very new to muzzleloading / flintlock

[severndigital]

I was on a "shooting" trip over the weekend and got to talking about muzzleload pistols and learned that you can aquire kits and build them yourself. I did some researching today and, upon other things, I came across this forum.

I am interested specifically in getting a KIT muzzleload pistol as to me most of the enjoyment will come from "creating" the gun as well as firing it. My questions begin below.

Are there any other kit companies besides traditions?

I would also be interested to mold my own lead balls, are there certain guns that are made for that, or can any gun fire them?

And last but not least. I was told that most powder today is smoke-less and that i would need to purchase special power to get that nice PUFF when the gun is fired. Is this something that is easily accomplished?

I am very anxious to get involved with these types of pistols, but I had a few question before just spending money .. ya know,

thanks for all of your time, this forum looks really great and I have learned boat loads in the short time I've spent so far.

looking forward to responses and hopefully one day offering advice here myself.

Chris

 

[Rebel]

First off, welcome to the forum. Now for you questions.
1) Traditions makes kits. So does Lyman. Don't know of any oters, but someone else here might.
2) You can fire a rd ball out of any of them.
3) Real Black powder is available and even the subs are NOT smokeless powder. Never, never, use smokeless powder in a MLer. You can get Goex real Black powder from a nummber of places. Check the member resourses at the top for contact info.
Check here[url] http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/MLF_Links.php#Powders[/url]

 

[Coot]

Welcome to the Forum! You might try Jim Chambers (he has a website) for a pistol kit. His kits are on the upper end as kits go & his site is well worth a look. You might want to order a video on gunmaking to get an idea of what you are getting into & the types of tools generally needed. Almost all muzzleloaders will be able to shoot a patched round ball and casting moulds are available in many sizes to fit the various guns.

 

[CrackStock]

Kits mean different thigs to different people. Some people want to do a bit of sanding staining and metal finishing while others by a barrel, lock castings, a piece of wood and rough cast furniture parts.

You can see a variety of options at:
[url] http://www.trackofthewolf.com...s/partList.aspx?catID=13&subID=77&styleID=300[/url]
[url] http://www.avsia.com/tvm/pistol.htm[/url]
[url] http://www.davide-pedersoli.com/PistoleCategorie.aspx?lang=en[/url]

Good luck,
CS

 

[Zonie]

Welcome to the Forum! :grin:

As your finding, there are several companys who make kits and there are different degrees of difficulty between the kits.

Among the pistol kits that come to mind are the Pedersoli pre Revolutionary style Queen Anne Flintlock. Pedersoli also makes the Revolutionary period Kentucky pistol. Both of these are very easy to assemble and produce nice guns.

Lyman's fur trade style pistol is a caplock (uses percussion caps to ignite the powder) and many of our members have built them with good success.

The Traditions pistols are also easy to build and are good basic black powder pistols.

The above guns kits are basically production guns which have not been finished by the factorys. The holes are drilled and the mortices have been cut.
Building one basically envolves sanding the wood to fit the metal hardware and applying a finishing coat to the wood.

Several places sell these kits. To check out a few, follow these links:
DIXIE GUNWORKS

MIDSOUTH


The "kits" from suppliers like Chamber's, Pecatonica River, Track of the Wolf, and others are basically a semi formed wood stock, a semi finished barrel, unfinished trigger guard castings and a finished lock which has to be modified to be installed into the stock.
These "kits" are closer to a "box of semi finished parts" and require considerable work to assemble.
Don't get me wrong. A large number of people have accomplished this task, especially with help from our forum members in the "Gun Builders Bench" area.

These pistols are made to shoot patched roundballs using black powder or a black powder substitute. Under no conditions should any smokeless powder be used in any of them as they will blow up.

Suitable powders in addition to real Black Powder are Pyrodex and 777. These powders are made to duplicate the pressures (and smoke) of real black powder.

As for the ammunition, round balls are available at most gun shops.
Bullet molds for roundballs are also available, the most inexpensive being those made by LEE.

The correctly sized ball will be .005 to .010 smaller than the bore of the gun so if your gun is a .50 caliber, the correct ball size will be .490 or .495.

Hope this helps you

zonie

 

[TANSTAAFL]

I was on a "shooting" trip over the weekend and got to talking about muzzleload pistols and learned that you can aquire kits and build them yourself. I did some researching today and, upon other things, I came across this forum.

I am interested specifically in getting a KIT muzzleload pistol as to me most of the enjoyment will come from "creating" the gun as well as firing it. My questions begin below.

Are there any other kit companies besides traditions?

I would also be interested to mold my own lead balls, are there certain guns that are made for that, or can any gun fire them?

And last but not least. I was told that most powder today is smoke-less and that i would need to purchase special power to get that nice PUFF when the gun is fired. Is this something that is easily accomplished?

I am very anxious to get involved with these types of pistols, but I had a few question before just spending money .. ya know,

thanks for all of your time, this forum looks really great and I have learned boat loads in the short time I've spent so far.

looking forward to responses and hopefully one day offering advice here myself.

Chris

Welcome to the fire, glad to have you here.

First, this is only my opinion, and should be taken as that. Study and learn as much as possible before purchasing, the price of oats ain't quite the same after they been through the horse.

All kits are not equal, if not well versed in what is required as to work involved, go for one of the easy ones. There is a multitude of companies offering kits, but a lot of kits, are not really kits at all, but in fact, a parts package assemblage, requiring very precise fitting and woodworking ability, with knowing what one is seeking as the final result.

Casting one's own lead balls is a very straight forward affair, with little outlay of funds. For round balls the twist of rifling can be involved, normally any twist of 1:48 or less is good for rifles, but for an accurate pistol, the rifling twists are much faster. For smoothbores, the patched ball can give accuracy out to limited range, and one can also shoot shot in them.

The last thing one ever wants to do is use smokeless powder in a ML, (except in one brand of $#%ine) they AKA bomb. If percussion, one can use the black powder substitutes, but most prefer to use true black powder. If flintlock, true black powder is needed for priming, one can use subs in a so called stack load for main charge. But, being prejudiced, IMHO, true black powder is the best thing to use in all ML for all purposes.

With that said, there are lots of folks here with great worthy advice, of which I am sure you will receive an abundance of.

 

[renovato]

Dixiegunworks.com has a number of easy kits. The Traditions and Lyman kits are very easy to assemble, affordable, and the guns turn out to be really nice shooters. I finished a Traditions Trapper early in the summer and have absolutely loved shooting it.

A step up in quality is the Pedersoli kits. I haven't built any so I can't comment on how easy or hard they are to build, but the guns themselves are quite nice.

Then there's the advanced kits. These build into very high end guns, on par with many of the handbuilt custom guns on the market. They generally take a lot higher level of skill and more equipment and experience to build. They can also be quite costly, though I've seen some that were a great value when you compare them to the cost of Lyman or Traditions guns. I haven't attempted one of those yet either.

 

[AZ-Robert]

And last but not least. I was told that most powder today is smoke-less and that i would need to purchase special power to get that nice PUFF when the gun is fired. Is this something that is easily accomplished?

Depending on where you live: yes, you can easily get the "special" powder you need. Gun shops that sell supplies for muzzleloading guns often carry the proper powder or a suitable substitute. The "proper" powder is Black Powder; my preferred brand is GOEX. The substitutes will be labled as substitutes for Black Powder and can be found in some WalMarts and other retail outlets under various brand names (Pyrodex, 777, et al). If worse comes to worst, you can always have real black powder shipped to your doorstep via internet or mail order.

If you get a flintlock pistol, you will certainly want the real black powder. If you get a percussion lock pistol you can use the substitutes but will probably prefer the real stuff.

You'll find this hobby addictive. Enjoy!

 

[flintlockmdj]

Glad to have you on the forum with us. You are doing the corect thing by asking questions. There is a lot of knowledge here on the forum and we will be glad to help you. If in doubt alwayse ask this is the safest way and gives us old timers an operatunity to feel good about helping. You will no doubt develope the knack for DUCKING because there will also be a lot of good natured :bull: :bull: :bull: thrown.