Thoughts on Kit Guns-Update

[rich pierce]

Very nice build you've got going there, Tom!

[Bob Roller]

Tom Nixon,an old friend and fine maker of Hawken in half and full stock plus a variety of Civil War replicas said he liked precarves because the mistakes were already made and he can add his own to the mix .
Bob Roller

[Eric Krewson]

I have posted my first and last completely inletted precarve before, no way a beginner could have completed this rifle, I have some experience and got to where I only worked on the gun when I wasted to get "%#$$" off.

This precarve had at least 10 major flaws in it, the lock inlet was the worst but the barrel wasn't inletted straight down either it had about a 10-15 degree slant to the left. I bought the kit second hand, sight unseen, my mistake.



It took me two years to finished this gun, I put it on the back burner for months at a time, I would be lucky to get half of the TOW kit parts cost out of it. I didn't pay anywhere close to the actual kit price the original owner paid for it.

[Bob Roller]

Just an FYI...
Ron Ehlert did a 2-part video on building a Chambers kit (2003). He mentions notching the breech plug. Love it, or hate it, there it is. Chambers used to have this video listed in their catalog.

I have posted my first and last completely inletted precarve before, no way a beginner could have completed this rifle, I have some experience and got to where I only worked on the gun when I wasted to get "%#$$" off.

This precarve had at least 10 major flaws in it, the lock inlet was the worst but the barrel wasn't inletted straight down either it had about a 10-15 degree slant to the left. I bought the kit second hand, sight unseen, my mistake.

This proves Tom Nixon was right.TEN built in flaws is a bit much.I bought a potential disaster in 2007 and finished it in 2008.It was a walnut full stock with the barrel inletted and ramrod groove in place.The barrel was a GM one inch 58 caliber and I made a Nock style breech for it
and the last small Ketland lock I ever made.A steel butt plate with little curvature and a steel  trigger guard for a single trigger.This was a good shooter with very fast ignition and acceptable accuracy even with a .562 round ball patched with an old flannel shirt cut into squares.
Powder charge was about 80 grains of old DuPont 3fg.The stock had too much drop and I sold it because  of that flaw.I would like to find another one with a straighter stock like an English sporting rifle in a full length walnut stock but I have a half stock started with the barrel in the wood but no lock made yet.
Bob Roller



It took me two years to finished this gun, I put it on the back burner for months at a time, I would be lucky to get half of the TOW kit parts cost out of it. I didn't pay anywhere close to the actual kit price the original owner paid for it.

You think that is bad, take look at this one, you have probably seen it before as I use it often as a caution to others never get a precarve with the lock inlet done. This picture was taken after I moved the barrel back 1/4".



In the finished picture the entire lower lock molding is glued in wood to raise the lock up to where is is suppose to be, I put the glue line right where the lower molding breaks over to hide it. as for the wonky trigger guard instillation, I installed it early nice and tight, then found another precarve flaw when I was finishing the gun and had to reinlet parts of the trigger guard which put my already drilled pin hole in the wrong place for a tight fit. I plan to fix that at a later date.



This is the before picture;