Hi,
Thank you all for looking and commenting. I appreciate the moral support!!
Fred, I think one Kibler colonial is enough for a while. It is a great kit but I prefer to build my own. I need to do my own thing a bit more.
Macs69, you can put bone black over finish but you still need a top coat to lock it in. I usually put on 2 coats of finish before using any bone black and then a couple coats on top after I am done with the blacking. I am still finding my way with it.
I want to mention a few points that may help those who choose to build these kits. Make sure you remember to file the pin holes in the barrel lugs into oval slots to allow the stock to move with humidity. Case in point, when I fitted the forward pin a few days ago, the stock had moved so much from a change in humidity that the hole no longer lined up. All the other holes were OK but I still filed them into short slots. The forward lug needed a pretty long oval slot to pass the pin. Make sure you sand the ramrod enough that it does not jam with humidity. The same goes for the patch box lid. If I had left the precise fit that came with the kit, it would long ago have been swelled in place by humidity. File a little extra space in the hole in the breech plug for the rear lock bolt. Make sure the bolt fits through it and rattles a bit in the hole. Having learned this the hard way, a precise fit of that bolt through the plug bolster could result in it acting like a jack hammer against the stock during recoil. A little slop in the hole will prevent that. If you decide to alter the stock as I did, keep in mind that Jim's well and precisely engineered kit is a system such that if you change one thing you are bound to find you need to change several other connected things. I urge folks just starting out to build the gun as Jim designed it with respect to the architecture. By all means add cosmetic flourishes all you want but leave the basic architecture alone unless you know what you are doing. With respect to embellishments, I strongly urge you to do some, even simple ones. In my opinion, the basic stock desperately needs moldings along the ramrod channel, lower butt stock moldings, the end of the cheek piece reduced in size and shaped a bit with perhaps a decorative line or two, some decoration on the patch box lid, and lock and side panel moldings. Just those simple features will enhance the rifle a lot particularly if you choose very monochrome wood like black walnut and cherry. Finally, the finished rifle with its 43.25" 54 caliber barrel weighs 8lbs 12oz. My Star of Bethlehem rifle with its big 41" D weight 62 caliber barrel weighs 9lbs but is better balanced and the weight is barely noticed. This 54 caliber Kibler is a bit muzzle heavy for me and I suspect the 58 caliber version would be quite a bit better balanced. Regardless, the kit was a lot of fun and is an awesome achievement by Kibler & Company.
dave
