Kibler really has helped me in many ways. As a young teen I got a TC kit as so many did, and I wanted it to be made perfectly. I had been reading muzzleloading magazines and books for a few years, and at about 14 I was ready to build one. But things didn't go together right, I didn't really know tools or wood or iron working, and eventually I stopped. Whether that was because of my lack of skill, the problems with the kit, or that I was a teen I don't know.
During the middle ages of my life, I just bought ready made guns. Lots of antiques, quite a few black powder. Got a contemporary flintlock by Bruton. Decades went by, but I still remembered the excitement I had when I was young, dreaming of making a beautiful long rifle, maybe even one of those cantakerous flintlocks.
I decided to try again. I bought the Kibler SMR, and it was such high quality, I knew I could do a good job on it. I finished it, and like D. says, the lock is totally reliable. I don't even pick the vent, it fires almost every time, and very fast. I have shot it in a few muzzloader matches and came in 2nd or 3rd each time.
When Jim announced his Hawken kit I thought I don't really want a Hawken, but that is the type I failed to finish at 14. And I wanted to support his business, as well as the great Buckskinner movement of my youth. Plus I lived in St. Louis as a boy, moved to NC, then like a lot of adverterous North Carolinians in the 1820s, I moved out west in my mid 20s and. So I got one, and it's even better than the SMR. I shot it only twice sighting it in, then took it to the same ML match, and came in 1st. I shot it better than any ML in my life, better than a lot of cartridge guns...it fits me that well. Yeah, Kibler has changed the world of ML.
35 yds off hand:
