As was requested, I am posting more pictures of my rifle and (unrequested) the assembly as it went along. I took on this project with no previous experience with firearm “building” aside from an abomination of a Pedersoli pistol kit I may eventually build up the courage to show, possibly in a “what not to do” post.
I had inherited a kit percussion flintlock made by my grandfather and shot it for several years before I purchased a Pedersoli Blue Ridge Rifle. But the idea of putting anything together more complicated than a basic Traditions type rifle that essentially snapped together was way out of my comfort zone. I could fix a leaky sink, replace a toilet, install a ceiling fan, hang a door and other basic household chores, but putting a rifle together was well beyond what I felt comfortable attempting.
I had tried putting some handles on knife blanks and after several projects I felt I had gotten to the point where I was doing a decent job with soldering and finishing the handles. Around this time I had several months off work due to an injury and discovered this forum. I’d always preferred shooting my Pedersoli flintlock compared to other modern guns and decided to look into other options. After much internal debate, I decided to purchase a Chambers Virginia Rifle Kit. Further debate and research led me to decide on a .62 caliber. I had great customer service from Barbie Chambers and they were great to order from.
The Chambers website said that if you could change a light bulb without assistance you could put together one of their kits so I felt like I was in good shape.
With the kit, I had also ordered the DVD instruction video from Jim Turpin. This DVD was incredibly helpful throughout the assembly and I really can't say enough good things about it. When everything arrived, I opened all the parts and played the DVD from start to finish. And was immediately overwhelmed.
I had a few beat up chisels for putting door plates and hinges on, but nothing like what was required for this kit. Work and a move then put everything on hold for several months. And once everything settled I watched the DVD again and still felt way out of my league. But, despite being overwhelmed, I decided to start searching this forum on where to begin. I figured which chisels and other tools I needed and ordered those, along with the book Recreating the American Longrifle.
When the North Dakota winter hit I began working on the kit in earnest, I had inlet the breech plug and barrel channel previously but had then burned out on the project, I was traveling a lot and really did not have the time with family obligations. But once winter hit, I found the time and began working again.
As all of you know how a rifle is assembled, I will only show the “oh $#@*” moments and how I “fixed” them. I have a complete “album” of the process on my phone, but it is a bit excessive with 105 photos. The fixes were found on this forum. As I’m sure is a common complaint, I wish I could redo what I did at the beginning of the build with the experience I had gained by the end of the build.
To start, I almost immediately chipped the tang area, luckily I had enough material to file that smooth.
Then there was a chip in the butt plate due to overly aggressive rasping/filing. I added a toe plate to cover that mistake. About this time I decided slowing down was probably a good idea.
Then inletting the lock I cut a chip out of the lock mortice. Dull chisel, figured I could finish that portion with out resharpening. Lesson learned the hard way. Wood glue and a sliver of wood I had saved fixed that. I thought I had a picture of the sliver glued into the chip but apparently not.
The ramrod entry thimble came wider than the part, that was the only “too large” inlet that came with the rifle. I added a sliver of wood and fixed that issue. The rest of the ramrod entry thimble problems I have to own, dull chisels and “get it done” fever caused the sloppy inletting on the rest of that piece. I later got the piece to an acceptable point, but after finishing the wood it reverted back to looking rather sloppy in the final install. The only part that still looks okay is where I glued the wood in. I plan on reworking that this winter. I don't have picture of it, but I took the piece a bit deeper to fix the other gaps. Or at least I though I had gone deep enough...
After those mistakes, everything went reasonably smoothly, until the patch box lid which I was actually really enjoying installing. The patch box lid I dropped on NOTHING from the workbench yet it must have hit “nothing” just right and not only cracked the front (which was probably too thin to begin with) but took a chunk out of the back of the lid as well. I decided to just roll with it after much cursing and shortened the lid and did what I could with the missing chip. I circled where the chip was after a good bit of sanding.
It was around this point where I was cutting the thumb grip while holding the patch box lid and sent a chisel through my thumb, causing a break in the work for a few weeks until I got the stitches out. This prevented me from doing a few other non-gun related things around the house and my otherwise extremely patient wife was not overly amused with the project at this point. This was a low point in the building process...
Lock polishing was tedious, although I would recommend the sanding detailer finishing kit on Amazon, it is basically a plastic holder for a tiny sanding belt, it made the lock polishing somewhat easier. I also used the Gesswein stones recommended on this forum. This process took much longer than I expected.
The metal finish I had practiced on various tomahawks and knife blanks until I ultimately decided on aqua fortis as a metal finish, polishing it off after 30 minutes or so. I was shooting for a French Gray and had tried cold blue, naval jelly, vinegar, etc with mixed results previously. I used aqua fortis on the wood, followed with Laurel Mountain “Nut Brown.” Wood was finished with Permalyn products. I then put Johnson’s Paste Wax over the wood, which created a bit more shine than was present prior to the wax.
I had been following several posts about rear sights, specifically peep sights, until I finally decided that was the way I wanted to go. I had been introduced to peep sights in the Army, then had used them on various modern guns with the police, and decided that was what I wanted on this rifle. I shoot better with a peep than I do notch sights and well, that’s what I wanted. I purchased a peep sight from TOTW but it was way too small, an attempt to open it up broke the aperture. I then drilled out a sight blank from TOTW and after shaping it, carefully dovetailed it into the barrel in a nerve racking procedure I would not like to do again.
Ultimately, I am okay with how this rifle came out. For about a week I was actually pretty down as to how it turned out, harping on the problems I knew were there. But it was a first assembly and WAY out of my comfort zone. There is a learning curve and many lessons were learned. As the saying goes, experience is what you get right after you needed it. But now I have that experience for the next one. There are a number of areas where I feel as if I could have done better. Lock panels were looking much sharper prior to final wood finishing, I’m still not sure what happened there. Inletting, well, I learned the importance of sharp chisels, I only wish I had learned that earlier on, there certainly was enough advice on this forum about it. Although I did learn how to sharpen them well by the end of the project, what I had thought was "sharp enough" previously had been shown to be wrong. Also, if you think it might need to be resharpened, it definitely does. As I said before, I wish I could have redone what I did at the beginning of the project with what I had learned by the end of it. The ramrod entry thimble still really bugs me, but this winter I think I'll be redoing that piece. There is a gap on the bottom of the bottom of the entry thimble in the picture below, I'm not swearing it wasn't there before finishing but I sure didn't notice until the very end.
I’m planning on shooting this for the first time in the next week or two, I’m trying the tight ball/patch combination discussed at length to avoid having to wipe between shots, I will post how that goes in a separate post. Thanks to all who have posted advice on this forum over the years, it was very helpful in putting this rifle together, despite my own mistakes in applying it on several occasions.
JT
Bismarck, ND
