My first kit

[Paul Regner]

I'm a little loath to post my results, but as I mentioned in my introduction thread, I recently completed my first kit (Traditions St Louis Hawken percussion rifle). The kit is by no means historically accurate, so I felt I could take a few liberties in the way I finished it. I'm rather proud of my hand-filed brass work, but it's currently under debate as to whether or not I can be trusted with wood carving tools.

I realize that the carving features I added were not at all common (from a historical context) on percussion rifles in general, but what the heck; I envisioned myself as a mountain man weathering a storm in a dug-out somewhere and having a need to pass some time. Mountain men were hunters, trapper, explorers and adventurers, and not artisans (although there is evidence that some of them were that too). I fall into the category of "non-artisans" LOL.

The ramrod thimbles as they come in the kit:

My thimbles after about ten hours of hand-filing apiece:

 

[Paul Regner]

My trigger guard as it came in the kit:

My trigger guard after a solid day of filing facets around the compound curves (more difficult than I anticipated):

 

[Trapper Scott]

Don't sell yourself short. Pretty impressive work for doing it by hand and it will stand out among the other production kits. I have also been known to take certain liberties with Traditions kits and like you mentioned, they are not historically correct, so make it the way you want it.

 

[Paul Regner]

While I knew better than to expect a piece of curly maple in a traditions kit, I did get an awfully nice piece of Beech. I finished it with boiled linseed oil, and applied a coat/day for a week, then a coat/week for a month (I have two more weekly coats to apply). Then I'll continue with a coat/month for a year. I may not know about carving, but I know how to finish wood.

I had to "whisker" this wood five times before I was comfortable applying the single coat of Verathane brand "Gunstock" color followed by the BLO.

 

[Paul Regner]

I wasn't happy with the polymer sights that came with the kit (probably done so because it's much easier to fit them to the dovetails in the barrel), so I found a set of traditional sights made for a Thompson Center rifle, and just had to shorten the rear sight base, and drill/countersink a new hole to match the one on my barrel.

I wasn't too keen on the polymer ramrod either, so I made one from hickory with tips from Track of the Wolf.

I took that picture before I cleaned-up the squeeze-out from my epoxy. The polymer ramrod is (obviously) on the right.

 

[Paul Regner]

I wanted a brown finish on the barrel, and kind of stumbled onto one by accident. I started out using Barrel Brown from Laurel Mountain Forge (an excellent product that I probably managed to use incorrectly). After about six applications I just wasn't too happy with the way the barrel was turning out. It was streaky, and there were places where the pigment wasn't taking at all. Out of impatience and frustration, I burnished all of the barrel brown off with 0000 steel wool and hit the barrel with some Birchwood Casey Super Blue (a product I knew that I could achieve a correct result with).

In room lighting, the barrel looked great, but in sunlight, it was a different story. All of the browning I thought I had buffed off with the steel wool was highly visible, and it looked like hell. So, I corked the muzzle and plugged the hole in the drum and set the barrel in a trough of pickling vinegar for about 15 minutes.

This brought the barrel back to bare steel again.

Then I started over with the Birchwood Casey and was pretty happy.

Then something kind of strange happened. Instead of coating the freshly blued barrel with machine oil, I coated it with Ballistol. Perhaps it's because Ballistol is water soluble, or some other chemical contained in its formula, but the next day my barrel was a lovely deep mocha color. I guess some days it's better to be lucky than good.

 

[Paul Regner]

This past Friday I took the rifle out and began the lengthy process of sighting-in and load work-up. I finally settled on 70 grains of Pyrodex RS with a .490 ball and .015 pillow ticking spit patches. This was my best group before running out of Pyrodex. I still need to give the front sight a few licks with a file, and drift it right a hair or two, but I'll take care of that this weekend. This was my best group at 100 yards:

Overall, I'm very happy with my end results, and as I mentioned in my first post of this thread, as long as I keep my wood carving chisels locked-up, I'll probably tackle a better kit in the foreseeable future.

 

[Paul Regner]

Don't sell yourself short. Pretty impressive work for doing it by hand and it will stand out among the other production kits. I have also been known to take certain liberties with Traditions kits and like you mentioned, they are not historically correct, so make it the way you want it.

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words of encouragement.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Above average work!

 

[deermanok]

Very Nice indeed. She'll be a good shooter for you.

 

[Izzy]

Very good job. Good builder and shooter. Keep at it.

 

[Sean E Bug]

that is some great work.

 

[oldwood]

U have done well

 

[billraby]

I sure hope this your last kit! Its time to start building from blanks.

 

[Allenby]

You should be very proud of your work

 

[JB Books]

I wasn't happy with the polymer sights that came with the kit (probably done so because it's much easier to fit them to the dovetails in the barrel), so I found a set of traditional sights made for a Thompson Center rifle, and just had to shorten the rear sight base, and drill/countersink a new hole to match the one on my barrel.
View attachment 169777

I wasn't too keen on the polymer ramrod either, so I made one from hickory with tips from Track of the Wolf.
View attachment 169778

I took that picture before I cleaned-up the squeeze-out from my epoxy. The polymer ramrod is (obviously) on the right.

If you'll notice the rod on the right is pinned. This is the first thing I did to the rod that came with my off the shelf lyman GPR. Mine came threaded but a hand test revealed it would pull right off. So I epoxyed and pinned it.

 

[rafterob]

Very nice. That is some ambition to take on that file work and you did a great job of it. Sometimes you luck out with some very nice grain on those beech stocks. I have a Kentucky pistol that has a really nice side.

 

[Old-Duckman]

Love how you handled the trigger guard !

 

[Paul Regner]

If you'll notice the rod on the right is pinned. This is the first thing I did to the rod that came with my off the shelf lyman GPR. Mine came threaded but a hand test revealed it would pull right off. So I epoxyed and pinned it.

Drilling and pinning the ramrod ends is sound advice. As soon as I build a small jig for my drill press to ensure I drill straight through a cylindrical cross section, I'll drill and roll pin that ramrod. I might even be able to buy such a fixture, but I like the idea of making my own specialty tools and fixtures.

Edit: A quick visit to McMasterCarr.com (one of my interwebs happy places) tells me that the most affordable set of V-Blocks will cost me just south of $50, and that's not including the ride to my house (I'm not cheap, I'm frugal). I've got some angle iron in the shop; I should be clever enough to figure out how to make a fixture with enough precision to cross drill my ramrod ends for pins out of stuff I have laying around.

 

[user 48679]

WOW !

Talk about making a silk purse from a sow's ear - CONGRATS ! !