All-
I am looking for recommendations to build a percussion muzzleloader (traditional weapon-say late 1800's style) as a birthday present for my 12 year old son (we would both work on it, of course).
We recently shot a .50 cal ball gun based on roughly an 1870 weapon (the kit was a friends that he had built 40 years ago) and enjoyed it. That friend had some advice, but much was dated (40 years!)-for instance, that we get a kit with an already blued barrel (which I haven't been able to find), and he recommended companies that don't apparently have what we are looking for.
So what is the latest view? I am not a gun guy (though I spent 25 years in the Army), and am not a master woodworker (though I can do a bit). Thus, I am looking for a reliable, relatively straightforward kit that would be fun and relatively forgiving for a dad and a 12 year old.
Thanks in advance,
Sdawg
There are basically three very different kinds of kits.
There is the kind that are made by the major muzzleloading rifle makes like Traditions, Pedersoli, etc., there are some companies that will sell a semi finished rifle and there are the kits sold by companies like Track of the Wolf, Pecatonica River, TVM, etc.
The first kind are unbuilt and unfinished production guns. All of the screw holes and mortises for the trigger and lock have been cut and the stock is almost finished. These usually do require a little wood trimming to get the metal parts to fit and they need some sanding to get the surfaces of the stock to line up with the metal parts. The barrel usually needs some sort of finish like bluing, browning or just polishing and leaving it "in the white" meaning they look like bare steel.
These kits usually take the builder from 15 to 30 hours to complete. (Yes, some people have put these together and called it "done" after just a few hours but their guns look like crap.)
The kits that are semi finished, often called "in the white". TVM offers these. They are made from the semi-custom parts used on high quality custom guns but the stock will require sanding and a little shaping and the barrel is left unfinished. All of the parts are installed on these kits.
Last, there are the kits that consist of a roughed out stock with the barrel channel and ramrod hole cut. The stock will need to be shaped and sanded and finished. All of the mortises for the lock and trigger will need work to get the parts to fit. Things like the ramrod thimbles, trigger guard, patch box and almost everything else will need work.
The lock is totally assembled but the hole for the lock screw that holds the lock in place is not drilled. The trigger assembly is put together but screw holes to hold it in the stock do not exist.
In fact, none of the screw holes exist so some knowledge of drilling and threading holes is needed.
It will take a person with wood working and some metal working skills about 120 to 180 hours of work to end up with a good rifle made from this kind of kit.
On the plus side, these kits are available in many different styles and all of them can be made to look just like an original gun if the builder takes his/her time and works carefully. To make something that looks authentic a lot of research needs to be done to find out exactly what the finished gun will look like.
Anyone attempting to build a rifle from one of these kits needs to buy at least one book that gives them the instructions they need to know.
A good place to start with a book is
"The Art of Building the Pennsylvania Longrifle". It isn't that expensive and even if one doesn't build a gun, it is a interesting book to read.
