The Lehigh Kit is Ready to Shoot!

[oldracer]

Well put the 4th coat of Tung oil on yesterday and it dried well. I assembled the gun this afternoon and I think it will be ready to shoot tomorrow when I have range offier duties unless it is raining. The finish is a dark stain, almost black and I sanded slightly with 400 grit after a couple days drying time. I then used a light coat of golden oak stain and again lightly rubbed the finish with steel wool. I used 4 coat of Tung oil and rubbed it in well so there is very little gloss, mostly a flat finish. The inleting was really hard as the wood was brittle so I had to fill a few places. I also had to clean some browning solution out of the barrel as it weeped past the dowels I had plugging the fire hole and crown. The bore looks nice and shiny with my bore scope so all should be well. I did the base of the butt plate a bit different as I rounded it over to act as a brace for loading and such. Anyways, here it is.

[bowfin]

A nice looking rifle.

Is it .45? What is the twist?

[Boerrancher]

Wow, is all I can say. That is a nice rifle, and the stock is amazing. I hope it shoots as good as it looks.

Best wishes,

Joe

[oldracer]

The barrel is a Colrain with 15/16 flats and is 50 caliber with 1 in 56 twist I think? I could not find the parts list but I bought the whole gun as a kit from Muzzle Loaders Supply and they were great. If you look closely at the picts you'll see some scratches and marks in the stock and I left them in so the gun would look like it was 200 years old.....

[Newtire]

Fine looking rifle! Now, I need to get me one of those I'm thinking....I really need one.

[TommyT]

That stock is absolutely beautiful! Nice build!

[AR-15 Cowboy]

Congrats, you did a great job.

[PanaDP]

Is the inletting work yours or was it completed as part of the kit-ness? Butt plates generally don't overhang the edge of the stock and it should make a nice tight corner with the toe plate. The good news is you have extra storage in the gaps between wood and metal. It's a good first go. Now you have the pleasure of refining your techniques.

[oldracer]

Thanks for the comments and I had to do all the inletting except for about 75% of the barrel. The last inletting or carving I had done was in the early 60s so it has been quite a while! I looked at the pictures of the butt plate joints on most rifles and did not see one like I did with mine and I wanted something a bit different so I left the over hang and bent it under to act as a place to set the rifle on when loading. I also left in the marks and scratches that were in the wood from initial shaping as I wanted it to have a 200 year old look although the finish seems a bit too smooth.

[joatmon]

That is nice!! I want to try my hand at a flinter kit butt am alittle shy about my inletting skills (wich are none) and the cost of the better ones.

Aaron

PS; Muzzleloader July/Aug 2011 has a artical on ageing a rifle that seems good?

[oldracer]

The "kit" I bought was from Muzzleloaders Builder Supply and total was about $850 which included the barrel and the extra fancy tiger maple stock. I also had Ryan cut the dovetails for the under lugs (3) and sights (2) since I was worried I would mess that up. I also had him install the breech plug since the barrel is initially not threaded for the plug. Their website is: http://www.muzzleloaderbuilderssupply.com/

I also used the long rifles website for lots of info on assembly and they have great pictures and links to pictures on how to perform just about any part of the assembly you can imagine.