Kit Muzzleloaders

You can derive great pride and pleasure in building your own long rifle. You can buy all the components or build many of them yourself. Whether you prefer flint or percussion, left or right handed, you can build your lock from a kit and get great results. In the world of muzzleloading there are several kinds of addictions. These range all the way from the guy that simply wants the easiest, most convenient gun to use so he can take advantage of a longer hunting season and/or to hunt one more animal.

He will buy a newly-made muzzleloader from one of the manufacturers that looks and shoots like a modern rifle with an optic. The only traditional aspect to it is that it is loaded from the muzzle and must be capped to make it legal. On the other end of the spectrum is the traditionalist. This is the guy that wants to build Hole placement is critical to correct functioning of the lock.

Hole locations are indicated on the parts with small depressions to ensure they are easy to locate correctly. his version of the traditional muzzleloader just like great grandpa never had because he couldn’t afford it. He will pick a school and craft a rifle that he hopes looks like it was made 250 years ago. I fall into that latter category.

I start such a project determined to make as many parts as I can and follow the advice given in Buchele, Shumway, and Alexander’s book Recreating the American Longrifle and Shumway’s Thoughts on the American Longrifle in it’s Golden Age. One by one I craft as many of the parts as possible. These include the ramrod pipes, barrel lugs, lockplate, and patchbox. Other parts like the barrel, stock, forend tip, and buttplate that I cannot or choose not to make, I purchase.

This leaves a lot of leeway to pick the features you like and build either a rifle that looks like it came out of your favorite maker’s shop or something with the features you like, historically accurate or not. The real traditionalists hate seeing guns like my first one because it is a hodgepodge of features from different schools and would never have existed during the time period.

I later built guns that reflect the Lancaster school but that first one was a rifle that I thought should have been and was made to my taste. One component I haven’t mentioned so far is the lock. You can certainly buy most any style of flint or percussion lock you like. However, in concert with the desire to make as many parts as possible I elect to build the lock myself. Building a Pennsylvania or Kentucky rifle is the perfect project for the beginning gunsmith.

It requires woodwork, metal work, and blending the separate parts into something that flows together into a truly American art form. To my eye there is no gun more beautiful than an American Longrifle. To fulfill my goal of making as many parts as I could I found that Jim Chambers (Flintlocks. com, offers the Siler locks in kit form. After considering it for awhile I contacted the folks at Track of the Wolf Inc. (Track- OfTheWolf.com,

The easiest way I have found is to simply replace the drill I just used to make the hole with the tap, lower, and turn the chuck by hand. This method ensures that the tap enters the hole at exactly the same angle the drill did. This method gives excellent results and ensures you break fewer taps. I use a pair of small vice grips to hold the frizzen in place so I can drill and tap it and the lock plate and have them positioned perfectly.

The kits are available in flint and percussion, left or "wrong" handed (wrong handed for me at least, might be right for you). I purchased a left hand Siler Flint Lock Kit and was delighted with the quality. The kit comes truly complete, with all the parts and screws, two fixtures, and very well written instructions that list all the drills Simple nylon jigs are supplied with the lock kit to insure that you get the bridal properly located. The shaft diameter of the tumbler was slightly oversized.

It can be turned most easily on a lathe but you can also use a drill press instead. Here I have chucked the tumbler in the chuck and use a hand file with a safe edge so it only cuts the shaft. and taps needed at the top of the page. The instructions are taken step by step through the process of drilling, tapping and, assembling the lock, along with how to keep things aligned. All the holes needed to be drilled are indicated with a center punch-like depression.

The parts are supplied "as cast" so be prepared to hand finish them by grinding off the casting sprues, mold lines, and polish the surface if the finely-sandblasted surface is not what you want. This is mainly a drill and tap project but there is an exploded drawing to refer to as well as instructions on hardening and tempering of the frizzen, tumbler, sear, and fly. The assembly process went very smoothly for me but the heat treating took a couple of tries.

It seemed that after heating the frizzen and quenching it in Mobile 1, it would spark but I wasn’t particularly happy with the volume of sparks I got. I knew this could have been several things. Perhaps I didn’t get the part hot enough or perhaps Mobile 1 isn’t the ideal quenching oil. As I say, the lock worked fine, I just wanted to see if I could get a larger shower of sparks.

Top If you have an oxyacetylene torch it will heat your parts to bright red and quenching will harden them. If you do not have oxyacetylene you will need two propane or MAPP gas torches to heat the frizzen. Heat it as hot as you can get it (in this case, bright orange) dip the part in Kasenit or Brownells Surface Hardening Compound, reheat it, and then quench in light oil. There is a separate instruction sheet on home heat treating supplied with the kit.

Immerse the heated part in the oil for about 30 seconds and move it around. Be careful as the oil will flame up. Once the part is cool, hardening compound will be encrusted on the part. It is removed with water and a brush. Prove the lock to yourself by assembling it and check to be sure it sparks. As you can see, the lock is well designed and throws its sparks directly into the pan. This ensures positive and fast ignition and the delay between hammer fall and discharge of the main charge is almost instantaneous.

I contacted Brownells and ordered a jar of their Surface Hardening Compound (#083-000-033). I tried treating the frizzen again following the directions on the jar. The procedure is easily followed. Simply heat the part to glowing red, dip the part in the compound, reheat it to red once again, and quench in oil. The compound is water soluble so the compound can be easily cleaned from the part after it has cooled with water and a brush. As the accompanying photos here show, I was delighted with the results.

If you’re looking for a winter project and have a hankerin’ to put together a traditional style Longrifle, trade gun, or Hawken style rifle that will become a family heirloom, give the folks at Track of the Wolf a call and they can fix you up with something that will please you. AG American Gunsmith Mailing List Policy Like many other publishers, we make portions of our customer list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services we believe you may enjoy.

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