Seems kinda slow here, so I thought I'd throw this out. How many of you build or have built muzzle loaders?

I've only built one so far, but am hooked. Got two more on order, another lefty Lancaster in 45 cal with iron hardware and a B profile Rice barrel, If the barrel and stock ever get here. And a Jagger rifle in 54 cal with a swamped Rice barrel. Still waiting on parts for both and it's driving me crazy.

where is a good place to order a rifle from? Some sights where I could check their work.

You can get a pretty decent one from TVM, though there not quite up to what some hand builders are doing, though from what I understand they are very very good.

T.V.M. - Tennessee

Or if you've got just a little bit of wood working skill and buckets of patience you can build your own. Trust me, I have no wood working ability at all and I managed to make a half way decent one for my first attempt. Unfortunately it's addicting! Now if Track of the wolf would send the rest of my parts I could start a new project.

I had several guns built and worked on by Mark at Fire & Iron his prices are more than reasonable for the quality of the work he does.
Ciao
Roxie

Cool work, thanks for the link.

Count me in. Currently finishing up an old Sharon trade rifle kit for someone and I needed a quickly to fit in until my main project parts get made. Have a Chambers New England fowler in 11 gauge on the way with a curly cherry stock. After that I will be whittling out a rifle that fits somewhere between RCA 21 and 22. Barrel should be done in a month (Rice Reading profile D weight in 58 cal) and the I will have Dave Keck at Knob Mountain inlet A stock blank for it and rough out the butt profile to his early Virginia pattern. Should be a nice thumper when done.

Should be a nice thumper when done

I bet, now if I could just get track of the wolf to send the rest of my parts I could get moving on my projects. Of course I've got one finished that will hopefully be busting bambi's butt this year.

I just sold a Virginia style rifle earlier this month. Still have an Albrect / Dickert Lancaster hanging on the wall that will hunt this fall unless someone comes up with my asking price.

I am excited to get started on RCA 21 (more like 21.5) but it is going to be 2013 before I have everything. In the meantime I will put together the NE fowler and Make myself a new horn.

Well, got a jaeger in the works, still got a lot of work to do, and they still haven't sent the trigger guard yet.

The other is a lefty Lancaster with iron hardware and a swamped B profile 45 cal rice barrel. I had to send the barrel back as it had a rough machining gauge down one side. I got a call from Rice today, and the owner apologized and told me a new barrel will be coming forthwith. Hard to find that kind of old school business anymore. As long as Rice is building there barrels like they are and have that good a customer service I won't use anything else.

In the mean time I'm screwing around with making some priming horns and powder measures from antler.

I have built two in the distant past. Any further endeavors are waiting retirement. There is a Bethlehem Co. and a Southern Mountain Bean on the list....and a couple bamboo fly rods.

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My number one location for buying rifle parts is Jim Chambers. My lock of choice is one made by Rice. Rice also make a top of the line barrel. Since I do not have ther specialized tools to inlet my barrel and ram rod channels, I have that done by Chambers. The rest of the work I can do myself. I have built kits from both Jim chambers and TVM and both are good kits. Jim Chambers may have the edge on quality but TVM makes a darned good kit, too. I really like a swamped barrel for a longrifle, they just look and feel better than a straight barrel. The plains rifles that I have built have all had heavy straight barrels. Since most have either a 15/16 or a 1 inch barrel, the smaller calibers are just too heavy. Unless you can get a smaller barrel, the plains rifles should be .50 caliber or larger or else they feel like carrying a railroad tie in the woods. Most of these kits will run you around $800. If money is a serious issue, you might look at a dealer by the name of Sitting Fox. They are a bit cheaper and their kits look pretty good but I have never built one nor have I seen one that anyone else has built so I can't vouch for the quality as compared to Jim Chambers.

I have also only built one muzzleloader but I did it the hard way . I bought the material from a local gunsmith and did the rest myself. I bored the barrel (smooth bore) and molded all the brass , trigger guard ,trigger,etc. The only part I couldn't make come out right was the side plate. I had to machine it out of 4140 steel on a mill. I WILL NEVER BUILD ANOTHER MUZZLELOADER THAT WAY AGAIN> I had about 250 hours in it.

DAN

Yowza, that's pretty hard core! I'd love to forge and bore and rifle my own barrel, but don't have the time or skills for that.

I have built many back while I held FFL. The last was a left-hand Hawken in .50 that I made for a family member. He' taken several deer with it since then. I still own several rifles in Kentucky and various half stock patterns. One small "mini-hawken"in 16 inch barrel is one favorite conversation piece. It's a .36 caliber percussion. Anymore, just the upkeep on my own guns keeps me busy as I'm retired/disabled.






'

250 hours is not bad at all. A normal plain gun takes 130+ hours and depending on the style, complexity and inlays/carving one can easily have over 250 hours into a build.

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Not really a builder but an assembler/salvager of parts. I learned some lathe and mill work from directly from Hall Sharon and improvised over the years. Reconstucted over 30 ml rifle and shotguns over the years. Its nice to bring stuff back to life. Last efforts are a two barrel (.45 and .54) browning mountain rifle with GTC hardware and a gorgeous tiger striped half stock. Another is a .45 full stock schuetzen match rifle. Made the lock from tc parts and a dolphin head L&R hammer. Has Diopter sights fancy guard . Barrel/stock were made in Biel Switzerland. I'd post pics but a newbie here and cant figure it out.

I've built two. Both T/Cs. One was a .54 Cal kit I built in High School. It shoots patched balls very well. If you are going to hunt with balls, there is a big positive energy difference between 230 grain .54s and 177 grain .50s.

The other was a T/C lock and stock I bought and then ordered a 1-28" twist .54 cal Green Mountain barrel for. It likes 425 Great Plains bullets. No energy issues there;-)

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Just remember, when you get a "kit" that's pre-shaped & inlet, you're stuck with whatever you get. You can't adjust the lock, trigger, cast, drop or pull. Such can pose real problems with obtaining the optimum or proper cock/nipple/vent location or alignment - don't assume, verify.

__________________
"Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything." ~ Harry S. Truman

Liberty is only assured as long government fears the people!

[QUOTE=markkw;649667]Just remember, when you get a "kit" that's pre-shaped & inlet, you're stuck with whatever you get. You can't adjust the lock, trigger, cast, drop or pull. Such can pose real problems with obtaining the optimum or proper cock/nipple/vent location or alignment - don't assume, verify.


1+ Very, very true. You can heat and bend hammer somewhat on a percussion but youre pretty much SOL on bad touchhole alignment. In rebuilding the last hawken I found that the current Hawken Shop plug ,tang and lock are 99% same as the early Griffith Tool Company components made 40 years ago. Hope that helps someone as i had to bite the bullet and order some to find out. Having to make a lock from scratch and fit it to an existing inlet is very difficult.

On set triggers the fit is beyond critical. Can't remember how many times i needed to add metal to sear arms to make engagement. Tough to do and not destroy part or heat treatment. Very tedious work at times. Correct trigger placement in both x and y directions is a must and very hard to do on custom stocks. Think trigger should be the very last inlet with much planning and measuring.

Last thing for me is the locating the buttplate and shaping the buttstock. Most things are oriented to the barrel so that's the first piece to go in followed by the lock then the trigger because it is oriented to the lock. The buttplate and buttstock are oriented to the combined dictations of the barrel & trigger.
Mark

__________________
"Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything." ~ Harry S. Truman

Liberty is only assured as long government fears the people!