Chambers kit build

[bama]

I want to make sure that I mentioned Jim Chambers kits that where used in my kit building class. Jim Chambers kits have been around for a long time now and have pretty much set the bar for a quality kit. As with most of the parts kits on the market today you have to have a good general idea of what you want to end up with, tool knowledge and a plan to get to the end point.  There is a good bit of work and skill required to get these parts assembled. All of Jim's parts worked together well and produce a very fine rifle as can be seen in my earlier post that showed the video of KC firing his Chambers Lancaster kit build.

Jim's kits have a lot of in letting done but these inlets are about 95% complete. This leaves room for the builder to achieve a good final fit up of metal to wood.

I did have to remove wood in both the Lancaster and York barrel channels to get the barrels to sit all of the way down. All of the kits in the class except for Jim Kiblers kit had to have the tang and breech area inlet. This is usual and is a skill anyone that is going to build a rifle need to learn. I did set the barrels back at the breech about an 1/8" on both kits so the White Lightning touch hole liner threads would be flush with the face of the breech plug.

The lock and triggers for both of these kits were partially inlet. The locks on both rifles went in very well and the pre-inlet mortise helped both students get their locks in.

Both of these kits used a simple trigger pinned through the stock. Even though the trigger is somewhat pre-inlet careful planning needs to be done on trigger bar and sear bar location before this trigger is pinned into place.

One of the things I really liked about these kits were that they both had cast off built into them for a right hand shooter. This makes for a good shouldering rifle. The builder does have to take this into consideration when fitting the butt plate. When fitting the butt plate make sure that you keep the center line of the butt plate perpendicular to the center line of the comb or you will end up with a crooked butt plate.

I have built several of Jim Chambers Kits and have been happy with them all. Jim kits have great architecture and will produce a beautiful gun but does require some skill and knowledge to put them together. Just go slow and plan each move and you will have a gun to be proud of.

Here are a few picture of Richard Allen with his Jim Chambers York Kit.

[Darkhorse]

Personally I would go with the Chambers kit. There is a lot more skill and craftsmanship involved with a Chambers kit and more satisfaction when the rifle's finished. Plus Mr. Chambers recognizes the need for a Left Hand rifle for all of us lefties out there.
I will always support those who offer left hand versions of anything.

[thimble rig]

Maybe someone will come out with more left handed locks one of these days.

[KC]

I watched Richard work on this gun during the class. He is a meticulous builder that pays a lot of attention to detail. This will be a fine rifle when he completes it. I hope to see it when it's done.

[thecapgunkid]

Jim's kits are so well engineered that I have not had any problem, even through my learning curve and tool purchase.

I am partial to Little Fellers and have found you can do almost anything with them. 



I put an octagon to round 20 ga smoothbore on this one and put on a spare Brown Bess trigger guard that I had in the shop.
Barbie said the stock was a second, but I could find little wrong with it.



Barbie, Karen and Jim are easy to talk to and very helpful.

I have built five of their guns and found you can probably burn the house down with the lock sparks.  Every one of them always works well right out of the box.

Their York kit ( Jim Turpin calls them parts sets in the video) is a lot of fun to work with.  I finished it, put it in Dixons because I have too many guns, and then pulled it right out because I don't want to give any of them up.

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid

The Capgun Kid

[Stickburner]

I'm building this rifle for my wife, Vicki.  We visited Jim Chambers' shop and I left Vicki and Barbie to decide which rifle fit her best.  They decided on the York with a Rice 45 caliber round bottom rifled barrel.  I hope to have her shooting it in a couple of weeks.   

I'll be returning for Jim's carving class in May to learn how to make it purty.   

My thanks again to Jim for everything I learned last week.

Richard