FG, nice looking pit. I have a red nose thats a real baby.

I finished a percussion version a week or so ago. Nice easy kit that requires minimal wood and metal working skills in all honesty.

Get yourself a rat tail, mill, bastard and half round files and a couple of flat and half round rasps... makes wood removal and shaping very quick. Sandpaper alone will take you forever.

I didn't get intricate at all in my build as far as wood. I was looking to have a well fitting rifle that wasn't very embellished as it will be a heavy use rifle for hunting and shooting. I shaped and slimmed it down and sharpened edges and blended, etc.

One of the things that will make life easy... install the hardware on the stock (nose cap, butt plate, bottom plate, ramrod tube and the pin holders) and shape, sand and finish the stock TO THEM... they will keep you from rounding the edges over or removing too much wood. Once the wood is done you can gently remove them and finish the metal. you'll remove a bit of metal while smoothing it out but not enough to notice a discontinuity from wood to metal.

I redrilled the holes for the tiny screws just a bit oversize of what they were. Added some soap and I didn't break any. Another trick I have read about is using #2 screws instead of those tiny #1's.

There is some tweaking involved and my ramrod has an uber tight fit in the stock... The more I work it though the more it frees up...

I did finish my metal in a heavy Laurel Mountain Forge browning finish. I let it sit in a hot humid environment for 24 hours and then rubbed it back with 0000 steel wool under hot water to metal. Leaves a nice antiqued grey color to the metal. Havn't had an issue with rust yet and given about a month I'll wax the stock and all metal for protection.

The rifling was sharp as glass in my barrel and was slicing the heck out of my patches so I did run a patch coated with some 320 grit clover lapping compound down it a few times to soften the edges and burrs. Much better now.

My stock finish is a mixture of red mahogany stain and tung oil cut with mineral spirits... 6 hand rubbed coats total. Applied liberally initially until the wood would take no more... left on heavy without wiping. wet sand with 320 and tung oil / stain twice leaving slurry to fill grain... then wet sanded with tung oil / stain 3 more times with 600 grit paper.

The triggers are gritty and heavy... had to do some work on those... the set breaks like glass @ a couple of ounces now.... the single stage is much better also.

Rootsy - you did an excellent job on that rifle. That is beautiful. Really well done. How does it shoot, and what load do you use?

Well so far ive finished shaping the lock area, nose cap is shaped and ready, Now i'll do the other side of the stock and shape that lock area. Kind of hate that part, they left a lot of wood there. Its going a long smoothly.

Is there any way to adjust the trigger or atleast smooth it out? The pull isnt so bad, but it is pretty gritty. Was a little disapointed when i removed the lock and found that it wasnt adjustable.

Your home security system looks most impressive there Frontier Gander.

Is the trigger that bad? The one on my Trade Rifle could not be better... keep telling me negative things about the rifle. It makes it easier to turn the web sight off there...

Now I know where my daughter's dog went...that Petey!!!!!

trigger isnt bad,but it does have creep and grit that could used to be smoothed out. Maybe im just used to the single trigger on my other rifles
And you shoud buy one cayugad, they really are a nice rifle. I love the big chunky feel of the rifle. Im getting tempted to go out and shoot it just to see but im really doing a good job at holding back

Question, the rear sight that came with it, i put it in and it just slides in and out. I was thinking about using gorilla glue and just use the front sight to adjust left/right. Any other options?

I don't suggest that anyone without good mechanical knowledge touch the trigger... Being an engineer / gunsmith / mechanic / machinist I'm pretty comfortable working with and modifying factory trigger groups. The GPR trigger has 2 screw adjustments on it. One (the front screw behind front trigger) adjusts the sear engagement for the set trigger to front trigger and the rear screw increases or decreases the pre-load put on the front trigger once it is set (pull weight of front trigger when set more or less). The front trigger weight is controlled by basically 2 or 3 things, first being that little wire spring swedged in place on the trigger group, the second the sear spring in the lock assembly and 3 the sear engagement in the lock assembly. All of the creep in the front trigger is the actual distance from the bump on it to the arm on the lock + the distance that arm moves to disengage the sear in the lock group.

Modifying a sear and notch is something that requires finesse and a gently hand. Go too far (this is easy to do in a hurry) and you'll be replacing parts... Or you'll end up with a very touchy and possibly unsafe firearm. On my trigger group, what I found was that the sear and notch in the trigger assembly had a substantal burr as well as a tapered sear. I cleaned those up and I also disassembled the group and ran the sides over a stone to smooth them out. I also polished all mating surfaces. I did not touch the lock at all. My front trigger still has a buttload of free play when not set but that is fine. The take-up is ok and once pressure is applied there is very little secondary creep from the sear in the lock assembly. I tweaked the spring a bit in the trigger group to lighten the front trigger pull up a bit when it is not set.

The fixed sight is a common issue. Same happened to me... Eventually I'll just buy a simple leaf adjustable rear sight from Track Of the Wolf. Until then I have the screw adjustable one on the gun to play with.

As far as accuracy... Off hand at 50 yards, standing, I can put PRB's wrapped in a .015 thick lubed patch in front of 55 grains of Pyrodex RS into a 2 inch circle without issue. That heavy long barrel keeps her pretty steady... Recoil is negligable with this load also... Once it warms up some I'll develop what it likes for a hunting load and get it sighted... From what I've read, somewhere around 70 to 80 grains of FFg with a PRB.