AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Gun Building => Topic started by: Dphariss on January 23, 2026, 04:10:55 AM
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Gotta do an unsolicited plug for Kibler here.
I have two Kiblers a 54 Colonial and a 45 SMR.
I built this last one simply to cut down on powder consumption.
As some here know I have been hacking out MLs since the 1960s. About 1967. Have done 55-60 rifles and pistols in that time. I think before Kibler I had done 2. A Sharon Hawken while in AK and a TOW fowler, which convinced me I was pretty harmless as a wing shooter. The Sharon was a good rifle but a percussion and I killed a deer maybe 2 with it?
FOr years and years I hated kits but I ordered a Kibler Colonial and was really impressed.
The Colonial I have been shooting I ordered a extra trigger bar and built a SS trigger of it.
They I ordered the SMR, this to be a keeper. I put on a patch box and a chevron pewter tip.
Played around with loads and it does pretty well with 50 gr of FFF Swiss and a .445 and a pretty heavy patch.
I can honestly say I shoot this rifle about as well as any I have owned. The lock is the best lock I have ever used, really fast, really reliable and is easy on flints. Its simply outstanding. Now the Colonial is good in all respects as well. ANd I have no issues with it. And it will win matches .
But I shoot the SMR better. And it saves a lot of powder. Though I am going to revisit the load work on the Colonial and try the load that shot so well on the first one I was shooting.
So if you want a rifle and you are not going to scratch build just order the Kibler. I have a scratch built Hawken and a pair of Hawken pistols in processing. And a couple of blanks with barrels inlet. So I am not a assembler only. I actually make stuff sometimes.
(https://i.ibb.co/Swy1xS2q/IMG-5289.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jkfx5td7)
The flyer was not the rifles fault. it was the nut behind the butt.
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I ordered a Kibler Woodsrunner about a year or so ago and it was beyond my expectations as far as quality is concerned. After building many kits [ mainly Chambers ] and scratch builds over the last 35 years it was refreshing to see how easy it went together. It was a shooter as well ! I'm now waiting on a Colonial in .58 which will be my new moose and bear rifle. At my age, the time saved in building this is a real consideration ;D
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Kibler really has helped me in many ways. As a young teen I got a TC kit as so many did, and I wanted it to be made perfectly. I had been reading muzzleloading magazines and books for a few years, and at about 14 I was ready to build one. But things didn't go together right, I didn't really know tools or wood or iron working, and eventually I stopped. Whether that was because of my lack of skill, the problems with the kit, or that I was a teen I don't know.
During the middle ages of my life, I just bought ready made guns. Lots of antiques, quite a few black powder. Got a contemporary flintlock by Bruton. Decades went by, but I still remembered the excitement I had when I was young, dreaming of making a beautiful long rifle, maybe even one of those cantakerous flintlocks.
I decided to try again. I bought the Kibler SMR, and it was such high quality, I knew I could do a good job on it. I finished it, and like D. says, the lock is totally reliable. I don't even pick the vent, it fires almost every time, and very fast. I have shot it in a few muzzloader matches and came in 2nd or 3rd each time.
When Jim announced his Hawken kit I thought I don't really want a Hawken, but that is the type I failed to finish at 14. And I wanted to support his business, as well as the great Buckskinner movement of my youth. Plus I lived in St. Louis as a boy, moved to NC, then like a lot of adverterous North Carolinians in the 1820s, I moved out west in my mid 20s and. So I got one, and it's even better than the SMR. I shot it only twice sighting it in, then took it to the same ML match, and came in 1st. I shot it better than any ML in my life, better than a lot of cartridge guns...it fits me that well. Yeah, Kibler has changed the world of ML.
35 yds off hand:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55035135396_42bda42cf7_c.jpg)
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Dan,
Thank you so much for your endorsement. It means a lot as I suspect you are not easy to please ;) It really does make us happy knowing that we add a little bit of something good to people's lives.
Bob,
Thanks for being such a good customer. Good luck on the moose and bear!
AZshot,
Thank you for the the nice story. These are always nice to hear. Your Hawken turned out really nice and I'm very happy to hear it has worked so well for you.
Jim