C C Fiddler,
I had been considering building a Jim Kibler Southern Rifle kit when a friend told me to look at your classifieds ad...
"For sale is a new Tennessee rifle made by me last winter. Features a gorgeous curly maple stock with 13 3/4" pull. All furniture is slow rust browned iron. Barrel is a 42" Green Mountain barrel in 13/16" octagon. Lock is a Cochran Ketland style lock. Rifle also has double set single lever triggers for a very nice light pull. This is a very slim and trim rifle that balances really well, and is light enough to carry all day long. Some say .40 is the ideal caliber. Excellent target caliber, easy to load up for deer, or load down for small game." Builder Justin Urbantas
I am a newbie to black powder and I'm very grateful to have purchased this rifle to start me off. I've been forging/blacksmithing knives for over a dozen years and thought I'd be able to put a kit together. At this point I think it would have been a disaster...not so much the building part but not knowing the look/ feel of a nice flintlock. I learned very quickly as I tried to forge a couple of period style knives to go with this fine rifle...completely different than my normal ABS style of bladesmithing. I know I'll have fun with it and plenty of opportunities to shoot it on a 4000 acre hog, deer, turkey lease I have in southern Georgia. I'm really enjoying the ALR forums...tippit