Not quite Brennan, Estes, Kibler … (NOW 32 CALIBER)

[Joe R]

… but it’s my version. 

Kibler mountain rifle in ash.

[whetrock]

Top notch, Joe.

[mony]

Excellent

[AZshot]

I do like how that ash wood looks.

[Jim Kibler]

That really is pretty.  I love the custom details .  How did you finish it?  It has a super nice look.

Thanks

[Joe R]

Two coats of Nitrate of Iron. (This is some stuff Eric Kettenburg was selling a loong time ago that I still have.) I let it dry overnight then heated with heat gun then scrubbed with green scotchbrite . I coated it again with the nitrate of iron but skipped the edges and thin spots so I didn’t have to heat those areas again and waited 1 hour then heated. Scotchbrited it again and wiped it down with baking soda. (Hey, may only be old wives tales or superstitions but gotta go with the process. 🤷‍♂️) After letting it dry well for several hours I put a coat of Laurel Mountain Forge Lancaster Maple stain in it. The next morning I hit it pretty hard with green and maroon scotchbrite. After that I hit it with Klein’s orange toner. I had a fresh can of Permalyn sealer sitting around forever so I tried it for the first time. I put a good sealer coat to it and after that dried (overnight or more) I went to bone black and did the dance with sealer, bone black and scotchbrite until I said enough is enough and finished with a couple of finish (well sealer product actually) coats. When it cured a bit it still looked a little too glossy for me so I took rottenstone and mineral oil to it with a toothbrush.

[Joe R]

… and I don’t know if it made any significant difference in the end but after getting the sealer coat on I went after it hard with an old brown paper bag to burnish it as described by E Kettenburg again in old post and I think attributed to Don Getz (and maybe others 🤔). At that part of the process it seemed like it worked well. However I also did this while in the process of applying bone black layers and found out if you’re not careful you’ll remove too much and have to build up again.

[Daryl]

Ohhh- that's nice. Great muzzle treatment as well.

[Joe R]

Thanks Daryl. I was hoping you’d see that last pic and give me a score. 

[Austin]

Wood turned out nice!

[old george]

That is quite a beauty well done.

george

[Daryl]

Thanks Daryl. I was hoping you’d see that last pic and give me a score. 

A REALLY good job of it, too!
What calibre? Looks like maybe a .45?
With a muzzle like that in .40, .36 and .32, I've been able to load combinations that are much larger than the groove diameter without using a short starter,
just choking up on the rod and pushing straight down. This might not be good for the wrist in .45 or larger due to more lead needing to be "moved". Enough
to say it was not difficult up to .40 cal. and that was with bore sized balls, not smaller ones.

[Ben I. Voss]

Thanks for sharing. Very nice!

[Joe R]

It is a .45 . I already have one in .40 and it is a great handling gun. This .45 is going to be a smidge lighter (because of bore diameter and these newer model Kibler mountain rifles are 2 inches shorter) so I think it is going to be a joy to lug around in the mountains. I’m getting to a stage in life where it feels like the elves are loading up extra heavy loads in some of the ol’ guns at times if you know what I mean. 😉

[Jim Kibler]

This turned out so nice, we would like to share your photos and work on facebook and other social media.  Would that be okay?

[Joe R]

Sure, that will be fine.

[Joe R]

Just a couple more thoughts about this if anyone is curious.

I started out gungho to go with methods outlined in various forum postings from Mike Brooks and Allen Martin on metal finishing. This is where you put a coat a day of tru brown on over several days and subject it to the sweat box without carding. You then card the resulting mess off at the end and end up with a grayed and pitted barrel at the end. Well I chickened out. I got a few days of rust in but I wasn’t brave enough to get the full pitting. So I carded it off with maroon scotchbrite and pumice in mineral oil that I had leftover when I carded the lock plate and and trigger plate off with a toothbrush earlier in the process. (That was a Rich Pierce idea for getting some gray and age without going overboard.)

The  silver signature inlay was tedious with the tools I have but I’ve been wanting to do one for a long time. The characters engraved in the name are my imitation of Whitson’s on the original rifle. It looks to me like Whitson had some round dots in some of the letters so I spun a drill bit to achieve that. It’s always been said that block letters are harder than script and I agree. I think I could have done a little better overall on that but it will have to work.

The heart inlay in the toe plate is a piece of silver quarter soldered in place. The “Mel” on it is for my niece Melanie that passed away during the period of working on the gun.

For the lock bolt head on the side plate there is a teardrop shaped inlay going upwards.

[JTR]

Beautiful work!
John

[ScottH]

That is a really nice rifle, I love everything you did on it! 

[Marcruger]

I am not normally a fan of ash.  That said, your rifle looks beautiful, so that says a ton about the finishing job you did.   Nice work!   God Bless,   Marc

[hanshi]

I see nothing about this rifle that I do not simply love.  You spent a lot of time, thought and energy on this build and it shows big time.  And I'm a huge fan of the .45, my very favorite, and own 4 in that caliber.  I can't recall ever seeing an ash stocked rifle with that level of handsome figure.  I agree, it is something special alright. 

[Brian Jordan]

Great looking rifle!! I Love the look of Ash!

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

  .. the name "ROSS" might soon  be up there with the heavy hitters... !!! ... well done,.. I like it... and the perfect Carolina style horn to be with a rifle from the Old North State... !!! .. congrats and regards,... CCF

[aaronc]

Beautiful build.

[Joe R]

First off thanks everyone for the kind comments.

A little back story. I had been wanting to to build a southern mountain rifle in ash for some time. Late last fall when Kibler said they had some ash in I ordered one in 32 caliber. Shortly thereafter I was informed that the 32’s were discontinued and I was given the option of the other calibers. I waited for a while but Christmas approaching, and this was to be a present from my wife, I went ahead with a 45 cal. (That didn’t break my heart too bad because I was kind of wanting a lightweight 45 for deer hunting.) Well a new year rolled around and I was well into building the 45 when Kibler said they had a limited run of 32’s in stock. I jumped on that.

I draw filed the barrel and knocked the sharp corners off around the bottom of the tang and the barrel went in as easy, or easier, than the original 45 barrel. The pin drilling tool was used for the lugs on the new barrel and that was smooth and easy. The biggest job was making a new ramrod. I didn’t think ahead of time to order the ferrule that Kibler supplies in the kit so I made my own.

Here are some pics showing what it looks like with the new barrel.