Flintlock Rifle for plinking for fun

[oldwood]

Oldhunter.........Guess I'm not a Peter Alexander fan , no offence to him , but to me the better book is Greg Dixon's book , "The Art of Building the Pa. Long Rifle. Best $20 anyone can spend on rifle building. In my humble opinion, Peter Alexander spends excess time working with specialized jigs and contraptions the average new builder might not possess. ...............oldwood

 

[11th corps]

I assembled two TOTW "kits".
They are not really kits, like most of us think. They are an assembly of parts, with the really hard stuff done, like drilling the ramrod channel, inletting the barrel.
I sweat bullets drilling the channel that holds the tang on my trade gun. It runs at an angle from under the trigger guard to the tang. You only get one chance to get it right.
And it doesn't come with "instructions" like do this first then this etc.
and I consider myself to be a semi accomplished wood worker.
Good luck to the op whatever you decide.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Drilling for the tang bolt and most other drilling operations requires some variation of the drilling between centers procedure. This can be a specialized jig that resembles a C clamp or uses a drill press. In the drill press, one point is the drill bit and the other point is the point of a plumb bob. Mark the entry point on the tang and the exit point on the trigger plate. I start with a center drill ( Center Drill Countersink Set, 5 Pc. (harborfreight.com) ) to mark the two locations then use a tap size drill to drill through the trigger plate. The stock is turned over and a clearance drill is used to drill through the tang and the stock to the trigger plate but not through the trigger plate.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Any reason I would not go for the larger caliber.

I had a 58 in the 80s, a 54 in the 90s, and a 45 in the 2000s.

At 2033fps my round ball will take out any food critter short of an elk.
Sure prefer carrying the 45 around VS the 54 or 58.
Despite what women say, bigger isnt always better, just more boom.
BTW when my last woman departed she took the 54, so maybe Im wrong.

 

[martin9]

Kibler uses the same barrel contour on the colonial so the .58 caliber is the lightest weight gun of them all.

 

[Ethan Yazel]

Many of the cheaper kits, from Traditions especially, are nearly 6 months away from being restocked. High demand, Covid and more caused issues that they are still catching up with.
They are fine kits and fun to put together, but as far as ease and final finish, it’s hard to beat the Kibler. I’ve just gotten mine and want to get started but have too much work to do first!

 

[oldhunter1954]

Thanks to all. I just ordered the Colonial American Longrifle Kit in 54. His web site stated 6 week delivery. I bought 2 books and have been watching videos from Jim Kibler. The videos are very good. Will take my time to build this kit.