Explaination Please and what age did you start building?

[Swamp Rat]

Why in the world am I looking up barrels and I'm not even half way done building the my first? It's been a real bugger this past week with that entry thimble, and think I may screw it up still. Been thinking 20ga pistol for rabbit hunting since we dont have a lot of rabbits. Now finding 24"-28" barrels thinking canone gun for rabbits instead. What is the mental aspect of this. This is not rashenal thinking spending time looking for parts when I'm not half way finished with the first. Need some sawdust theorapy or an intervention I guess.
Barrel $50, sheet brass trigger guard/side plate/lugs, enfield buttplate $15, paint it so the wood does not have to be the greatest. Oh there I go again. :haha:

Anyway what age did you start building these Muzzleloaders?

 

[rafterob]

There's always the 12 step program. Divide your next build into 12 purchases and buy it one step at a time :thumbsup:

 

[galamb]

I was 42 I think (memory going now probably from inhaling sawdust).

Started a half-stock rifle and ended up building two full-stocks before I finally got that first rifle finished.

Have a couple other stocks roughed out that never got done.

Just about finished up a rifle right now - one more inlay, sights and then stain, but already breeched another barrel and started cleaning up the castings for the "next one".

Have to avoid checking TOTW and MBS or I'll have another one started - Rice barrels just had a "fire sale" on discontinued barrels - had to block calling the number until they were all gone :rotf:

Failed the 12 step and the medication doesn't help - gun building is harder to shake than heroin use :grin:

 

[fusil de chase]

Perfectly rational, heck of alot better then buying on impulse what ever is available the day before you want to start building.

Don't sweat it. You can spend like a drunken sailor on ML gun parts and at the end of the year you wont be out anymore then the avarage person's 'texting and idiot phone bill' i does stand for idiot right??

had to block calling the number until they were all gone

Yeah there was a .62 jaegar that almost caused a divorce here.

 

[kaintuck]

be like the japanese....do one thing at a time, like there is nothing else in the world....then move on to the next step......slow means good....fast means mistakes....
i started 10yrs back...but I have been re-finishing/re-stocking rifles for decades....off and on.
now, i need therapy from my job....and its part of 'america' that the chinese won't be able to import to wally world!!!!

I slowly work on one, but 8-10hrs ata time...so, sometimes there's alot done.....then other times 2-3hrs shows small advancements~and when your working a difficult area like a RR entry...that could be 6 hrs.....all depends how things go!

and then.....i will put it down and not look at the rifle until the next day.....and i see all my mistakes or what I overlooked....

it is suppoed to be a hobby sort-of :youcrazy:

as i say this....i have one fellas rifle in process, and dave Keck has another stock/barrel comming to me....I have a barrel and blank sitting in the corner, and a barrel on order~
:surrender:
we all liveeatsleep this stuff.........

 

[Elnathan]

Anyway what age did you start building these Muzzleloaders?

15. Not that I have built many since then, but that is when I started and I am still at it.

 

[jamesthomas]

"Rice just had a fire sale on discontinued rifles" Galamb.

Oh, yea! I picked up a .40 cal."B" weight 38" barrel , and a "C" weight .50 cal. Reading Profile barrel :shake:. The credit card SCREAMED at me!! :rotf: . You don't find Rice barrels at $200.00 very often.

 

[stuartg]

My first build is in process, and Rice's sale put me in line for my second build...how in the heck is this stuff so addictive?!

 

[Swamp Rat]

They should call this the "ETFH" Entry thimble from HELL. LOL For a first timer it PITA. Still have to go lower.

 

[Lock Nut]

how in the heck is this stuff so addictive?!


'cause we get to make things that go "BOOM" !
:grin: :grin: :grin:

 

[sean30ber]

Im on number 3, almost 2 years now. Its a get away from all the blood and guts and the nastiness I see people do to each other on a day to day basis. Good Cop therapy. I can dive in and forget. Just focus on the beautiful wood and steel.

 

[NorthCoastBigBore]

13 here on my first GPR. Now I'm knockin' on 40. Not too much between then and now, but been working on my second full build over the last year (for my oldest daughter). Some restocking and other relevant fabrication here & there, in between.

I agree with others, it's a relaxin' pastime. No other rationale required

 

[Birddog6]

They should call this the "ETFH" Entry thimble from HELL. LOL For a first timer it PITA. Still have to go lower.

What is the matter ? :idunno: It is just a simple Jaeger entrypipe. After ya do ? 20 of them, you will look back & say "You rotten SOB ! Why in the H won't you go down & let the da.. RR in " !! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

Keith Lisle

 

[Birddog6]

It is called OCMD. Obsessive Compulsive Muzzleloader Disorder Unfortunately, the only cure for it is buy more.... :idunno:

I have more barrels then I can use in 10 years.... but Rice had the sale I bought 3 more & would have probably bought 10 if he had what I wanted at the time, but they had already been sold. :cursing: dang it, I needed them barrels !

Then you could also have OCAWD. Which is Obsessive Compulsive Awesome Wood Disorder.... yes... I have that too. I am a mess.... :idunno: I just can't walk away from a beautiful piece of wood.... I just have to have it ! :slap: One time I was at Friendship & walking around with a friend.... we go by this booth & I stop & stare at this blank & just drool. On the 5th trip past it & me slobbering all over the place, my friend says "Would you just buy the dang thing? I am tired of stopping here & you are gonna buy it anyway, so just do it & get it over with & let's go on !" :rotf: And I did, and about 8 more before the weeks was over .... :surrender:

But to your Question, I put my first one together at the age of 25. Messed with them on & off for many years, got really heavy back into it about 15 years ago & continue.
I would have really loved & dreamed of building rifles all day every day my entire life. But sometimes thing more important than my Likes come into play in life. Raising a family, putting kids thru college, making a good living, etc. were more important to me. Then ya think ya are done raising kids & making a living & then ya get to raise your parents... Wow... I didn't see that one coming....... Sometimes life throws ya a curveball... just so you younger guys know there IS more in store for ya later. I'm not gripeing, it is just fact. You do what ya need to do the best ya can, hope you do it the right way, & ya go on.... "Onward & Upward, but sometimes sideways..." as my dad used to say, but strive for Onward.

So keep on building, try to do a little better on Each One, try to remember the mistakes so ya don't repeat them. TAKE YOUR TIME........ it is not a race.

Keith Lisle

 

[Vaino]

Building guns requires discipline...not only w/ the order of building, but also concentrating on the build at hand. Thinking about what a future build will be, while working on the present build, can be a cop out....especially when a difficult operation isn't going as planned or one gets bored w/ a tedious job.

That's not to say that parts shouldn't be ordered for the next build, but contemplating what SHOULD be built next, is a distraction of the job at hand.



Served a 5 yr tool and diemaker apprenticeship and outside of the technical skills that had to be learned.....discipline, patience, ability to really concentrate and perseverence also had to be learned. These attributes are also necessary when building guns......'nough preaching.

Built a TC Hawken kit in 1976 {44 yrs old} and then went on to a scratch built LR and a few others since then and am still building......Fred

 

[Eric Krewson]

Started at about age 62 with a scratch build Beck rifle, came out OK but not great. Discovered Optivisors and built my second, a 12 ga English fowler turkey gun, came out much better than the first.

Cut up a tornado downed cherry tree a couple years ago with my chainsaw and have the stock blank for my next build, picked up a new 40cal GM barrel off ebay for $75, ordered a late Ketland lock from Miss Barbie yesterday and plan to learn how to forge my mounts for a nice southern rifle.

I work until I start getting sloppy(I have a monster case of ADD)which might be an hour or 5 hours, at which point I go do something else.

I do have another 38" English fowler barrel(slightly off center bore)jug choked by Caywood with the white lightning liner installed which will probably end up in gun #4.

I don't see stopping building unless some part of my physical makeup changes to the point that I have to take up something exciting like crocheting.

Right now I am off to the gym for a morning of weight lifting and a 4 mile speed walk down by the river, hopefully to fend off having to take up crocheting as long as I can.

 

[MSW]

I was in my late fifties, but my skillset was about nil when I took the plunge...
that implies that the skillset has grown, the veracity of which I can neither confirm or deny...

 

[frogwalking]

15, I think. I first made a sheet steel patcbox for a 14 gauge flintlock whose barrel had been made from a piece of hydraulic tubing. From that fabrication, I realized I could make anything I wanted. Numrich barrels were affordable, and Turner Kirkland sold all kinds of cheap junk, some of which worked. Warning. I have been building these on and off for 50 years no, but never have gotten real good. Your experience may vary.

 

[B.Habermehl]

First gun a TC Hawken kit at 18. Long hiatus into modern stuff. Then 25 years ago here we go again! Built a lot of guns since. Have slowed down to a couple a year lately. BJH

 

[tenngun]

Refinished some at 16.Cva kit for a friend at 18, First from parts and stock blank at 20 Just finished a leman 2 weeks ago and I think I'm about 2 years older then dirt right now.( in dog years I'm more then dead...I'm prehistoric)