So I received my Brown Bess from MVT today. I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet, but I have looked it over fairly well and here are my first impressions of it.
The metal work is in many ways better than I expected. Most of it has been finished nicely and there are very few visible tool marks. The trigger however had the most gawdawful release I have ever encountered in 33 years of shooting. It broke with so much force that I was seriously worried about bending components of the lock. Not wanting to send it back right away, I disassembled the lock and found the problem, (the sear was ground at such an angle that it was fighting the hammer spring when I pulled the trigger). A few strokes of the file and a little moly grease and it's now working properly. It's still a very heavy trigger however with probably a 20 lb pull. I'll probably have to rework it again in the future. The threads on the hammer were a little rough, but I just ran the jaw screw through it's range of motion about a dozen times and it loosened up.
The wood was a bit of a disappointment. The exterior of the stock looks reasonably decent. I don't like the stain or the finish on the rifle, but the wood actually appears to have a reasonably attractive grain to it. The problem is the inletting. It's not bad enough that I would return the rifle over it, but I could do better work myself and I'm not much of a stock maker. On the outside you couldn't see any glaring errors, but when I removed the lock it looked like the stock had been carved out by a drunken beaver. Surrounding the retaining plate I actually found two small areas where they had filled in their mistakes with wood putty. At some point I'll probably refinish the stock and I think that at that time I'll take a little fine sandpaper and at least even up the inletting and get rid of the rough edges. In fairness, you have to get up pretty close to see the errors, but on a $600 gun I kind of expected a little bit more.
The sling that it came with is made of very thin soft white leather. I like the way it laces to the swivels, but other than that I'm not at all impressed with it. I figure I'll use it as a pattern however to build a more substantial one later.
It'll probably be about two weeks before I actually get out to shoot it. It's my first muzzleloader, so I have a fair amount of equipment to buy first.
The metal work is in many ways better than I expected. Most of it has been finished nicely and there are very few visible tool marks. The trigger however had the most gawdawful release I have ever encountered in 33 years of shooting. It broke with so much force that I was seriously worried about bending components of the lock. Not wanting to send it back right away, I disassembled the lock and found the problem, (the sear was ground at such an angle that it was fighting the hammer spring when I pulled the trigger). A few strokes of the file and a little moly grease and it's now working properly. It's still a very heavy trigger however with probably a 20 lb pull. I'll probably have to rework it again in the future. The threads on the hammer were a little rough, but I just ran the jaw screw through it's range of motion about a dozen times and it loosened up.
The wood was a bit of a disappointment. The exterior of the stock looks reasonably decent. I don't like the stain or the finish on the rifle, but the wood actually appears to have a reasonably attractive grain to it. The problem is the inletting. It's not bad enough that I would return the rifle over it, but I could do better work myself and I'm not much of a stock maker. On the outside you couldn't see any glaring errors, but when I removed the lock it looked like the stock had been carved out by a drunken beaver. Surrounding the retaining plate I actually found two small areas where they had filled in their mistakes with wood putty. At some point I'll probably refinish the stock and I think that at that time I'll take a little fine sandpaper and at least even up the inletting and get rid of the rough edges. In fairness, you have to get up pretty close to see the errors, but on a $600 gun I kind of expected a little bit more.
The sling that it came with is made of very thin soft white leather. I like the way it laces to the swivels, but other than that I'm not at all impressed with it. I figure I'll use it as a pattern however to build a more substantial one later.
It'll probably be about two weeks before I actually get out to shoot it. It's my first muzzleloader, so I have a fair amount of equipment to buy first.
