Restoring a neglected Traditions Kentucky Rifle

[Chgowiz]

My father-in-law gave my (adult) daughter and I a great gift - a Traditions 50cal Kentucky Rifle! It has, however, seen some better days, judging by all the rust and dirt from not being used.

I don't know how long it sat or when it dates from - the barrel lists the company as from "Deep River CT", which I believe dates it prior to the early 1990s. I have no idea if it was fired or just assembled and left in a corner. I may find out more over the holidays.

My goal for this rifle is to get it to shooting again - where as a range toy or a hunting rifle remains to be seen, but either way, my daughter and I will have the experience of doing it!

I'm hoping to use this thread as a questions and picture kinda place - hopefully this will not be as crazy hard as it seemed at the beginning of this weekend, before I started watching videos and reading these forums! Now I feel like I have at least an inkling of an idea of where to begin.

I've got some experience wrenching and dealing with things - used to run a stock car up at Lake Geneva (WI) raceway in the BIC and weapons division - so dealing with rusty metal and tricky parts isn't foreign. I also do modeling (wargame figures/terrain and plastic scale) and a bit of woodwork, as well as maintain my existing firearms, hopefully all the skills I need.

This is what I have to take care of...


First step is getting it apart and seeing what we have to deal with. My daughter has a strange work day, so it looks like we can only work weekends together on this... so disassembly will probably happen around Thanksgiving weekend.

In the meantime, I'm looking up how to deal with the rust, how to get the barrel in decent shape and how to get it looking nice again, along with what tools I might need.

More to come!

 

[muzzlediscipline]

boil the rusted parts then card them....then decide what you will do with the rust blued finish

 

[Chgowiz]

" boil the rusted parts then card them "

What does it mean to "card" the parts?

 

[muzzlediscipline]

You rub the now blackened rust with 0000 steel wool down to the shine and level of color you want
In some cases you can use denim to rub off the loose particles. DO NOT WIRE BRUSH THE RED RUST OFF
When you boil red rust it turns to oh I can't remember the oxide but it starts with a "M". This is a time honored method and you will having amazing results compared to what you start with. No cost. Just need something big enough to put the barrel in and boil it till it turns black

 

[ord sgt]

First thing to do is this....take the ramrod and check to see if there is powder and ball inside the barrel. Push the ramrod down the barrel. If it almost disappears, remove the rod , marking what bit is left exposed at the muzzle. Lay the rod along the side of the barrel. It should reach the breech plug area or very close to it. That is a good indication that there is no powder charge in the barrel. Be sure the rifle is unloaded before doing any work.
Get a good rod for cleaning the barrel. You will need a cleaning jag for the .50 calibre. Wrap some 0000 steel wool around the jag and use some oil to lubricate the steel wool. Run the cleaning rod in and out of the barrel 20 times or so. Get some cleaning patches and some oil. Run the patches and then some dry patches. The last patches should come out with no stain.
The lock can be done with the 0000 sw and some WD-40. Don't rub too hard. Just enough to loosen any surface rust.
Unless you don't mind the dull brass, leave it. Or if you wish, remove the brass parts and use some brass cleaner. until satisfied with the shine.
.490 roundball and 0.010 patches for shooting. Start with 50 grains FFFg black powder. See how it shoots. Adjust powder charge as needed.

 

[muzzlediscipline]

You will find boiling rust instead of scrubbing it off will give you a good look at the original finish. Do some reading on rust blueing.

 

[GrandLakeHunter]

Please inspect the bore before loading. If it is really bad shape, you have a wall hanger or you can replace the barrel.

 

[Chgowiz]

You rub the now blackened rust with 0000 steel wool down to the shine and level of color you want
In some cases you can use denim to rub off the loose particles. DO NOT WIRE BRUSH THE RED RUST OFF
When you boil red rust it turns to oh I can't remember the oxide but it starts with a "M". This is a time honored method and you will having amazing results compared to what you start with. No cost. Just need something big enough to put the barrel in and boil it till it turns black

Thank you, I clearly have some reading and video watching to do -- I see there are folks who have rigged up PVC pipes to boil their barrels in!

 

[Chgowiz]

Please inspect the bore before loading. If it is really bad shape, you have a wall hanger or you can replace the barrel.

If I can see into/through the bore, I will. What should I be looking for? I've been doing a bit of reading, and it seems that some pitting is OK, it just means I have to clean it a lot more to prevent extra fouling buildup?

 

[Chgowiz]

First thing to do is this....take the ramrod and check to see if there is powder and ball inside the barrel. Push the ramrod down the barrel. If it almost disappears, remove the rod , marking what bit is left exposed at the muzzle. Lay the rod along the side of the barrel. It should reach the breech plug area or very close to it. That is a good indication that there is no powder charge in the barrel. Be sure the rifle is unloaded before doing any work.

Looks like we're good, there was only about 1/4" or less of the ramrod showing, and measuring it after puts it pretty close to where I think the breech plug is.

Thanks!

 

[Eric Krewson]

That barrel is a candidate for a trip through a pan of Evaporust or at least plug the nipple and pour the stuff down the bore. Evaporust is cheap, non corrosive and will strip the rust down to bare metal. It will also remove any bluing on your barrel which will need to be redone anyway.

The bore looks so bad I suspect you have a wall hanger, the gun in good shape is not worth much, with the cost of a new barrel and other repairs you could have twice what it is worth invested in the restoration.

 

[ohio ramrod]

A simple way to examine the bore is to drop one of the "lighted bobbers" sold at fishing departments to see down the bore.Many rusted looking bores can be cleaned up and safely and accurately used.

 

[Gooddaytoya!]

[QUOTE="muzzlediscipline, post: 1943498,
When you boil red rust it turns to oh I can't remember the oxide but it starts with a "M".
[/QUOTE]
That would be magnetite, which is harder than red rust, and is black. Boiling red rust covered steel in distilled water forces the barrel to donate one atom of Fe to the compound which is red rust, the actual name of which I forget right now, oh it's hematite. BTW boiling water contains no oxygen molecules, which prevents further oxidation. What's actually happening is " reduction". I don't know what role the boiling water plays in it, maybe it's a catalyst.

 

[Erwan]

A simple way to examine the bore is to drop one of the "lighted bobbers" sold at fishing departments to see down the bore.Many rusted looking bores can be cleaned up and safely and accurately used.

I always have thing like this in one of my pocket, mine is a Pedersoli (no difference, but the LED is green) : Traditions Bore Light

 

[Chgowiz]

12/5/21 Update - Picture heavy!

With deer rifle seasons, Thanksgiving and the initial holiday rush over, my daughter and I set out to disassemble our age-indeterminant Traditions Kentucky rifle. Mission accomplished, but this was just the first step in the long process.

Barrel successfully removed. This version of the barrel was held in place by round pins that looked like they had wood filler or some sort of tiny filler cap on top of the pin.

The wood shavings where the ramrod goes was an interesting find - not sure if the ramrod did that or just leftovers from the original assembly?

Lock is freed from the stock. It looks like it's in good shape, aside from the rusting. I'm planning on doing the steam-rust-bluing on the plate and hammer, so this will be disassembled next.

Question... is it normal for the portion of the hammer that hits the nipple/cap to have that notch in it at the top?

The brass parts and all the screws/pins in one place.

When I freed the trigger guard, there was a layer underneath the long brass piece - not sure if that was some sort of felt or the wood just corroded/got gunky at some point. I'm trying to do as little harm to the wood as possible, but this looks like some sort of filler or something that sat between the guard and where it was fit into the stock.

And that's one rusty nipple/bolster screw! Currently soaking in PB and I've got a nipple wrench coming, although I'm fairly sure this is going to take a bit of MAP heat and a pair of vise grips to get that sucker off.

So, with major parts taken apart, now it's to get the rest of the nipple/cleanout screw taken apart, disassemble the lock and start cleaning the bore... because that is one rusted tube of metal!

We're also of the opinion that the wood itself looks like it's in good shape... but I'm not certain if that's a varnish or just a linseed oil.

Question - how could I tell without doing damage to the current finish, to tell what it is?

 

[Whitworth]

Whatever you don't shove a .50 caliber brass brush down that bore! Get a .45 and wrap it with steel wool to clean the bore. A stuck brush is the last thing you need.

 

[rafterob]

Rub a spot on the stock with a rag wetted in a spot with alcohol. If it is oiled and waxed, the alcohol will remove the wax and maybe cut into the oil slightly. Varnish or poly will not be affected. There may have been some material placed under the trigger guard to shim it level with the wood. Deep inletting is common on these guns. Everything but the inside of the barrel looks in decent shape, the outcome of the bore will determine its final worth. You can shoot pitted barrels, they are just problematic with fouling.

 

[Chgowiz]

Disassembled the lock this morning after watching a couple of really good YouTube videos on it. My days of wrenching and some of the work I've done on other various firearms is coming in handy... as is taking pictures so I remember what goes where and how things are aligned/fitted!

I also managed to get the cleanout screw removed with some heat/ice and good thwacks of a ballpeen hammer on the screwdriver. I'm going to replace that screw with a hex head set screw - not so much worried about making it look authentic as I want it to be useable and maintainable. The old nipple came off with some PB Blaster and vise-grips.

Next step... cleaning the bore! Off I go to a trip to my nearest gunstore/BassPro to see if they have what I need in cleaning kits/rods/jags/etc. I already have the steel wool.

 

[Chgowiz]

Whatever you don't shove a .50 caliber brass brush down that bore! Get a .45 and wrap it with steel wool to clean the bore. A stuck brush is the last thing you need.

Thank you for the advice! I will definitely keep that in mind.

 

[Chgowiz]

Rub a spot on the stock with a rag wetted in a spot with alcohol. If it is oiled and waxed, the alcohol will remove the wax and maybe cut into the oil slightly. Varnish or poly will not be affected. There may have been some material placed under the trigger guard to shim it level with the wood. Deep inletting is common on these guns. Everything but the inside of the barrel looks in decent shape, the outcome of the bore will determine its final worth. You can shoot pitted barrels, they are just problematic with fouling.

Thank you, will try that. And thanks for the note about the inletting. That's why I didn't pull it out, in case someone had done some work to even things out.

This will be an occasional shooter, I'm doing this more for having a project with my daughter and having the experience of the project as well as something to shoot. I'm looking at a CVA Wolf purchase next spring as my hunter muzzleloader... although I'm willing to give this a "shot" at harvesting a critter or two if I get it running!