woods89
WKR
I've always wanted to put a muzzleloader kit together, and finally ordered one in December. Showed up like this.....
Pic partway through working on the stock......
And we are currently about 99% finished.....
I put quite a bit of extra work in that you wouldn't have to just to have a functional firearm, but I wanted to take my time and have something I could feel good about.
-These stocks come with a fair bit of extra wood. I slimmed a few things down quite a bit. The biggest thing I wanted was to reshape the lock panels, as they are really wide and blocky from the factory.
- I used stain from Homer Danglers, which I believe is an alcohol based stain. These stocks are birch, and don't take well to oil based stains. Finished with many coats of Tru-Oil.
-I draw filed the barrel on all flats. This really helped the browning agent take. I also used Homer Danglers browning agent, and have no complaints. Some metal parts definitely took more time than others, but I think that's to be expected.
- I Acra-glassed under the tang and where the front of the trigger group sits. It just seemed like there could be compression over time. Not sure how necessary that was, but it makes me feel better.
- I stripped the fake case hardening off the lock and hammer, and browned them. They did not brown quite like the barrel, but I'm still happy I did.
- All the brass was antiqued with 44-40 blueing agent. I personally like it much better that way than bright.
- I polished most of the faces of moving parts in the lock and trigger. Lot's of casting marks from the factory.
All in all, I'm quite happy with it! Hopefully I get a chance to shoot it in the next few weeks. I have some 3F Swiss coming and a bunch of patches and round balls. Going to start with that and probably switch to a conical for next deer season.
These kits are not Kiblers, but I think doing one of these before a Kibler is probably not a bad idea.
If anyone has any questions about doing one of these, I'll try to help! This is the Frontier rifle.
Pic partway through working on the stock......
And we are currently about 99% finished.....
I put quite a bit of extra work in that you wouldn't have to just to have a functional firearm, but I wanted to take my time and have something I could feel good about.
-These stocks come with a fair bit of extra wood. I slimmed a few things down quite a bit. The biggest thing I wanted was to reshape the lock panels, as they are really wide and blocky from the factory.
- I used stain from Homer Danglers, which I believe is an alcohol based stain. These stocks are birch, and don't take well to oil based stains. Finished with many coats of Tru-Oil.
-I draw filed the barrel on all flats. This really helped the browning agent take. I also used Homer Danglers browning agent, and have no complaints. Some metal parts definitely took more time than others, but I think that's to be expected.
- I Acra-glassed under the tang and where the front of the trigger group sits. It just seemed like there could be compression over time. Not sure how necessary that was, but it makes me feel better.
- I stripped the fake case hardening off the lock and hammer, and browned them. They did not brown quite like the barrel, but I'm still happy I did.
- All the brass was antiqued with 44-40 blueing agent. I personally like it much better that way than bright.
- I polished most of the faces of moving parts in the lock and trigger. Lot's of casting marks from the factory.
All in all, I'm quite happy with it! Hopefully I get a chance to shoot it in the next few weeks. I have some 3F Swiss coming and a bunch of patches and round balls. Going to start with that and probably switch to a conical for next deer season.
These kits are not Kiblers, but I think doing one of these before a Kibler is probably not a bad idea.
If anyone has any questions about doing one of these, I'll try to help! This is the Frontier rifle.
