Worked on my matchlock kit finally.

[Sidney Smith]

I've got a left handed matchlock kit I bought from the Rifle Shoppe two years ago. I worked on it for a few months, then it got shelved as other projects took precedence. I finally got some desire back to work on it again. That's how I am, work on something, get bored, put it away, work on something else, and so on. Anyway, got the pan, and pan cover put together today. I guess next is to attach it to the barrel l. The plan is to solder it on. TRS offers no instructions whatsoever, so this is my plan. Sorry no photos.

 

[PhDBrewer]

Well... I am curious to see (read: PHOTOS PLEASE!) What a TRS kit looks like. The first and only order I had from them was not much to my liking so even though they sold the parts I felt I could do better making my own.
What does the barrel look like inlet? Would the lock fasten through the stock with lock bolts?
Maybe @Flint62Smoothie will share his experience.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Pieces are ROUGH cast … and Brian A. found ~1/2 the pieces of the wheellock kit to be unusable, mainly - and most importantly - the main spring. I think I have them somewhere, as was going to send them back to TRS, but never did.

I’ll see if I can find them … and post pictures.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I've found several parts included in the kit to have no use for. What I think is the mainspring will not work because it's just a cast piece and is not spring steel. I'm going to have to buy a spring from another source when the time comes t
o put the lock together.

Yes, the lock will be held in place with a couple cross bolts, similar to a flintlock.

The stock and barrel are pretty nice. The cast pieces are rough and need a lot of work. The lack of any kind of instructions was disconcerting, but I knew that going in. Would I buy another kit from them, I don't know, probably not, simply because it took 4 months and several phone calls just to get the kit. I've heard of others waiting over a year and still no kit. That's not a good way to run a business IMO.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

BE AWARE, that IS the main spring! You need to file it to fit your action, then polish it, then harden it & then temper it!

 

[Sidney Smith]

BE AWARE, that IS the main spring! You need to file it to fit your action, then polish it, then harden it & then temper it!

Yes, I've thought of that. I just think it easier to buy one already finished. Something like a small frizzen return spring off a flintlock would probably work. It only needs to put some tension on the arm to move action back into place after letting go of the trigger bar.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Something like a small frizzen return spring off a flintlock would probably work. It only needs to put some tension on the arm to move action back into place after letting go of the trigger bar.

Yes, that's been done more than once! Good luck and have fun with it.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Matter of fact, I might have one. I just remembered a failed lock kit I bought and couldn't get to function. There's a frizzen spring in there somewhere.