Brown Bess kit ques

[Joe6112]

I've been looking at the 2nd model land pattern Brown Bess kit at Dixie. I've never built a kit before. I was wondering if anyone had experience with this particular kit, want to know if it would be suitable for a first build.

 

[Silky921]

You might want to discuss your skills, experience, tools you have, etc, to give everyone a better ability to answer the question. Just my opinion but it isn't worth much.

 

[Pete G]

This is not really a "builder's" kit as such. It is an unfinished version of the Pedersoli musket. Most of the parts are just assembled, with maybe a small amount of adjustment for fit. After that it is a matter of sanding and finishing. Go ahead and order a dozen flints while you are at it. If you can read and have a normal proficiency with hand tools you should be fine.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Been a long time since I put together my Navy Arms (Pedersoli) BB kit. A couple memories stick. First, most puzzling but not an issue to building. The face of the breech plug was magnetized. Yep. Quite heavily also. The tulip end ram rod almost could not be pulled out.
OK, problems building: barrel channel needed small amount of scraping for good fit; barrel and thimble lug pin holes were not located or drilled, for a beginner that was a pucker experience to get right; most difficult issue was the ramrod hole, not only was it not deep enough but there was a small knot that diverted the extra length drill I had made up for the job. This almost turned out to be a deal breaker. Finally, I just took a length of steel rod (forget diameter) whacked and hacked on the end for about 1" until I had a sorta rasp then ran that down with a power drill until it opened up enough for the rod to go down all the way. It did not drift and come out the side as I feared it might. I had an experienced builder inlay the butt plate since I just did not have the skill for that double compound curve job. For the record, I finished inside and out with pure (get that? PURE) tung oil. Tough stuff and water resistent. It is still going strong 45 years later.