chucker34

I've been thinking about getting into muzzleloading for a few years now and thought I would try next year so I want to start getting ready this year. I've looked at some good basic guns in the store.

But the other day I saw this feature piece on assembling your own muzzleloader in Field and Stream. You basically buy a kit (Hawken percussion gun)that give you all the pieces, which you have to finish and assemble - i.e., blueing the barrel and "white" metal parts, polishing the brass, sanding, finishing, and sealing the stock, and even filing some of the metal parts to smooth custom fit.

Looks like a lot of fun, actually, and would probably produce a beautiful gun. But anyone have any experience with this or have any pros/cons of "traditional" muzzleloaders they'd like to share.

I'm completely new to muzzleloading but if I were to order one of these kits, I'd get percussion one instead of a flintlock. And I'd probably do everything myself except for the blueing. I might take that to the gunsmith in town to avoid all the swearing and frustration on my end. LOL.

ahankster

Well,
If you are doing it to have fun, then buy a kit.

But, if you are doing it to save money, I would just buy the gun. Usually (not always), the difference between kits and completed guns isn't that much (I have seen around $20 at times in the Cabela's book) especially if you are thinking about paying someone to blue the barrel for you.

Good luck
Hank

cayugad

Many of the kits come in the "white." This means all the blue needs to be done and they tell you only minor woodworking needs to be done (which is and is not true). Then of course the sanding of the stock, the hand rubbing of the oil into the wood, and finally the waxing. Its a lot of work, but for a winter project, if your good with your hands, you can produce a beautiful rifle.

Some of the better kits out there are the Lyman Great Plains Rifle or Great Plains Hunter. They produce a quality product. Also bluing is not as hard as you might think. Some peoplelike to brown the barrel to really be PC. All a matter of preference.

If your thinking seriously of this and want an original special rifle, then by all means. If you price out the kit, the sand paper, the tongue oil, the wax, the blueing, and all the other stuff like steel wool, don't figure your time in there, then check the price of the pre assembled. They start to look real good, your shooting right away, and if there is a problem the factory has to fix it.

I built a couple rifles about 20+ years ago. While it was an experience, and they turned out excellent (my father was a master cabinet maker..) it was a lot of effort. Now I just buy them and let someone else do the work.

Good luck with your decision.

alleyyooper

I built a T/C hawkins kit in the mid 70's. It was a lot of work but I had fun doing it. I blued it my self and was happy with the way it turned out. then summer came and off to the range I went. Was a nice experince shooting a rifle I assembled my self. I saw a browned gun latter and I liked it much better than the blued so I took it down to bare metal and browned it. I like the brown much better.

Al

chucker34

Thanks guys for the responses. I would like to do it because its fun. I'm thinking if I got started now I could take my time so its done right by this summer. Do it in little steps. I just think that if you took your time you'd get a custom look that would be pretty cool. So I'm fine if it costs a little more and takes awhile. But who knows, maybe it'd look the same as the factory ready model.