Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. No relation to Virgil. I started building kits on a .45 cal. CVA Kentucky rifle back around 1981, got it for $13.50 on clearance at LaBelles. Then did a .54 renegade about 1984 and still work on it and shoot it. Then last year did a T/C full length CM upgrade stock from Track, used a new 32" .54 cal 1:66 round ball barrel from mowrey. T/C cap lock, trigger, breech plug, tang and sights. then fit it with a buffalo horn buttplate and ebony nose cap and browned Hawken style steel furniture then finished the stock with aqua fortis and linspeed. It shoots great and has less felt recoil than my renegade but I shoot all maxi balls through that guy.
Now I'm working on the third rebuild of my 1884 Springfield trapdoor BPCR into a Hawken style walnut stock. Not a long rifle but incorporates plenty of the same building techniques. All steel furniture, underlug staples, wedge keys, curved buttplate and octagon barrel. My plan is to brown all metal parts.
