New (to me) Maple Stocked Kentucky .45

[Griz44Mag]

So I picked up this at auction, and when it came in I tore it down and found more issues than I had planned on. It has been sitting idle for about 40 years, stuffed with dried grease and oil. But after total disassembly and a few days, a few fixes here and there and a lot of scrubbing inside, it is now ready to go make some smoke. According to the prior owner, it was built from scratch from local wood and assembled in 1968. It is stamped "Cliff Jackson - 141" purportedly in South Carolina. I have not identified the lock yet, and sure would like to know who's lock it is so I can get some spare parts. The barrel is a 40-1/2" .835 across the flats and has 7 lands with nice crisp and deep grooves. It is a 45 caliber with a 1:66 twist. The barrel was made by the legendary WM LARGE and is appropriately stamped. The "accessories" (hat, bag, antler handle patch knife, horn and a bag full of odds and ends) came along with it.
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[Bearkiller]

Nice looking rifle you got there. Really like the wood.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Nice looking score there.

 

[Jaegermeister]

That looks fantastic. Nice patch box.

 

[tenngun]

Love it. Nice looking wood, fine looking job. I know some Pooh Pooh candy striped ram rods but I like them

 

[StrawHat]

I vaughly remember seeing locks with that mark on them. I spent a lot of time in Lodi so you might check with the Kindigs.

Kevin

 

[thomas]

Love the wood!

 

[Cowboy]

Nice looking rifle my friend! Just a little TLC and ya came out with a diamond. Diamond in the rough!!

I hope you enjoy it for many years to come. Very nice looking muzzleloader!!

Thank you for sharing.

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[Griz44Mag]

Just finished cleaning up from the days outing. I need to learn to only take one BP gun out at a time. I have been cleaning for the last 2 hours.....
The rifle shoots very consistently. I got it on plate at 50 meters, it shoots nice 1" or less groups at 50 meters, about 10" high.
I moved out to 75 meters, resulting in groups about 1-1/2 inches (from a bench and bag) about 9" high.
I ran the gambit of all combinations of .440 balls and .010, .015 and .018 mink patches. The .018 gets the nod here.
Then I started over using .445 balls and .010 and .015 mink patches. The .015 was pretty tight, so I skipped the .018 with the bigger ball.
I started with 40gr of 3f OE and worked up to 60gr, it seems to shoot consistently with any powder load, just changes the POI slightly.
Overall, it's a really good shooter. It's not the best craftsmanship I have seen on some, but for what I paid for it, worth every penny.
A few things I need to do to it are replacing the barrel pins (too short) and stripping the barrel down and refinishing in a proper brown. The brown top of barrel wipe job is pretty crude and was probably done a long time after the initial build since it was done while in the stock.
Overall, I am super happy with it. I will get it to shooting at poi with some sight height changes sometime in the near future, maybe a peep on the rear tang.
The experience I am gaining with this one is going to lead me into my first build. I see what this builder fell short on and what I will need to do better on.

 

[hanshi]

That's a great looking rifle!