making gpr my own

[oldwoodswalker]

hi all, i am thinking of dressing up my 1990s gpr and im looking for ideas any input would help. i just want to make it mine. i got it about 4 months ago. by the way this is my first smokepole.i am thinking of doing something to the stock,i aredy have new sights to put on after the season is over. thanks again for any ideas

 

[Loyalist Dave]

PLEASE refrain from adding brass tacks. :barf: Just my personal opinion.

I have seen one "customized" by a fellow who shoots at my local range. What he did was to antique the finish on the metal parts, by removing the factory finish, and then sorta-browning the parts to make it look like they were well worn. He also replaced the "lock screw bushing" with a custom piece of pewter, as well as swapping out the sights for "primitive" non-adjustable, iron sights. This was on his favorite rifle..., something he'd never part with so had no concern for resale value... in fact he'd store it in his front hall closet next to his emergency case so that ifin he had a house fire, he could grab the briefcase with his important documents and his beloved rifle as he evacuated.

I think they make after market flintlock replacement locks, but he didn't want to go that far.

LD

 

[oldwoodswalker]

thanks dave, the lock works really well so i wont chage that right now and i promise i will not put brass tacks on it, the barrel looks good now sorta grey with wear, as i said its 2o some yrs old,maybe thinking of redoing stock to bring grain out.thanks again for your input :hatsoff:

 

[Birddog6]

Everyone has their own version of "Making it their own". :idunno: I have seen some on here that I would Immediately restock. I have seen others that I thought looked very nice. :idunno:

One thing I would not do is Carvings or fancy ? Inlays on it. 1st... some people just jump in feet first & go all the way up to their chin...... & have no idea what they are doing cause they have not studied anything in the How To area.

2nd, Same people have not even investigated what that style & era of rifle even looked like. They see a photo of a completely dif style & era of rifle & say..... "Ohhh, I want that big long brass fancy engraved patchbox on my GPR & all those silver fish & so on.......

Pretty soon it looks like a souped up Yugo low-rider with lil doggie bobble heads in the rear window. :barf:

Now... that being said.... It IS your rifle & if you are in love with Yugos, that is fine. And I have seen some very nice GPR's on here.

But I suggest you look at the many that have been displayed on here, study the Hawken rifles & their looks which is what the GPR is supposed to be based on, & etc.
Lay the rifle on some white butcher paper & trace/draw out the outline & draw in the lock.... Now you can draw in some details, erase some, etc. redraw, etc. and them Be Sure it is what you want before ya go whacking & cutting.

All of of this cutting & carving & inlay work, you can only do it one time. Once the wood is off, it is off........ So it is nice to have some kind of work scope & idea of where ya are headed on the project. :wink:

Keith Lisle

 

[BillinOregon]

A feller named Bill Young, who sold the excellent Waukon Bay browning and aquafortis some years ago, had two fixes for the GPR. One involved lowering the "hump" where the barrel transitions from the patent breech into the wrist, and the other was straightening the line from toe through the trigger guard to remove that homely Lyman/Investarms perch belly from the lower edge of the buttstock. Both are worthy alterations.

 

[oldwoodswalker]

well birddog i certainly do not want a yugo with bobbleheads :rotf:.that was really funny,no i was just thinking of restaining stock so its not so dark and muddled if you know what i mean. thank you and watch out for those souped up yugos :haha:

 

[oldwoodswalker]

thanks bill i will have to look into that

 

[Birddog6]

I have owned 3 of them, shot them many many times, one well over 5000 rounds, never did a mod to the locks or triggers or barrels, etc. Lil polishing on the locks & triggers, & I think the GPR is the Best Bang for the Bucks in a production ML.
Two of such rifles had some real nice walnut. One I used to hunt with & I sanded the stock & put some Birchwood Casey Walnut Grain Filler on it, rubbed that in well, 1500 grip wet/dry auto body paper, vacuum, tack cloth, then 5 hand rubbed coats of Tru-Oil. Rubbed out each time with 1500 grit paper. Last coat rubbed with 2000 paper & then waxed with Howards Paste Wax. Turned out real nice, very durable finish & water resistant.

Keith Lisle

 

[oldwoodswalker]

thanks birddog,yea i really like mine, shoots well,sparks well, all i have done so far is replace frizzen. the guy who had it before me put what he called a hot frizzen on it which did not impress me and i had to replace the hammer because i broke the cockscrew and i found out that he must have done that also or lost the screw and instead of replacing it with a lyman screw he redrilled it to fit a t/c screw.i only found that out when i got my lyman replacement screw and it did not fit :idunno:

 

[Rifleman1776]

Like you, I dislike the 'new' apperance of factory made rifles. Never have. I uglied up and aged my TC 'hawken' when I first got it about 1970. But, you might want to do better than I did. :wink:
However, I would strip the stock and sand to de-glaze then give an oil finish. To my eyes an oil finish looks beautiful and it easy to maintain. Really, the GPR is a well designed rifle and by taking away that sparkly showroom look, they can almost pass as customs or originals. (I did say almost) :grin:
BTW, only if you are handy with tools would I suggest adding inlays. They can personalize and look nice but badly done will always look badly done.

 

[oldwoodswalker]

thanks rifleman yea the stock really leaves alot to be desired i was also thinking of the rope iron filings and :youcrazy: urine wrap but sub vinegar for urine, ya gotta draw the line somewhere and peeing on my gun is it. :nono:

 

[anj4de]

...to add to this... rework te cheek piece! It's way to big and not nicely shaped since it's simply machine sanded.
I am re-doing an Uberti Santa Fe hawken right now that also suffered from way to much wood around the metal. If you want to do more...either make it more Hawken by swapping the trigger guard and extending the tang...or choose a different style trigger guard and maybe a different nose cap to take away the Hawken apperance and make it a different maker's plains rifle...

cheers
Uwe

 

[Zonie]

If you do modify the cheekpiece or the shape of the stock it will make refinishing the entire stock necessary.

Although inlays on a mountain rifle weren't very common they were used on a few.

A nice silver moon or hunters star on a cheekpiece can look nice and they aren't very hard to do.

The previous owner of my GPR refinished the guns stock and while he was doing that he installed this nice little wooden inlay.

To me, it doesn't look out of place and it does make the gun unique.

 

[oldwoodswalker]

thanks for the ideas anj4de and zonie i was really thinking of redoing the stock anyway so any of those ideas is doable

 

[Mickc01]

Everyone has their own version of "Making it their own". :idunno: I have seen some on here that I would Immediately restock. I have seen others that I thought looked very nice. :idunno:

One thing I would not do is Carvings or fancy ? Inlays on it. 1st... some people just jump in feet first & go all the way up to their chin...... & have no idea what they are doing cause they have not studied anything in the How To area.

2nd, Same people have not even investigated what that style & era of rifle even looked like. They see a photo of a completely dif style & era of rifle & say..... "Ohhh, I want that big long brass fancy engraved patchbox on my GPR & all those silver fish & so on.......

Pretty soon it looks like a souped up Yugo low-rider with lil doggie bobble heads in the rear window. :barf:

Now... that being said.... It IS your rifle & if you are in love with Yugos, that is fine. And I have seen some very nice GPR's on here.

But I suggest you look at the many that have been displayed on here, study the Hawken rifles & their looks which is what the GPR is supposed to be based on, & etc.
Lay the rifle on some white butcher paper & trace/draw out the outline & draw in the lock.... Now you can draw in some details, erase some, etc. redraw, etc. and them Be Sure it is what you want before ya go whacking & cutting.

All of of this cutting & carving & inlay work, you can only do it one time. Once the wood is off, it is off........ So it is nice to have some kind of work scope & idea of where ya are headed on the project. :wink:

Keith Lisle

Although I'm not the one asking the questions, I have really enjoyed reading the replies. And I especially find Keith's advice to me excellent and applicable to any ML project. :thumbsup: :hatsoff: