Blundering along into Flintlocks

[RobertsGunsmithing]

Before the traditional mayhem of November came along I began looking at muzzleloaders. Then I saw a video, (or many) about the Blunderbuss. Somewhere along the line I had missed this piece of history and learned this rifle, uh shotgun, scattergun had an amazing story. Then I found that there is a kit for this thing. Granted, out of the box it's not very pretty. During a pre-assembly for fit, I discovered that the manufacturer presses in the brass grommet for the barrel lug bolt, only it was off center almost a quarter inch. Now, I had joined the list of people that read the muzzleloader thread on fakebook, so you can imagine the responses when I mentioned it. True it's an inexpensive kit. But as with any gun, if the manufacturer is putting it together, I expect a minimum amount of quality. I contacted Traditions, and they offered to replace the kit If I sent it back. As I had taken pictures and sent them, they were expedient to acquiesce. The drawback was I had to pay shipping. Out of curiosity I contacted the retailer where I bought it, which is located in my state. They quickly offered a label and sent me a replacement kit. Here in my state we now have this thing called 114, so, as a dealer, I have been very busy helping my customers with transfers. I was , however, able to check the fit of the parts and some will need inletting, (totally expected) but the barrel sat snug in the channel and lug lined up like a plumb line.
Now I just need to decide, for the barrel, Blue, brown or leave it in the white?
I have a bunch of chair leather that's very thin to cut pieces for the flint, and a dozen 5/8 flint from Track. Powders, wads and cards, bags of shot, ( I thought about using rocks, but...). Winter Project ahead we go.

 

[RobertsGunsmithing]

A question on the leathers for the flint. I am assuming it should be as wide as the flint. How much should over hang the from the hammer.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

A question on the leathers for the flint. I am assuming it should be as wide as the flint. How much should over hang the from the hammer.

The leather is just there to secure the flint in the jaws, so it only needs to be long enough to wrap over the flint enough to do that. Also, don’t use a piece of leather that’s too thick as this can cause the flint to be too loose in there.

 

[William Hagewood]

Very little, if any

 

[TDM]

Like this works well.

 

[RobertsGunsmithing]

Next up; I'm looking at the fitting of parts. The trigger guard was inlet quite deep, and so was the tang. OR there is just a lot of extra wood here. If I remove too much lumber from around the tang it would come really close to the lock on the right and bushings on the left.

 

[TDM]

Next up; I'm looking at the fitting of parts. The trigger guard was inlet quite deep, and so was the tang. OR there is just a lot of extra wood here. If I remove too much lumber from around the tang it would come really close to the lock on the right and bushings on the left.

Assemble all the parts that you’re able to first. See how the lock fits the barrel and how the barrel fits the tang and where the flash hole lines up with the pan. Don’t remove wood till you see what you have. The lock inlet will be the hardest to change.

 

[RobertsGunsmithing]

The barrel Fits the tang and barrel channel in the stock. It's quite snug. I can install the barrel, tang and trigger assembly. The inletting is quite good.
I will need to do some inletting to get the lock in. Around the rear of the pan and the of course the plate. I can tell already that the lock is a considerable distance from the barrel. I will need to get the lock in place before I can get an accurate measurement. But there is at least a couple hundreths between it and the liner. The picture shows approximate location of the pan if I inlet around the bottom of the plate. I have about .010 to play with up or down.

Should the pan make contact with the barrel. It would seem so to me.

 

[Trot]

The pan absolutely should make contact with the barrel with no gap. If there is a gap for priming powder to get into, it can build up in the lock mortise with disastrous results if it ignites.

 

[RobertsGunsmithing]

Good Point!

 

[hanshi]

What Trot said.

 

[RobertsGunsmithing]

Lots of progress today. Got the plate inlet into the stock to close the bomb gap. Shortened the screws and blued the tips. Had to remove the hammer, tumbler and sear assemblies. One for cleanup and stoning. The sear looked like an orange peel and matched the full cock notch.
Now that it is mostly assembled, save the trigger guard, I find that the touch hole is a tad low. I need to shim up the tang with brass about .010 to get the barrel flat in the channel. I suppose I could bed the barrel in order to lift the the hole higher in the pan, but It may not be necessary. Depends on how it fires, I guess. Lots of wood to remove. They definitely give you plenty to work with.

 

[TDM]

That fit looks good now. Good job!

 

[RobertsGunsmithing]

First time fully assembled. I spent a few hours today shaping the stock at the trigger guard, and the hammer. It moves freely now. I did stone the back of the bolster and it has a tight fit to the barrel. I put a small piece of leather under the rear of the barrel and shimmed the tang with brass to raise the touch hole in the pan. Next will shape the top around the tang and do some fun carving on the forend. Also, will start contouring the Butt plate so it's a bit smoother around the edges.