Kit Building class update

[bama]

We just finished the 2nd kit building class here at my shop in Warrior Alabama. It was a great success with everyone getting their kit assembled to the shooting stage of the build. This class concentrates on getting the parts assembled and functioning. No finish work is done unless a student gets far enough ahead that he can do some finishing.

We had a wide verity of kits in this class. We had a New England parts kit made by Tennessee Valley Manufacturing, one of Jim Kibler's Southern Mountain Rifle kits and two of Jim Chamber's kits, a Lancaster and a York kit. All of the kits went together well. We even had time on Jim Kibler's kit to make and install a patch box. I will post more pictures and give a description of the builds in another post.

Anyway here is a video of one of the students shooting his rifle at the end of the class. He put together a Chamber's Lancaster Kit. This was his first time ever shooting a black powder rifle period. I felt very proud that we got his rifle together and that it functioned so well.

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

  .... Thanx, Jim .... Great video ... I only live about two hours away, and hope to participate in one of your classes one day .... That is a fast lock,...immediate ignition....!! ...... sound effects of singing frogs in background is fantastic ..... !!!!

[KC]

Jim, thanks for posting the video of me taking my first black powder shot with the first rifle I ever built. Although I've got a little bit of work left to do, the class gave me the confidence I needed and I think I can finish it up without too much trouble.

For anyone considering taking Jim's class, it was an excellent way to get a gun put together to a point where you can actually fire it. Jim and his wife made us all feel right at home. We all worked hard on our guns, sometimes over 10 hours a day, but with the first rate instruction we all made a lot of progress on our guns. One of the best parts of the week was meeting Jim, his wife, and three other student gun builders, all of which made for a week I'll remember for a long time.

[Stickburner]

I signed up for Jim's class in order to learn the right way to build a rifle from a kit.   Unlike the other students, I had built two rifles from kits.   My  first was a southern mountain caplock from Track of the Wolf about 1996.   Then I was bitten by the flintlock bug and built a Chambers' Lancaster kit around 2006.

A few of the things I learned are the proper build sequence, to be more aggresive with my excess wood removal in the barrel channel and under the butplate, how to fit a new breach plug, and how to install a simple trigger to get a light yet safe pull.

I agree with everything KC said and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent in class, interacting with my classmates, as well as the hospitality Jim and his wife provided.   I signed up for and am looking forward to Jim's carving and engraving classes.

Richard

[Marcruger]

Ron sure was jazzed, and texted me photos throughout the weekend.   Two thumbs up Jim.   Best wishes, and God Bless,   Marc

[GA Turner]

I attended the Alabama kit class last week and had a great time. I ordered a  Kibler kit and received it two weeks before the class. Great kit/excellent quality;alot has been said on this forum about the Kibler kit, all positive.  Jim Parker's shop has five work stations and each of us was able to work on our projects and also interact with the other students as they progressed thru their kits. I don't know how Jim did it but was able to move from each project to the others' and keep us straight. I learned alot of techniques and problem solving during the week. It would take years of gun builds to learn what we did in a week. We put in alot of hours but the week flew by. My kit was ready to fire by Thursday. We had time to build a patch box from scratch after a Whitson original pattern,inletted ,created lid spring and catch. Staying at the Parker home was a added bonus;great hospitality and no need to drive back and forth from a hotel.
If you are contemplating building a kit, the Kibler kit is top notch and the Jim Parker class is as well.

[bama]

Thanks guys for the kind words. It was a pleasure to have you guys in the class. I am looking forward to my other classes and hope that they go as well as this one did.

Jim

[Martin S.]

Jim,

I looked at your website, but I didn't see a class schedule.

Can you post a schedule of your classes for the next year?

[bama]

Martin I will try to get the class info up on my web site in the next week or so.