How much experience required or recommended?

[TexasMLer]

For all you guys that have built such beautiful rifles...

How much woodworking/metalworking experience did you
have before you built your first rifle and if you had no previous experience, how hard was it to learn "on the fly"?

If you had no previous experience before you built your first rifle, which task was the most difficult for you to learn and perform?

Which skill would you recommend that a person develop before starting such a project?

Thanks!

 

[TANSTAAFL]

I had zip, nada, back in the early 70's.

Drilling the ramrod hole was the hardest for me. Today's kits(parts) from Chambers, TOW, Dunlap and others are a much simpler affair. But, unless attention to detail is closely followed, there are still many ways to completely screw it all up.

 

the most difficult part for me was being patient and then not freaking out when I started drilling holes in expensive pieces like the lock plate and barrel...

Drilling my first touchhole about made me throw-up, I was so danged nervous.

I've built a couple from North Star West and one from Track of the Wolf. They inlet the barrel channel, the lock mortise (mostly) and the ramrod channel, the trigger plate, the butt (on the model I ordered). I had a lot of fun working on all of them.

Have fun!

Stumblin

that's how my Track Tulle turned out...I modified it somewhat...he he he....

 

[rich pierce]

I think it's best to start with a simple design and a kit that has inlets for the basic parts. If you start with a trade gun, militia musket, or simple halfstock plains rifle (not a real Hawken) you'll learn a lot about building guns, inletting, chisels, finishing wood and metal, and have fun. It's easy to take $600 worth of parts and turn them into a $300 gun and frustrate yourself and everyone else in the process. When you're building it, you'll be thinking this is the end-all and be-all and it might drive you nuts. But 15 years from now if you take your time it will be a great shooter that functions well and serves as a good example of what you've learned since then.

 

[vradin]

Which skill would you recommend that a person develop before starting such a project

Patience, patience, patience. After that the ability to ask questions, listen to all the answers, sort the chaff, then more patience to try out more than one answer to see which answer feels right for you.

If you're absolutely new (not sure which end of the hammer to hold?) to wood or metal working, don't be in a rush to run out and buy every tool that looks like you MIGHT need it someday. Take some time to look at other folk's shops and setups. When you do get ready to spend some $$$ buy the best tools you can afford. And forget the screwdriver kit from the home center. Get a good set of gunsmithing drivers, and keep them the heck outta the kitchen junk drawer and away from the kids.

Oh- one other skill... How to sharpen tools. Google up "scary sharp system" and keep your edges sharp.

Most of all, enjoy the process of creating something as much as the end result.

vic
A day in the shop is never wasted.

 

[Slowpoke]

Math.. learn how to measure with calipers. Add, subtract, and divide.
Files and Rasps.... learn how to use them properly in order to remove wood/metal with minimal amount of effort.
Learn patience.... this is the hardest for most. If you can't sit still in a deer stand for an hour, your probably better off opening up your checkbook rather than your basement door. After you build a dozen or so you can crank them out but new builders need to have the patience to look at their project, step back, go read somemore, come back and look at it again, and make a decision to move forward.

My wife would make a terrific gunbuilder.

SP

 

What everyone else said + lock the shop door from kids cats and wife and anything else with 2 legs and feet.
Haveing the dog there is OK :thumbsup:

Take the plunge and give it a go.

Patients Patients Patients Patients Patients Patients


Woody

 

Patients Patients Patients Patients Patients Patients(SP) Spelchekur don't werk whit dese kinda words :crackup: :relax: I think Woody means Patience, Patience, Patience, Patience,Patience, Patience. What they all said. add research to the pile, visit other sights. Use that mouse in your hand, the Internet is an important tool in itself, and especially this Web sight, a never ending resource ASK ASK ASK

 

[Stumpkiller]

The traditional solution was to build a pistol kit first. All the steps but in smaller doses.

 

[B.Habermehl]

What kind of expierence? I used to design and build R/C model airplanes and boats. Then at the ripe old age of 18 I assembled a T/C hawken kit. Been sunk ever since :winking: I've done tool and die work, and have been somthing of a wood worker forever.
The most important thing is to think and rethink every step. "This is a thinking mans game" friend Allen Martin says. I agree. Sharp tools are a must. Above all ask questions. There is no dumb question, but there are dumb mistakes. BJH

 

Patients Patients Patients Patients Patients Patients(SP) Spelchekur don't werk whit dese kinda words :crackup: :relax: I think Woody means Patience, Patience, Patience, Patience,Patience, Patience. What they all said. add research to the pile, visit other sights. Use that mouse in your hand, the Internet is an important tool in itself, and especially this Web sight, a never ending resource ASK ASK ASK

Nope no spell checker needed llok it up in the dictionary:

pa

 

I stand corrected, and defer to your looking it up, my understanding is that one is singular and the other is plural. ie to be patient as opposed to having patience. How about take yoiur time, think it over, ask questions. measure once and cut twice Thanks WoodHick

 

Bill
No Problem we are all in a learning process here :redthumb:
I mite add that the only dumb question is the one that wasn't asked.
Questions are easier to ask than correcting a mistake.

Woody

 

[Elnathan]

For all you guys that have built such beautiful rifles...

How much woodworking/metalworking experience did you
have before you built your first rifle and if you had no previous experience, how hard was it to learn "on the fly"?

If you had no previous experience before you built your first rifle, which task was the most difficult for you to learn and perform?

Which skill would you recommend that a person develop before starting such a project?

Thanks!

Very little. Prior to making my first rifle, I had carved two toy rifles (slab-sided, not rounded) out of pine and put together a CVA snap-together kit. The kit really didn't teach me anything, really.

The most difficult task (i.e., the one I screwed up most on) was cutting the ramrod groove straight and even. One helpful hint: if you are working from an uncut blank, make sure everything is square and straight, even if you are going to cut it away. I fudged a bit on that, and payed for it. example- when cutting the ramrod groove, instead of making sure that the forearm was perfectly flat where the groove was going to go, I simply tried to make it a little deeper where the wood rose up. :shake: Fortunately, the ramrod hides a multitude of sins, and the ramrod hole didn't come out the side of the stock.

As for which skill to develop- anything you can! drilling straight holes and filing metal flat are two areas which I have trouble in. A drill-press will NOT guarantee a straight hole either- if you are drilling at an angle to the surface with twist-bits, you are better off using a hand-drill and starting at a right angle to the surface and then changing to the desired angle once the tip has bitten in the wood or metal far enough not to skip. try it- it works!

Try to see if there are any gunsmiths in your area that are willing to give you some help. I was mentored through my rifle by one of the locals, and his help saved my rifle once or twice (he drilled my ramrod hole and welded in a patch on my barrel tang when the drill bit flexed while trying to drill for the tang screw, for example. I learned the remedy from watching him drill something else.)

If you have some basic woodworking skills, I think it isn't too hard to build a shootable, if not beautiful, rifle. I did, anyhow, and if I can do it it can't be too hard, right? eace:

 

[Elnathan]

Oh, forgot the worst bit- filing dovetails into the barrel to fit the tennons and sights. Do practice that a couple of times before going on to the barrel- it is tedious, but doing a poor job of it can be a real problem- I am a bit uneasy about two I did that are a little to deep for my peace of mind- my mentor thinks they are OK but I think I'll proof it before firing all the same.

 

[amccall]

My advise is find someone that wants a ML that you could build. Make sure this person is not too picky and easy to please. They pay for the supplies, you get the experience and all the mistakes you made can be avoided on your own gun.
Then of course you could buy a gun in the white and all of the hard stuff is done. :hmm: :m2c:

Understanding wood working; carving, finishes, sanding and inlays etc... I feel is the most time consuming part of building a gun. :results:

 

[TexasMLer]

Wow! I got a lot of good answers in such a short time! Thanks!

It will be a while before I build a rifle for two reasons. I dont' know exactly which style I want to build yet. I also need some practice first. Sounds like a pistol kit would be a great way to start.

I think I would like to build a flint smoothbore... I think. :hmm:

Thanks!

:thumbsup:

 

[Eric Krewson]

I am also just starting out as a builder. I have a lot of experience working with wood having started out as a serious duck decoy carver, followed by making wood longbows.

I decided I liked the lines of a J.P. Beck rifle and started gathering parts. I have a C profile Rice barrel, brass castings made from an original Beck, Beck full size blueprint and a grade 5 stock blank from Dunlap. haven't bought a trigger yet but plan on using a high post single trigger, probably an LR. I plan to send my wood and barrel to Fred Miller for inletting and ramrod hole drilling. I want to do the stock shaping myself. Everything I do on my future gun I will have practiced on scrap wood or metal. Too much money in parts to jump in blind.

I bought all the books and videos when I started to learn to carve decoys, the same when I switched to wood bows and now have a sizable collection of reference material on building flintlocks.

This is my approach to gun building. Fortunately I also have two very experienced gun builder friends close by to lean on when I hit a snag.

 

[riverrat43]

Eric,
What part of Alabama? I'm down South in Covington County.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Florence, up north.