These would be fun to build : ) "The Sliding Patch Box" The more ornate the better

[Just Duke]

With a pair of Bausch & Lomb visor magnifiers I would have no trouble building rifles like these.
http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.c...1_archive.html
Here's a good book source. Moravian Gun Making of the American Revolution by Bob Lienemann and Steve Hench
http://kentuckyriflefoundation.org/krf-store/#moravian

[waksupi]

Definitely my favorite type of rifles to build. I won't build some other types, but will always accept a traditional flint rifle or fowler project. The wooden patch boxes are easier to do than most think. I think I can actually do one from scratch, faster than inletting a metal patch box.

[Marvin S]

Those are beauty's for sure. I look on that site from time to time and marvel at the workmanship. There are some top names by them guns.

[Just Duke]

Those are beauty's for sure. I look on that site from time to time and marvel at the workmanship. There are some top names by them guns.

<yawn> Remember this is 300 year old technology. No reason you couldn't build your own if one follows certain applicable guide lines. It's like coloring book. You just have to color with in the lines. Also remember the gents that built the originals were very young. Most back then didn't live past 36 years old. The gunstock was always inside the tree, you just have to remove the rough edges.
Also remember the men that built the rifles pictured are very much trying to replicate rifles the innovator's created. An anachronism.
These are much simpler than one of those nutso complicated WWII radial engines. lol
Barbie oogles these all the time. I figure I should post them here.

[Marvin S]

I have put a few together from parts sets from TOW and the like. Some turned out pretty decent. I do think one needs some artistic ability for the upper grade guns which I seem to lack but would have better luck building the engine. If making guns as nice as those where easy everybody would be doing it. Look close at the inletting and arcetecture.

[Just Duke]

If making guns as nice as those where easy everybody would be doing it.

One would first before anything have to have the desire to build these. You can make anything you want if you have the desire to do it.

[waksupi]

We are in the second Golden Age of rifle building. Today's builders are far surpassing the quality of the majority of the old guns.

[Just Duke]

We are in the second Golden Age of rifle building. Today's builders are far surpassing the quality of the majority of the old guns.

That's good to know. By all the salt and pepper pictured it looks like we don't have much time left.

[Just Duke]

Do you think this is silver plated?

[Marvin S]

It's hard to tell from the pictures. If it is silver it is not plated but solid German silver. Could just be steel in the white but still just guessing.

[Mike Brooks]

Looks like polished steel. Guys capable of this caliber of work would use sterling, not plate or german silver.

[waksupi]

I'm pretty sure it is iron, as the other furniture appears to be iron.

[starmac]

No doubt they are beautiful. I have always wondered how accurate compared to those built today by craftsmen of the same ilk.

Even cheap massed produced muzzle loaders have shot pretty good for me, accuracy wise, but there are lots better shots than I am I reckon.

[waksupi]

The problem of building a real high end rifle, is finding a customer afterwards! Quality costs money.

[357maximum]

The problem of building a real high end rifle, is finding a customer afterwards! Quality costs money.

I'll take a quality flintlock anyday but make it a poorboy with a simple open tallow hole please...all that itching,scratching, mauling and carving makes a nice rifle into mighty fancy pretentious looking firewood.....that is MY opinion...I just happen to find all that ornate carap offensive to my eyes and absolutely without use. On the plus side a good cabinet scraper could fix most of em.

[Just Duke]

The problem of building a real high end rifle, is finding a customer afterwards! Quality costs money.

Myself I wouldn't need a customer. They would be for us.

[Mike Brooks]

The problem of building a real high end rifle, is finding a customer afterwards! Quality costs money.

There's plenty folks out there with the cash, thank God!

[fouronesix]

With a pair of Bausch & Lomb visor magnifiers I would have no trouble building rifles like these.

Well, the parts are available. Nothing preventing you from building one.

[fouronesix]

[SIZE=4]Do you think this is silver plated?

Agree with others. To me looks like iron finished bright.

[lmcollins]

These are early rifles, and if I remember correctly German Silver was not invented until something like 1830. Coins were flatened at times for small inlays. I cnnot remember anything about streling silver.

These fitting must be polished steel. In this period the originals would have probably just been plain polished iron: without the carbon cooked into it to make it into steel. That would have been way too expensive wouldn't it it for rifle fittings in America?