32 cal.kit

[wild_willie_10]

I've decided try my hand at putting a rifle togeather from a kit. There are so many kits out there, how do know which one is the easist and which one is the most difficult. Can anyone out there help with any experince. Style or type is not a matter at this time, just direction.

 

[ryoung14]

I've been considering the same thing, Ziggy, but don't want to start a project I'll never finish...or finish one that makes me shake my head or roll my eyes whenever I look at it .

The kit I keep coming back to for a small bore (I'd like a .36) is the John & Caleb Vincent percussion halfstock offered by TOTW. It seems to be a fairly simple gun with no patchbox or patent breech to worry about. TOTW even represents it as one of their easiest kits to build.

Sure would like to attend a short course on building a gun before starting though. It might give me the confidence that I'd see it through. Right now, family constraints make that impossible.
Bob

 

[elk_chaser1]

I built my first kit last winter...Great Plains .54 cal percussion. It was pretty easy, but the biggest thing about putting together a kit is what you learn during construction. I've gained enough experience through that project to get me thinking about more complicated things. You can research and study things to death...I know I did. Get a kit that looks doable and jump in. Your rifle may not end up in any historical museum, but it will be a gun that you built and you will enjoy it, guaranteed!

 

[XXX]

I think there is a good topic history on this subject if you want to try the search. I have
built a couple of cheap kit guns, A Cabela's Hawken and a Lyman pistol. I cant speak to the more expensive kits such as what TOTW sells, but I presume they have better overall quality and tighter machine tolerances. My experience with the cheaper kits is that you are likely to end up with pieces that do not match/fit without some degree of improvised correction. Examples would be pre-drilled holes in the wrong place, holes that are too big for the screws provided, and so on. You may also find some parts that are clearly for a different weapon and possibly missing parts. I suspect, as someone suggested here in the past, that the cheap kits are compiled from the quality control rejects of the fully assembled products. True or not, you can still end up with a nice, working gun if you take your time and anticipate `challenges'. Since the price of the kits can often rival the price of the factory finished product, you may want to take that into consideration before making a decision. As for myself, I think I am cured for the moment from looking at kits. Without access to blueing tanks, I have not been able to home blue my own barrels well enough to keep the rust at bay even when cleaned diligently. My rifling was well pitted after a couple of years.

 

[Craig]

over the summer I finally put together the Pedersoli Dixie Cub rifle .50 caliber that I had purchased in the spring. It was easier to assemble than I expected. It came in the white. Everything fit and all I had to do was sand the stock and stain, sand/polish the brass furniture and sand the storeage rust prevention off the barrel. I had planned to brown the barrel, but I liked the patina look I got from just sanding it with a Scotch Bright pad, that I left it the way it was.

I learned a lot doing it and the only problem with an old man hand sanding brass is that my arm hurt for 2 weeks after I finished.

The gun shoots great too.

Have fun!

 

[silverfox]

XXX You said you rifling was pitted after 2 years. Pitting and rust can only come from inproper cleaning and not following up with a proper oil or lubricante. If metal is cleaned and oiled it won't rust.
Kit guns are the training ground for advanced gun building, go for one you have a lot to learn and will get a good basic course in gun building.
Fox :thumbsup:

 

[Ed Wenger]

Ziggy, As you've already found out, there are numerous kits offered by a bunch of vendors. Having built several rifles from various sources, I'd have to say all are good. Some of the more expensive kits, like Jim Chambers, are first rate. I put together a .32 cal Isaac Hains from Wayn Dunlap that went together well and was loads of fun. I'd say figure out what you like, get a couple of books like Alexanders "Gunsmith of Grenville County", a couple of DVD's/Videos on building, and have fun. There's plenty of help from great guys with loads of knowledge on these forums.
Ed

 

[XXX]

"XXX You said you rifling was pitted after 2 years. Pitting and rust can only come from inproper cleaning and not following up with a proper oil or lubricante. If metal is cleaned and oiled it won't rust.Kit guns are the training ground for advanced gun building, go for one you have a lot to learn and will get a good basic course in gun building."

Hi Fox,

Point taken. My drill sergeant would have agreed with you. Here is how it happened. The kit guns were my introduction to BP weapons. I initially used the petroleum based cleaners and lubricants from my centerfire weapons to clean the BP guns. as far as cleasing and protected storage went, this was great. The problem I ran into was that petrol based guncare products do not seem to play nice with natural lube PRB's when it is time to shoot. I had most if not all of the newguy type problems with reliability. It took a while to figure it out, but I realized that I needed to snap a few caps before loading the main charge. Believe me, I was not the type to drown the weapon in Breakfree, and I would run a dry patch before loading as well. Still, I could not seem to solve the problem until I went to all non-petroleum cleaning and lubricating. This worked great for the reliability,(Have not had a misfire of that type for years), but a light coat of Borebutter did not seem to be adequate for protecting during storage. Maybe this is not fair and I performed a less than perfect cleaning once and that is all it took. Regardless, I put the same effort into cleaning my factory guns as I did with the kits and I have never run into the problem with them. I also never used anything but the natural lubes on those guns as there was no need to relearn the earlier lessons. Now that I have typed this far, I do recall that I was horrified by the kit barrel when it arrived in cosmoline. You see, it was already rusting at that time. Some surface rust yes, but inside the barrel too. In fact, I think I had some vague notion that petrol products should not be used to clean a BP gun, but I needed to remove the cosmoline with a solvent anyway, and after finishing the gun, only petrol lubes would keep it rust free for more than a few days.

Just my experience right or wrong.

 

[Zonie]

Quote XXX: "...I cant speak to the more expensive kits such as what TOTW sells, but I presume they have better overall quality and tighter machine tolerances..."
________________________________

Yes, the quality is better, but no, the holes in most of the Parts kits sold by TOTW, Pecatonica, MLB, TVA etc don't line up better.
In fact, they aren't even there in these kits.

That's why many of us refer to these "kits" as a "box of parts" (and many of the parts are just rough castings).

The little adjustments a builder has to make to a Factory Kit is great experiance for those who want to build the advanced guns, but they are small when compared with putting together a "box of parts" gun.

I don't mean to scare anyone off, but they need to understand the difference between the available kits.
zonie

 

[AeroncaTAL]

Ziggy,
I spent the spring and summer putting together a Lyman Great Plains in .54. This was my first muzzleloader and was quite satisfying to build. It is not an "assemble" the parts and go shooting type of kit. The stock is precarved, but there is still a lot left to do to get everything fitted. I consider it a great first time kit and produces a winner of a rifle.
Scott

 

[renovato]

If this is your first build, I'd suggest looking into one of the factory kits. They're inexpensive and easy to put together, yet challenging enough that you learn a lot of fitting and finishing skills. Traditions used to offer the Crockett as a kit, but I don't know if they still do. Pedersoli offers some kits also, and it's a high quality brand. You could also go with a Lyman or Thompson kit and get a small bore barrel to fit it, but it'll be pretty heavy.

I've had great results with Traditions and Lyman kits both and highly recommend them as a fun learning experience. Also, check out Dixie Gunworks, as they have many different kits.

 

[buttonbuck]

Is there any truth to the assumption that parts for ml kits are "factory seconds" that require you not the highly paid workers to correct? I have a lyman plains pistol my first kit that I am sort of middle of the road satasfied with it shoots fine and all that but I was not happy with the stock and how the hammer falls on the nipple. I think I need to shim it with auto gasget material and then my innards will not leak the quart of oil I put in it for better balance.

 

[renovato]

I've heard that too. In my experience I haven't seen it though. I think a lot of new kit builders expect them to just snap together with no adjustments, but they need to be hand fitted. If you look at factory built guns, you'll see some hand fitting also. I've had to relocate holes, slightly adjust tang bolt hole angles and things like that, but the parts quality was as good as factory built guns. Beware though, there are some crappy kit brands on the market though. Stick to known brands unless you enjoy a challenge.

 

[boar]

I have done TC-CVA,Both not hard,one thing that is important is to finish the metal first,then fit to wood. I did a CVA pistol kit one night while I was running my foxhounds, I did it by latern light. One tool I used alot was a chainsaw file that was broke, It was about inch and half long,it is good to go around the inlets. Once you get started it is hard to quit. You will have a edge that I didn't have back in the 80's, This Forum Dilly

 

[barebackjack]

I dont think their necessarily "factory seconds" in the true sense.

I also put together a .54 GPR kit this summer. I was VERY pleased with the wood quality. Beautiful wood.
But the factory machine inletting sucked. And I think that rather than put these stocks back through the assembly line to finish them out they may just package them up as the kit.
My lock wasnt even near fully inletted, I had to finish it down, than sand the lock panel down (as the lock plate was 3/16" deep into the wood by than), the tang area needed alot of work, as did the the buttplate area, in fact, the only inlet that was good was the triggerguard.
All this was no big deal, it gave me practice, and more importantly gave me experience and a little confidence for tackling a "box of parts", which I fully intend to do.

Beware however, I was told this on this forum and I didnt listen, it is addicting and could very well snowball into something much much bigger.

Boone

 

[ryoung14]

I got a flier from Dixie Gun Works today. It has some Christmas specials; a few are kit guns. One is a .32 Pedersoli Scout rifle which is offered as a percussion kit for $375. The 13/16" Barrel is 28" long with 1-in-48 twist. It's a fullstock.

Dixie claims the kit is a "Level One", which means it's one of their simplist, I believe. Does anyone have experience building one of these? Would this be considered a 'Factory' kit?
Bob

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

I haven't built a DGW kit for a while, but my experience in the past was that they rate the skill requirements accurately. If they say a kit is Level One, it most likely is.