Kibler Colonial Rifle Build

[Travis186]

Thought I'd post a thread with some pics from my Kibler Colonial Rifle build in 58 caliber. I received the gun last Thursday or Friday, and after getting home from a dove hunt trip this past Tuesday I got to work building it. No carving or anything like that unfortunately, I'm just not practiced enough. If he comes out with the fowler he's talked about, I will probably carve that all up.

How the rifle comes packaged, which I'm sure everyone is familiar with it. The kit comes packaged very well. Big kudos to the team at KLR as well. I originally ordered the gun in 50 caliber, but changed my mind and asked them to change it to 58. Somehow the message got lost in transmission and they sent the 50 cal barrel anyways. One call to Lorie 5 minutes after opening the box and I had a 58 cal barrel waiting on me when I got home from my hunting trip.


Starting assembly and fit up. There really isn't much to do here. A little work around the bolster and tang inlet and that's it. Proper lubrication of the brain and and imagination will be required for this part of the process. At least two of them.


Progress after the first night. I started at 8:00pm and this was 1:30AM. My wife came storming into my reloading room mad at all the hammering, music, and noise. I had to stop, or else I would have went further. I'm a little ADHD and once I start a project it's hard to put it down until it's done. Laser focus, at least on the things I enjoy.


I'll go over the next parts in the next post.

 

[Travis186]

This is the start of day 2. The day began by doing the rest of the fit and finish work on the brass parts, draw filing the barrel, and polishing the other metal bits. The day was finished out by flame blueing small parts, and getting larger parts ready for rust blue.


You can see the barrel here on Day 3 with a good layer of fuzzy rust. I rust blue a lot, and I've gotten somewhat decent at it and I have a method that works fast. Can do about 3-4 coats in a day. The parts for this Colonial rifle got the desired color in two sessions.


Some of the rust blued parts before carding.

 

[Travis186]

The finished product. The stock was stained with Laurel Mtn Forge antique stain, and then two coats of permalyn sealer. I knocked the sealer back just to the point of fresh wood and I've been doing a coat of 1/3rd mix daily. I really enjoyed building this rifle. I hope it shoots as well as it looks.

 

[muzzlediscipline]

Well done. It appears you left the lock finish as you received it. I am leaning towards that on my build. I have decided to draw file the barrel even though the tooling marks are ver faint.

 

[Travis186]

Well done. It appears you left the lock finish as you received it. I am leaning towards that on my build. I have decided to draw file the barrel even though the tooling marks are ver faint.

All parts on the lock were rust blued except for the top jaw (flame blued). I didn't go crazy with polishing though, just enough to get the tool marks off.

 

[muzzlediscipline]

I wasn't clear. I meant you did minimal polishing before you blued. Rust blue is likely the route for me as well. Your rifle looks great.

 

[Travis186]

I wasn't clear. I meant you did minimal polishing before you blued. Rust blue is likely the route for me as well. Your rifle looks great.

Ah, yeah, that's correct. I didn't even remove many of the casting marks on the cock, just the "parting line" as Jim calls it. I wanted to leave some sort of "rusticated" look somewhere. I like to think these guns weren't exactly perfect even when built by a professional such as Dickert, like the production and even custom guns of today are, with all the modern equipment.

 

[EC121]

The .58 is probably the best balanced of all the calibers in the Colonial lineup..

 

[labrat]

Travis186, did you use Kiblers iron nitrate and what color Forge stain did you use? Maple or Honey Maple? Beautiful tiger strips and I also ordered mine without a patchbox.

 

[Travis186]

The .58 is probably the best balanced of all the calibers in the Colonial lineup..

I think so. A friend of mine has a 50cal flintlock that I shot and I didn't realize it was a Kibler until I put mine together and really looked close. The extra material removed out of the bore to go up to 58 cal really helps.

Travis186, did you use Kiblers iron nitrate and what color Forge stain did you use? Maple or Honey Maple? Beautiful tiger strips and I also ordered mine without a patchbox.

I did not, although there is a part of me that wishes I had. The stain was just their "maple" colored stain. I think what brought out the curl was the permalyn, and then the 1/3rd mix.

Also, she shoots. Some generous shooter left me a big black target full of .224 holes. I tested 70gr of Olde E 2F, then stepped it up to 80 and got this nice group. Did a little filing on the front sight and got it up just a hair high of center at 50. I'll test at 100 later. I'm VERY happy with this gun!

 

[Osseon]

What quality of wood is that? I bought the Fancy maple and didn't get nearly as much of a pattern. The more I hear the more I wish I had of picked a .58 instead of a .54 due to it being lighter and better balanced. Kibler himself recommended the .54 so I thought that had merit.

 

[Tenring]

How did you go about flame bluing the screw heads. I guess with a flame but you know what I mean What technique.

 

[Travis186]

What quality of wood is that? I bought the Fancy maple and didn't get nearly as much of a pattern. The more I hear the more I wish I had of picked a .58 instead of a .54 due to it being lighter and better balanced. Kibler himself recommended the .54 so I thought that had merit.

I paid for the extra fancy maple. I think you made a fine choice with the 54 and I can't see too much of a difference in the 54 or 58.

How did you go about flame bluing the screw heads. I guess with a flame but you know what I mean What technique.

High polish with scotch bright and then steel wool. Fire up a propane torch and hold the screw with pliars and then heat with the tip of the flame until the screw turns black. Be careful, you can go too far and it will turn a dark shade of blue. If that happens chuck the screw up into a drill again, polish the blue off and try again.

 

[Tenring]

Thanks for getting back to me, looks great you did a fine job…

 

[Tn poor boy]

Looks good iv got 2 coming in walnut

 

[duca]

Looks good!

Anthony

 

[Miles42]

Very nice build.