I was verysurprised at the conditionof the stock. The fit and finishis crappy. Thestockismade of European Walnut. Well thefinish is horrible. Itis very splotchy,uneven and looks disgusting. The metal nose cap is very loose and doesn't fit to the wood properly. And also thebutt plate doesn't fit to thewood. On the top part of the butt plate that fits flush and insettedtothe wood there is a gap of about32nd of an inch.

What bothers me the most is that I have bought anotherInvestarms gun from Cabela's, a sportized Hawken Carbine. It came in looking gorgeous. Fit and finish was very beautiful. I don't understand, why?

Has anyone elsehad this problem with this gun? I called Midwayand they said to send it back if I wasn't happy with the product. You must admit they try to please the customer.

Needlessto say I am very disappointed. I was really anxiously waiting for this gun toget started in flint lock shooting. Now I have to wait. [:@]

Well I never bought a Lyman Great Plains, but my Lyman Trade rifle came and I did add three coats of Tung Oil to it to even out the stock finishbefore I sealed it. All the hardware fit was real good. I would send it back and ask Midway to check the next one before they send it and make sure it is a good finish and fit to the hardware. Or you can get out your tools and make every thing fit. But if I had wanted a kit rifle I would have ordered one...

Midway is a good company to do business with.

Man, that's disappointing rafsob. The fit on theGP I bought in November was fine. Butt plate is perfect. Nose cap is perfect. There's a little gap around the tang, but not much. Wood was dark and a little dull and splotchy looking, but two coats of TreWax furniture polish finished it off nicely without too much shine.

I agree withcayugad. Send it back. I've always had good luck with Midway and would bet they make it right.

Must have been a Monday morning or Friday afternoon manufacture. I agree, send it back and ask Midway if they could examine it first. Or better yet, send it directly to Larry Potterfield and have him look at it and pick one out for you. You never know, he may do it.

Thats why i bought the kit. Every website or rifle that i looked at in person had a chitty uneven bluing job and/or the stock was blotchy and even had small sections of wood missing by the tang.

You think for the price they charge, they could get them halfway decent [:'(]

But you know the saying... If you want it done right you gotta do it yourself!

And right your are pal. I did just that. I put the gun together and the nose cap tightened up nicely. I then worked the stock. I started with some rags with alcohol and rubbed the whole stock down. I then went to work on rubbing down the stock with 0000 steel wool. Cleaned it up and then used Balestol and the grain came out nicely. I will then get some paste wax and hand rub the stock and it should even look better.

As to the butt plate, I will live with it. I figure that if I send the gun back no telling what I will get to replace it.

As I was cleaning up the rifle, I swabbed down the inside of he barrel and it wasfilthy. I think they test fired the gun,but didn't even run a few patches through the barrel. This is really sloppy. After getting the black crud out it took forever getting the brown crud out. What is it with these guys???

I will still send Lyman a letter aboutthis situation and register a complaint. I have the name of the guy thatdid a QC check on the gun before it left the factory. That should help them with fixing this problem.

That stuff in the barrel is to protect the bore. I had the same stuff in my Lyman. It took a lot of solvent and patches to clean all that out. Run a boiling soap and water bath through that. The boiling water will melt that packing grease and float it right out of the barrel. Then as it cools you can solvent the bore down and patch it clean. I bet I gave that Trade Rifle three water baths. And I was using Hoppies #9 solvent to get that black packing grease out. But once it was clean that bore in mine looked perfect.

Thanks Cay, I'll do that and give ita good bath. That is how I usually clean my BP barrels aftera good shoot.

And after nextweek I should have a good range report for all.

rafsob-Today I received my Lyman Great Plains Rifle, received in a lyman Box, carefully wrapped,and in perfect condition. Was your gun a kit or complete gun? I purchased mine from midsouth shooting supply, but that should'nt make any difference since it came in an unopended Lyman Box.Sorry that your gun was a dissapointment. I hope the replacement is of better quality. I am happy with mine.

Hey DCH, minecame in the orange Lyman original box. Glad yours wsa in better shape. Hope it shoots betterthenit looked. I am going to keep it.