GPR Kit Question

[a rifleman]

Hi all. Great Forum. :thumbsup: Am considering a GPR in .54 flintlock. Any feedback on kit versus the finished rifles? Seems with the kit, I should be able to get the wood to metal fit and finish the way I want it.

Any comments on the GPR kits, ease or difficulty of building, and quality, would be appreciated.

One thing I wonder about with the kits is blueing the barrel and metal pieces. I would be limited to cold blue or that plum brown finish. Any thoughts between those two choices?

 

[Rebel]

If it was me, and i didn't already have all the tools, stains, etc, i wouldn't buy the kit because by the time you buy everything to complete it you could have paid for the completed one. If you have eveything then i would go with a browned finish. The kits aren't all that hard to assemble.

 

The kits are fairly simple.Stocks are kinda rough,but with some elbow grease they fix right up.The butt end of the stock was kind of a pain to match up the butt plate on both of mine.I prefer browning over bluing,just my preference.They are alot of fun to assemble and cheaper than one off the shelf.

 

[steveh]

If it was me, and i didn't already have all the tools, stains, etc, i wouldn't buy the kit because by the time you buy everything to complete it you could have paid for the completed one. If you have eveything then i would go with a browned finish. The kits aren't all that hard to assemble.

I agree with you economically Rebel, but you can't always put a price on the satisfaction one gets from an accomplishment.
If kit-building is your bag, you'll need to get the tools and such eventually.

 

[Birddog6]

Unless ya just want something to do, I suggest buying the rifle completed. Best buy for the money. There will be a few trims here & there but basically just assemble it, nothing to build or make. You have to remember what it is, a $300 rifle. Don't expect much. It is usually not the fit or quality of a T/C but it is allot less $ too. A GPR is a good rifle when considering the $ and I would buy a new GPR before I would buy a new T/C. I own two of them & have had the flintlock one for a long time & shot thousands of rounds thryu it with not a single problem.
As far as tools go, ya don't need much. I did 2 of them years ago with sandpaper, a couple small files & an exacto knife.
Wood/metal fit will be pretty much std loose inlets & not a whole lot ya can do about it.

Wood will be walnut, and their walnut is basic & what they have at the time. You can give a dif texture to it other than the dull oil they use if you prefer.
Personally I would brown it with Tru-Brown or Mountian Laural & do it in a steamy bathroom. I have done allot of them that way & now it is my preferrence. You can brown one there in under 24 hrs & it looks great.

(I did one with Plumb Brown back in 1978 & keep that rifle for a reminder of what a crappy browning job looks like)

 

[MikeChapin]

I put together a lot of kits for other poeple back in the early eighties. The ones they would get from their relatives on birthdays and Christmas. Most of the kits were CVAs with a smattering of T/C and Investarms. I would think a GPR kit would be about the same. They go together rather easily with only a minimum amount of fitting and a bit of sanding and wood finishing.

Just as Rebel said First of all do not think you are going to save any money on a kit for the reasons he mentioned. You do get the satisfaction of fitting it yourself and putting the stain and finish the way you like and will come up with a more distictive piece than the off the shelf model.

Plum Brown is nice for small parts but can be tricky to use on a barrel. The old stuff from the early eighties used a selenium base but the new stuff uses a copper base. It has to be done in sections and those sections have to be the right temprature or you will get copper plating that has to be removed before it will take any more brown.

I use Laural Mountain Forge cold browning now. If you follow the directions to the letter you can get a very nice, uniform brown.

Cold blue looks alright but tends to wear off easily. When it does age it will put a finish on that lookes a lot like an old rust blue job that has seen a lot of use. I have used it on several revolver kits and looks rather nice after a little while.

 

[Old Salt]

Plum Brown is a hot brown solution. The other recommendations for cold brown are better.

The kit is easy enough to put together, and you can make some personized modifications if you want. Your time and interests in gun building are important considerations.

Breaking a target or getting game with a gun you built has it's own rewards.

Old Salt

 

[a rifleman]

Good insights. I appreciate you all sharing!

 

[silverfox]

AGree with all the above now the knowledge you will gain by doing the kit will include the knowledge of how the rifle works and the interworking of the mechanical parts. That in its self is worth building the kit.
Fox :thumbsup:

 

[AeroncaTAL]

Rifleman,
I'm currently putting together a .54 GPR percussion. I liked the looks of the Lyman than other kit brands and picked a caplock because of a mistaken impression that it would be more reliable than a flinter :redface: (don't you all split your gut laughing now). One of the reasons I chose a kit rather than a finished piece is that I wanted to build a frontloader to learn to shoot with rather than just going out and start blasting away. I must say that the working on the Great Plains has been an enjoyable learing experience and it will not be my only muzzleloader. Now as to the GPR kit. I found that the lock was inletted pretty good. However, the butt plate, inlays for the barrel keys, the barrel and the tang needed work. The tang especially was not square to the barrel and I had to take a lot of wood off to fix that. I messed up on the butt plate, taking too much off and had to glue some walnut stock on to build it back up. But all in all I don't feel that it was too bad and is a good kit. I definitely would choose this kit if I was to do it over. My next rifle though will be a flinter and I will attempt that one from scratch.
Here is a link to a previous post of mine with pictures of the GRP so far...
[url] http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/197201/[/url]

Scott

 

[Birddog6]

My next rifle though will be a flinter and I will attempt that one from scratch. Scott

:hmm: I suggest you don't make that jump. That is like jumping a lil creek & then saying " Heck, I will jump the Grand Canyon now"........

IMHO, do 4-5 precarves & learn to build them first, as there is a B I G step from a GPR kit to a "Scratch" built rifle.

:thumbsup:

 

[AeroncaTAL]

IMHO, do 4-5 precarves & learn to build them first, as there is a B I G step from a GPR kit to a "Scratch" built rifle.

Actually, by "Scratch" I don't mean that I will forge the barrel, lock, cast the butt plate and trigger guard, etc. Those are all off the shelf parts. I will though, carve the stock from a blank. My biggest beef with the kit was not having the parts fitting the "precarved" stock and I'm not talking about minor inletting. By carving the stock myself, it will be my own fault if something doesn't fit, plus I like a challenge... :grin:

Scott

 

[renovato]

I'm working on my second GPR kit. They're not hard to assemble, but they need a little tuning to get the metal and wood fitting together right.

As for quality, they're top notch guns. Accurate and rugged. You don't save anything by building the kit though, by the time you factor in the cost of materials, finishes, etc. About the only reason to build a kit is because you enjoy doing it.

Don't limit yourself to cold bluing though. Rust browning is simple and doesn't require any special equipment. Rust bluing isn't hard either, but requires a way to boil the barrel. Some people weld up sheet metal gutters to boil the barrel in.

Browning doesn't require boiling. I use a spare closet as a humidity box, with a few damp clothes and a small electric foot warmer. Laurel Mountain Forge makes a pretty foolproof browning solution and it's very durable.

 

[Birddog6]

Actually, by "Scratch" I don't mean that I will forge the barrel, lock, cast the butt plate and trigger guard, etc. Those are all off the shelf parts. I will though, carve the stock from a blank. My biggest beef with the kit was not having the parts fitting the "precarved" stock and I'm not talking about minor inletting. By carving the stock myself, it will be my own fault if something doesn't fit, plus I like a challenge... Scott

Scott, sounds like ya got'er all figgured out & sounds simple enough. :hmm:
Good Luck :thumbsup:

 

[CrackStock]

The biggest trick for me was getting the barrel correctly lined up with the lock. This was a pain and in my opinion is best done by glass bedding the breach area.

CS

 

[renovato]

I guess I was lucky that I didn't have that problem with either kit.

About the only lock issue I've had is with an Investarms Hawken that wasn't inletted deep enough for the lock plate to fit in the cutout under the drum. I learned a lot about inletting from that kit.