welll it would shoot,, but took it too the gun dealer who was a guru of balckpowder way back then,,and he looked at it,,smoking his pipe,,and also keeping a chew going at the sametime,,after what seemed forever to me he spoke,,too much wood,,all he said then set it down,,you need to take all this wood down along the forestock its too heavy,,,so ,,back home scrapeing and sanding until I had thought i could se the barrel in the day light,,,then back to,,the guru of blackpowder,,,, now smoking his cigar,,and chewing a chew,,he looked at it once again for a longtime,,,dats better but,,now you need to do sumpin bout the lock panels and the stock too long need a ladder to reach the triggers,,,so anyway after 16 trips to him,i had my FIRST longrifle! she was beautiful! at least to me,,it shot it got squirrles and even a deer,,,so I did build it and anfter that read learned and found what to do to make ,,the longrifle and still even today,i dont think i even know what i should still and still learning,,to build a better rifle,,and yes i do have fun and have built a few for some others as well,,,mickey