I finished the 50 caliber Great Plains flintlock rifle kit made by Pedersoli and sold by Lyman.
This was the rifle discussed earlier on this forum with the touch hole positioned too low which I corrected by using Brownells Acraglas Gel to "shim" up the barrel and tang. I was very impressed with some aspects of this kit, much less so with other aspects of it.
The inletting was more or less complete when received. All metal parts were already installed into the wood and fit was excellent. You get two sets of hardware with one set of screws/bolts already installed that you can sand on etc. when shaping the stock and then use the other pristine set for final assembly. This makes working the stock much easier since you can sand, rasp, file, etc. right over the hardware knowing you are going to replace it anyway. The barrel keys are pinned in place through a slot with a small screw which I like. The entry thimble, trigger guard, nosecap, lock, etc. are either completely smooth or much less rough than many kits I have built and therefore require a lot less effort to finalize and finish. The lock seems to function well and sparks are produced in abundance.
There were aspects of this kit that left much to be desired. The low touch hole as mentioned above was one. The ramrod was complete crap because it was about 3/4 inch too short and was made out of some weird, very ugly wood with very cheap and ugly tips on it. The buttstock was cracked in the toe plate area almost all the way straight forward to the bottom of the butt stock. I didn't know this until I banged it against the work bench and it fell off. I had already stained the stock and you could see where the stain ran into the crack about a quarter of an inch deep on both sides almost all the way forward so it was cracked when I got it. How I missed this with all the sanding of the stock, raising the grain in the wood and so on I will never know. The crack ran right horizontally through the middle of the screw hole for fastening the butt plate onto the stock. I assume that the hole for the screw was either not drilled deep enough or large enough. When they tightened the screw into the butt stock it stressed the wood enough to cause a hairline crack which I then broke off when I banged it against the workbench. I epoxied the piece back on and sunk two screws covered in epoxy up from the bottom under the toe plate which should be a permanent fix. The crack is only visible when the light is just right but it is there (see third photo).
Overall, this is not the best kit I have ever worked on but I do love the lines of the rifle and the way the metal was prepared and the fact everything was completely, and accurately, inletted into the wood. The stock is a pretty nice piece of walnut and while it looks dark in the photo taken inside my house, it actually came out a nice reddish brown shade. Now, if black powder ever becomes available again, I can see if it shoots.
This was the rifle discussed earlier on this forum with the touch hole positioned too low which I corrected by using Brownells Acraglas Gel to "shim" up the barrel and tang. I was very impressed with some aspects of this kit, much less so with other aspects of it.
The inletting was more or less complete when received. All metal parts were already installed into the wood and fit was excellent. You get two sets of hardware with one set of screws/bolts already installed that you can sand on etc. when shaping the stock and then use the other pristine set for final assembly. This makes working the stock much easier since you can sand, rasp, file, etc. right over the hardware knowing you are going to replace it anyway. The barrel keys are pinned in place through a slot with a small screw which I like. The entry thimble, trigger guard, nosecap, lock, etc. are either completely smooth or much less rough than many kits I have built and therefore require a lot less effort to finalize and finish. The lock seems to function well and sparks are produced in abundance.
There were aspects of this kit that left much to be desired. The low touch hole as mentioned above was one. The ramrod was complete crap because it was about 3/4 inch too short and was made out of some weird, very ugly wood with very cheap and ugly tips on it. The buttstock was cracked in the toe plate area almost all the way straight forward to the bottom of the butt stock. I didn't know this until I banged it against the work bench and it fell off. I had already stained the stock and you could see where the stain ran into the crack about a quarter of an inch deep on both sides almost all the way forward so it was cracked when I got it. How I missed this with all the sanding of the stock, raising the grain in the wood and so on I will never know. The crack ran right horizontally through the middle of the screw hole for fastening the butt plate onto the stock. I assume that the hole for the screw was either not drilled deep enough or large enough. When they tightened the screw into the butt stock it stressed the wood enough to cause a hairline crack which I then broke off when I banged it against the workbench. I epoxied the piece back on and sunk two screws covered in epoxy up from the bottom under the toe plate which should be a permanent fix. The crack is only visible when the light is just right but it is there (see third photo).
Overall, this is not the best kit I have ever worked on but I do love the lines of the rifle and the way the metal was prepared and the fact everything was completely, and accurately, inletted into the wood. The stock is a pretty nice piece of walnut and while it looks dark in the photo taken inside my house, it actually came out a nice reddish brown shade. Now, if black powder ever becomes available again, I can see if it shoots.
