Modifications to Kentucky

[Smithen]

hello everyone, I'm new to the forum so I thought I would introduce myself and ask a quick question. My name is Tyler, hope to get to meet y'all in time. Anyway im brand new to BP rifles, over the summer I bought a Traditions Kentucky Longrifle kit and me and my father put it together. Now its nothing much at all but I am now addicted and love these guns and the history behind them. My question is if many of you have this gun, and if so what are some modification that you have done to the gun? I have seen some people engraving their stocks or putting enlays in them. One idea I had was trying to put a small spyglass on like a scope, I doubt it would work but I think it would be interesting.

Thanks,
Tyler

 

[MikeChapin]

A lot of people got their start with these and the older CVA Kentuckies. During the eighties I put together a lot of these kits for people who got them for birthdays or Christmas and didn't have a clue where to start. A lot of people have put different inlays on the rifles. Some look nice others not so good. They do have one thing in common. No matter what you do to the rifle, it is not going to enhance the value of the rifle. Keeping that in mind do what you think is right.

Another thing about these rifles is that they are very good shooters. I recently built a 30 year old CVA Kentucky flinter for a friend of mine. It is essensially the same model rifle you have. I took it to the range when I finished it and worked up a load. It was printing within an inch. Just about as good as any scratch built rifle.

The only one I modified was one I did for my wife. She's a small woman, 5'1" and about 90 lbs.. I cut six inches off the barrel and shortened the pull a little to fit her. She shot that rifle for a little over a year before it died in a motorhome fire. She won a lot shooting prizes with that plain little rifle.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Before you get carried away with ornamentation Tyler, I'd suggest you go to this site and spend some time just looking at rifles. That will show you some very good close up photos of carvings, inlays, patchboxes and so forth. Try to get a feel for the old rifles and just how they were made. Remember the old saying "err in haste, regret in leisure." It's easy to do something you think really cool at the moment but which soon becomes an embarrassment. Your rifle doesn't have the greatest lock but they generally do shoot OK and I've seen folks win prizes at rendezvous shooting those rifles. Anyhow, spend some time looking at rifles before you jump into any modifications. Try this link. Just click on the listing number and it will take you to details of that rifle from several angles. http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartList.aspx?catID=12&subID=81&styleID=280

 

[luieb45]

You could pretty much say my first muzzleloader was the traditions kentucky. I didn't make any modifications to it but I've seen some people add brass tacks to them and I always thought that it looked cool. A tip that I learned with the traditions kentucky and/or all traditions guns is to take the barrel off for cleaning even though it's not as easy as a hooked breach gun. But cleaning this way is way easier and I wish I had tried this earlier. But I think that's a good gun to start with. Oh, and 1 more thing. If you haven't thought about powder yet I recommend a 3fffg powder because 2ffg whether it be synthetic or real black powder doesn't work into that drum(underneath nipple) as well making the gun not going off sometimes.

 

[hanshi]

Welcome to the forum, Smithen. Anything you do to the rifle should be done for your benefit and not for any thought of sale. Shoot the rifle and get to know it and then you can come up with ideas on how to customize it. Use real black powder and patched round balls along with a good lube; I like Hoppes #9 Plus BP lube. To be frank, glass has no place on a longrifle.

 

[necchi]

I've done some modifications to make'm SHOOT better,,but as far as tryin to do something to make the stock LOOK better by adding things??
Nope,,just keep the wood clean and the steel oiled.

 

[rawhide]

I got the older juker kentucky wich is cva in .45 great little shooter. only thing I did was tried to brown it instead of bluing looks ok.