel in the channel and later removed the barrel the wrong way and cracked the stock which was easy to repair.

The kit had been set up for a long time, I had no way of knowing what kind of environment it had been in. When I ran a patch down the barrel it had a rust line on one side like moisture had accumulated in narrow spot the full length of the barrel. The rust was superficial, I scrubbed it out with a scotch bright patch. My thinking is the barrel should have had a coat of RIG in the barrel, it was a Rice barrel, perhaps it did and the first owner ran patch with some unknown substance on it down the barrel and removed it.

I ordered a Kibler lock that developed a rusty spot rather quickly on the back of the frizzen while I had it stored in my shop. Probably a spot that was missed when the exterior of the lock was lubed, the rest of the lock looked like a finely made Swiss lock, no rust or corrosion.

My point is; to be on the safe side go over all your gun parts and put some oil on them before you store your kit, run an oily patch down the bore, I use 30W motor oil. Don't take it for granted that all of the parts were perfectly protected prior to shipping, sometimes stuff gets missed.

Keep it like it's shipped. It will do fine the closet for years/decades. It'll keep.

I received my Woodsrunner kit in early February of this year. it was an early birthday present which is in July. I did open it, and fit the barrel, then disassembled and put back in the box just as it had arrived from Kiblers and put it over in a corner. I started on in the day after my birthday and everything still fit like it had when I received it. I just finished it up this past weekend. so certainly it did fine sitting for close to 6 months

@W8MRB it turned out beautiful.

Thank you @Polecat_Tom. I think the experience was good enough to try a more ambitious kit. re your tagline. I do feel very fortunate that Kibler has raised the bar to where he has with the cnc machining of his latest kits.

Gvilleddie said:

I’m considering taking advantage of the Kibler “free shipping sale. I really don’t have the time to dedicate to the build right now so If I buy a kit, can I store it for a few months before I start the build? Any harm to the wood, etc? Thx, E..

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If you store the wood it will grow roots and branches and might even start barking. The steel will rust through in through.


just kidding, I’m sure it will be fine sitting and waiting to be built.

if your getting a fowler , barrel will likely need no fitting. even if you just put the barrel in the channel and tape it [ with paper wrapped around it and stock first] it takes a minute to be sure you will not have a warped and / or twisted forearm. much time and grief saved. just do it.

Man! Fine job! Beautiful work! And you have way way more self control than I do! I could never let that project sit for that long!

W8RMB said:

I received my Woodsrunner kit in early February of this year. it was an early birthday present which is in July. I did open it, and fit the barrel, then disassembled and put back in the box just as it had arrived from Kiblers and put it over in a corner. I started on in the day after my birthday and everything still fit like it had when I received it. I just finished it up this past weekend. so certainly it did fine sitting for close to 6 months

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Nice!! Can you please describe your finsihing method? It's amazing!!

Smokey Plainsman said:

Nice!! Can you please describe your finsihing method? It's amazing!!

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Thank you it was pretty much following Jim Kibler's videos. the stain is his iron nitrate, but I had about 10 or 11 hours of sanding before staining to make sure I got it to the level I wanted. I then finished it with Tru-Oil. it has about 12 coats on the buttstock area and about 6 up on the forestock area. reason for so many coats on the buttstock is I had some sanding issues where I made a mess of things, and I just kept going till it got it back to the glossiness I was looking for.- oh and it was an extra fancy maple stock to start with.. so really all the kudos are due to Kibler.

Sorry, reply to an old OP no longer relevant deleted.