Kibler Colonial Assembly Timeline

[Zutt-man]

Good evening, folks. After a much anticipated wait, my Kibler .58 Colonial showed up this afternoon. I wanted to take time to document the process of how long it takes to actually put a kit together. Some days I have a few hours, some I have 30 minutes. I see a lot of questions on these kits with assembly requirements, so I thought I’d help!


A couple of things to clear up (because I know they'll get asked)
1. I have no experience at gun building, but am familiar with the inner workings of muzzleloader parts and why they work. I do have some tool experience as well.
2. This is extra fancy maple. I am unsure of whether I’ll have carving done at this time, but am aqua fortis stain will look phenomenal on this gun, regardless.
3. I watched all of Kibler’s videos on YouTube 2-3 times ahead of time. I actually had my phone playing during the process as well. Watching ahead of time certainly helped, but I felt like I needed to check up just to make sure I wasn’t screwing anything up. I had also read a book on building flintlocks a month ago to get a better idea on what I was diving into (this isn’t the only gun I’ll be making this year)

Day 1: 3 hours

Fitted & installed the barrel and tang to stock (little wood fitting)
Fitted & attached butt plate to the stock
Filed butt plate edges around patch box
Fitted patch box, & installed catch spring to patch box and installed patch box to stock
Installed lock, side plate and trigger.
Cycled the lock and trigger to make sure everything functions smooth

 

[Winchester97]

Sweet. I'm just behind you on my .58 Colonial with similar wood. It is amazing the wood Jim and crew provide. I'm a real tightwad, but these Kibler kits are worth every penny. Keep up the good work!

 

[duca]

Nice!! Good luck and have fun

Anthony

 

[Jaegermeister]

Threads like this make want to build another “kit”. Then I remember how bad I suck at it!

 

[Gary Whiteman]

Nice. Hope it turns out as good as mine!

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
There are lots of threads about building Kiblers. This one may help you.
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/kibler-kit-assembly-and-carving.133549/
dave

 

[tom_in_vt]

Awesome! I’m sure you’re excited.

 

[Daveboone]

I got mine several months ago. I didnt expect to recieve it until oct/nov., for completion over the winter. I have just slowly been picking at it...I am at about the same point...up to installing the lock and side plate. Once hunting season finishes up about the end of november, I will bet back into it.

 

[Zutt-man]

Day 2

Filed butt plate and trigger guard.
Installed trigger guard (Will be making adjustments upon reassembly. It was not to my 100% satisfaction on fitting)
Installed ramrod pipes.
Put together and cut down ram rod
Sanded ramrod to appropriate thickness
Draw filed barrel and sanded with 60, 120 & 600 grit

Again, another 3 hours of work

 

[Hatman/2nd line]

Good evening, folks. After a much anticipated wait, my Kibler .58 Colonial showed up this afternoon. I wanted to take time to document the process of how long it takes to actually put a kit together. Some days I have a few hours, some I have 30 minutes. I see a lot of questions on these kits with assembly requirements, so I thought I’d help!


A couple of things to clear up (because I know they'll get asked)
1. I have no experience at gun building, but am familiar with the inner workings of muzzleloader parts and why they work. I do have some tool experience as well.
2. This is extra fancy maple. I am unsure of whether I’ll have carving done at this time, but am aqua fortis stain will look phenomenal on this gun, regardless.
3. I watched all of Kibler’s videos on YouTube 2-3 times ahead of time. I actually had my phone playing during the process as well. Watching ahead of time certainly helped, but I felt like I needed to check up just to make sure I wasn’t screwing anything up. I had also read a book on building flintlocks a month ago to get a better idea on what I was diving into (this isn’t the only gun I’ll be making this year)

Day 1: 3 hours

Fitted & installed the barrel and tang to stock (little wood fitting)
Fitted & attached butt plate to the stock
Filed butt plate edges around patch box
Fitted patch box, & installed catch spring to patch box and installed patch box to stock
Installed lock, side plate and trigger.
Cycled the lock and trigger to make sure everything functions smooth

View attachment 94987View attachment 94988View attachment 94989View attachment 94990View attachment 94991View attachment 94992View attachment 94993View attachment 94995View attachment 94994

For what it's worth, I built one like yours and my skills at carving are limited? I suggest you keep the carving to a small amount or limited. My rifle came out ok but there are times when I look at it that I feel I could have done better in that department!

 

[labrat]

Love the pictures and your your work is excellent. I'm about 3 days ahead of you with the same rifle less the patchbox. I'm about half way thru my carving. I had to take a brake from carving that difficult curly maple. It takes alot of hand control and strength. Keep up the good work.......Labrat

 

[Zutt-man]

Day 3 didn’t produce much work. I think I only managed 15 minutes in the garage. Just enough time to install the nose cap.

Day 4 was much more laborious. I bet I spent 4-5 hours out today carving and sanding the stock. My carvings are pretty crude, but they’re my first on a gun stock, so I’m pleased. I’ll clean them up when we get closer to finishing. Relief carving isn’t my thing right now and this curly maple is more difficult than anticipated. I’m confident it’ll have a good end result, though.

I managed to get a few rounds of sanding down on the stock and applied a degreaser and barrel brown on my steel parts. We’ll have several rounds of this to get a consistent and darkened look. Also did a little more brass polishing. Talk about tedious

 

[rtuba71]

Nice progress...cant wait to see the finished results!

 

[labrat]

Well done and don't knock yourself about the carvings. Straight lines are easy put to do perfect circles is almost impossible and I found out the hard way too. Most carvings were crude in the 1700 hundreds anyway and I feel our attempts fit in with the times. I'd like to see the steel browning your doing and do you put this on the brass components?............Labrat

 

[Zutt-man]

Well done and don't knock yourself about the carvings. Straight lines are easy put to do perfect circles is almost impossible and I found out the hard way too. Most carvings were crude in the 1700 hundreds anyway and I feel our attempts fit in with the times. I'd like to see the steel browning your doing and do you put this on the brass components?............Labrat

The browning isn’t coming out as even as I would like. I’m going to hit it a few more times, and then work it back to see what we have with a more finished product. We’ll go from there. The brass is darkening nice. Note, I didn’t take a picture of the barrel as it was hard to notice the color from a camera

 

[TNJed]

I'm thinking seriously about getting the Kibler SMR kit. I've never done a kit rifle so I'll be watching this thread closely. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Zutt-man]

We’re getting closer. Day 5 I ‘blackened’ brass pieces and applied more barrel brown on metal parts. The barrel is really inconsistent yet, so I’m not sure what we’ll do about that. Lock & screws look better. I also prepared the stock for stain by doing a finishing sand and applying two rounds of iron nitrate with blushing. Applied oil (1/2 cup boiled linseed oil with a 5-6 drops of laurel mountain forge honey maple and two drops of cherry - obviously didn’t use it all, but just so you had an idea on ratio) with maroon scotch bright. I think it was 4 rounds of oil. I’m going to make you wait for pictures on the stock though

 

[Ed Pilkington]

Thanks Zutt-man! My Colonial will be here none too soon. You encouraged me that there are no mistakes you can’t remedy.

 

[labrat]

Fantastic! I can't believe your close to finishing it. The metal darkened nicely and the barrel should too. If not there are alot of other products out there that will do the job. Nice thing about metal you can always sand and start over. I can't wait to see the finish. That iron nitrate really makes the stock look crappy (scary) until you start adding the oil and sealer. I'm still carving at a slow pace and have a ways to go still. Thanks for the pictures.......Labrat

 

[Zutt-man]

Fantastic! I can't believe your close to finishing it. The metal darkened nicely and the barrel should too. If not there are alot of other products out there that will do the job. Nice thing about metal you can always sand and start over. I can't wait to see the finish. That iron nitrate really makes the stock look crappy (scary) until you start adding the oil and sealer. I'm still carving at a slow pace and have a ways to go still. Thanks for the pictures.......Labrat

I checked on it again this morning. It’s MUCH better than yesterday. Applied another coat of brown. Once it dried, I put a dab of oil and rubbed it in. Finished with a thin wax coating