Trying to find my first rifle kit

[BreadBasket95]

Hey y'all, I'm looking to build my first rifle and I'm getting a bit discouraged. I'm in grad school so I'm on a budget, but I've bought The Gunsmith of Grenville County and The Art of Building the Pennsylvania Longrifle. My goal was to find a kit that may take some extra labor/research/borrowed tools to finish, but would save me some money up front.
In a perfect world, I'd find a 40"-42" 45cal percussion barrel with dovetails cut, and a J. Dickert-ish stock with a barrel/lock/trigger inlet for $800.

• I started with Traditions but given the quality I've seen reported, it may be cheap, but it's not a good value.
• Pedersoli might be my best bet at 800$ for a Pennsylvania Kit from Dixie gun works, but I'm concerned about lock/barrel quality (trying to hunt deer/target shoot)
• TOTW, Pecatonica, TVmuzzleloading, TVmanufacturing, and Jim Chambers "kits" all come out to about the same, and for that price I might as well just get a Kibler and save 100+ hours of labor.

Is there some hidden gem I'm missing? Something cheaper than a kibler but higher quality than pedersoli? Am I asking too much for too little?

Thank you!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Give this a look see…

https://www.muzzleloaderbuilderssupply.com/riflekits.html

 

[Trapper Scott]

I've built several Traditions kits so far with a third ready to be built this winter and have been scouring the internet for a better quality kit. What I have discovered is about 90 % of the non-production kits are priced within a few hundred dollars of each other with some requiring more skill level than beginners could actually handle to do the build justice. Production kits like Traditions and Pedersoli seem to be the way to go for me with Pedersoli being a step up in quality at least with the type and grade of stock wood. I'm going to keep tinkering with my Traditions kit, but am saving my pennies to buy either a Kibler or Chambers kit unless I find a rifle maker kit at one of the gun shows or rendezvous that catches my eye.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Kibler, perhaps a bit out of your set limits, save a bit longer, but build the best you can get. You will not go wrong.

 

[ZUG]

I second what appalichian hunter says -- You will end up with a family heirloom that you will be proud to shoot and show off

 

[Frontier's]

Traditions not a good value??

That's funny!

 

[hanshi]

I've always had good service from traditions guns. Frontier's has built a bunch of them with nary a lemon among them.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@BreadBasket95, are you looking to make a gun with a percussion lock or a flint lock? This makes a real difference on selection of a kit.

If you want a flint lock, then save your money for the Kibler rifle.

Percussion locks are a great example of the triumph of improving technology. The Traditions percussion rifle kit can be built onto a rifle capable of good performance and accuracy. The same can be said of the Pedersoli percussion kit.

If you can find a good mentor to lead you through the build, then the Traditions or Pedersoli locks can be tuned to acceptable performance.

It's going to be difficult to find a Dickertish rifle kit for $800. It might be easier to find a used rifle to be brought back into use.

 

[John Spartan]

Why would you be concerned about Pedersoli’s “locks and barrels”?
Never heard that before. For full disclosure I own several (and currently building a Bess from kit) and all are great.

 

[Shadowalker164]

No expert here, but I’ve built a Traditions, and two Pedersoli guns. The Pedersoli’s are better looking but the Traditions lock has a smoother action. I don’t think you can go wrong with either. I took appalichian hunter’s advice and ordered my Kibler Colonial for my 4th build. Merry Christmas to me! The pleasure derived from a quality purchase outweighs the pleasure of saving a few bucks IMHO

 

[Ed Pilkington]

My Kibler was a joy, a guided challenge and a spiritual journey back into the gut of our northwest North Carolina history. Thanks Dan’l Boone, Simon Kenton, Davy Davis, Eddie Brown, Danny Winkler and Vernon Carroll. “Do what you have to do”.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Gonna say it again, buying a brand name third world production gun is a pig in a poke.
90% of the time you might get a good one, its the others that worry me. I had one.

Building is the way to go, best parts and its your own.

All my parts come from Muzzle Loader Supply listed above. It was a great experience, and the wood is fantastic. made in America.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Kibler

 

[Nuthatch]

I can't really speak to the build part -- haven't done it myself yet. But I have a TC, 2 Pedersolis and a Traditions. Shot opportunities while hunting are few & far between out here. Maybe once/season & that's it. So when I head afield with a rifle, it's the Traditions that I carry. Why? It's the most reliable and the most accurate out of the bunch. And it cost me less than half of the next cheapest one.

I've also been tossing around the idea of building for about a year. What I want to do is build a nice Kibler or something similar. But with no experience, I had pretty much decided that I'd buy a Traditions kit & get a little practice on that first. The $300 or so of hands-on experience and a serviceable rifle at the end that I could give away or sell is worth it to me. I really don't want to spend $1-2k only to mess it up & do a sloppy job. Something to consider. There's time.

 

[Hermit Tim]

No expert here, but I’ve built a Traditions, and two Pedersoli guns. The Pedersoli’s are better looking but the Traditions lock has a smoother action. I don’t think you can go wrong with either. I took appalichian hunter’s advice and ordered my Kibler Colonial for my 4th build. Merry Christmas to me! The pleasure derived from a quality purchase outweighs the pleasure of saving a few bucks IMHO

Yep, specially when you are going to keep it the rest of your life then pass it down.

 

[Hermit Tim]

If the choice boils down to pedersoli or traditions keep this in mind: I've read that the pedersoli rifles are 1:48 twist while some of the traditions kits like the Kentucky are 1:66 round ball shooters. Some of you other guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but, depending on what ammo you choose, that might be a factor. I've not owned a pedersoli yet but have four traditions and they have all been really great rifles. Been shooting one of them since about 1997.

 

[Mike in FL]

If the choice boils down to pedersoli or traditions keep this in mind: I've read that the pedersoli rifles are 1:48 twist while some of the traditions kits like the Kentucky are 1:66 round ball shooters. Some of you other guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but, depending on what ammo you choose, that might be a factor. I've not owned a pedersoli yet but have four traditions and they have all been really great rifles. Been shooting one of them since about 1997.

 

[Mike in FL]

My new Pedersoli GPR is good value for the money. 1:48 twist, but the right load makes as accurate as a $2000 custom. I've had 4 custom built guns: a Jim Chambers and two TVM and one scratch built .45, done by a local builder. All good rifles with good locks. The Chambers was a 44" barrel, swamped, early PA. Syler lock. No discernable time lapse between pan flash and firing. I killed 7 deer in one season with that gun. How dumb I was to let it go. The one fault it had was a papers thin stock along the barrel. In wet weather the wood expanded away from the barrel, but it went back to normal when dried. Oh, and the breech face was way to close to the flash hole so the builder had to shave off metal in that area, which fixed it. Chamber's kits are not easy for someone without experience. I said all that to say this: get a finished TVM or a Pedersoli GPR, both in flintlock. My choice was based on the price for a finished rifle. $902 for a perfect half magic Newman style gun. Beautifully finished. 1" across the flats, very nice wood, fast locktime. Sights dead on from factory. For hunting, I prefer it to longrifle, but that's just me. Good luck, sir. I am glad to see a man interested at your age. Don't fret over your selection; you will have many more.

 

[BreadBasket95]

Thanks for all the input guys, you've been a great resource. I went with a pecatonica river Dickert kit with a cm2 stock, it ran be about 900$ total which wasn't terrible.

 

[holzwurm]

Coming up the end of may and first week of June are gun buiding and craft classes at Western Kentucky State University under the auspicious of the NMLRA. There are rifle building 9 day classes. If you aren't a member join. There are also classes held at Friendship on how to put a kit gun together.