A few of my finished kits

Musketfire

Musketfire

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I have here My recently completed navy arms charleville 1766 kit "kit was almost as old as I and gotten at a VERY good deal"
Then theres the longland bess done from a loyalist kit, a saddle ring carbine -again- another loyalist kit, and then theres my piedersoli bess done from a kit.

I have fired all except the Newly done Charleville, the Piedersoli has the worst characteristics, as the touch hole is drilled into the breach plug making fouling a major pain after 5 shots, and the lock springs are wanky compared to the loyalist pieces done from kits, So I think I am going to replace all the springs with stouter ones and get the groove in the breach plug polished out or at least polished down.

I am very excited to try out the charleville "top pictures" the lock is really very good strong springs and well angled, the touch hole came perfect in placement "if not a tiny bit low though nothing a bit of pan deepening cannot fix"
I blued the barell/ bands, and trigger guard.

P/S- they were pulled from the gun cabinet to be photographed and there all covered in oil."charlevilles 30 y/o stock is still flat coloured as its still soaking everything I throw at it in...

Cheers guys
 
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flash hole meet breech plug !!

Nice pieces indeed...i like working in kits as well, done 2 in the past two winters, a north West trade gun and this year a French Fusil de Chasse TULLE.........lots of time and patience but it is a rewarding hobby I find...

The flash hole meeting the breech plug face...I have seen an old illustration of a plug that had a groove that would line up with the flash hole itself so this is not new, i will post a picture of this shortly. So if you remove the plug, you could easily polish that area...

Why the bluing on the charleville?...is this a Dixie Gunwork kit??

cheers
 
plug with groove - picture

Here is an illustration from the Diderot encyclopedia...shows the part of a musket...including a groove in the face of the plug to coincide with the barrel flash hole...so not a new situation...but these two are old aquaintance

I had the same concern when building the NW Tradegun...the flash hole came right near to the face of the breech...the drill bit let you know when you get there!!

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t76/jacques1952/PICT6919.jpg
 
sail32 said:
How old is the Pedersoli kit ?
I have one of their Sharps 1874, and its' a very nice rifle, both in finish and choice of wood.
Click to expand...

I like piedersolis, choice of wood on the kit, after a few hours and hand rubbed oil, then after the trip I took it on, I oiled her again, she looks great....

I have a way with my rock locks...I finish em , then after each use and cleaning they are further oiled, it like that they are constantly evolving living things always getting better.


I dislike the springs on the piedersolis lock, which makes a noticeable click then bang , where the loyalist 1st mod bess just goes BANG, with no real notice of delay.
I bought and assembeled the piedersoli kit last summer.

I think it will be close to the loyalist 1st mod bess after I replace the springs on the lock and remedy the plug polishing.

As far as historical evidence of this problem with muskets I have no doubt it happened at times in the past aswell...

I like to squeeze out more then 5 shots in the field before a major scrub down.
Touch hole placement is far far too deep in this shooters opinion to allow that.

Side note , my Charleville had her maidenhead taken this morning,

I was able to get out of town and put 5 cartritges through her, not bad at all, Ignition was almost as fast as the longland "thats good" The problem is the touchhole is a bit low in the pan , so today I am going to deepen the pan a smidge.


As the woman and son are off to the mother in laws for the day.:dancingbanana:

Cheers

Rob
 
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JacquesT said:
Nice pieces indeed...i like working in kits as well, done 2 in the past two winters, a north West trade gun and this year a French Fusil de Chasse TULLE.........lots of time and patience but it is a rewarding hobby I find...

The flash hole meeting the breech plug face...I have seen an old illustration of a plug that had a groove that would line up with the flash hole itself so this is not new, i will post a picture of this shortly. So if you remove the plug, you could easily polish that area...

Why the bluing on the charleville?...is this a Dixie Gunwork kit??

cheers
Click to expand...


The way the plug has the groove in it it different then the encyclopedia picture you have there, Its more of a long thin and deep trench along the face of the plug caused by the bit used when the touch hole was origionally drilled,.

I blued the charleville, in the spirit of Irregulars and woodsmen of the time rangers/militia from the 1770's .. "I also like how it looks".

Its a great bluing solution from CANADIAN TIRE of all places., it wears good and ages very nicely in my opinion.

The musket kit itself WAS offered by dixie in the 70's The gent I bought it from is in my regiment, he had it in parts unfinished all unloved and lonely in his garage for nearly as long as I have been on this earth.

I really lucked into it..

Its in the tub now soaking in breakfree...after the lady leaves I am going to give it a really good cleaning and then re oil the stock, until the next chance it has to make fire

Cheers
 
JacquesT said:
winter is my musket kit making season, after seeing the Fusil Fin on the link below...I hope for a short summer!!

Here is my next kit:
http://www.sittingfoxmuzzleloaders.com/Fusil Fin.htm

who can resist? not me!
Click to expand...



YEAH!! With those parts you can't go wrong, your grand kids will be shooting it happily.

I am really thinking about the musketoon blunderbuss, nice camping gun, and a 20 inch barell is longer then my present blunderbusses 16 inches, nice queen anne lock..

I build muskets whenever the spirit of the thing hits me, just gets in your head and does not go until you look down and the kit is complete, you find yourself in the bush scrubbin your barell with lake water after a days shootin a nice fire some coffee...thats the best feeling.



Rob
 
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Is the Brown Bess kit that you got from Loyalist arms from India. I have a Chareville (came finished) that came from TrackOTW and I really like it. It came sans touchole but that was fixed pdq. We proof tested it with about 130 grains of 2F and let her rip. No prob. The lock has a main spring like a bear trap and she sparks great.

Smooth bores rule! Steve (aka BushRatt)
 
I am looking at thier trade gun that is a copy of the British fusil de chase trade gun. They say it is one of thier easier kits. Any comments?

Steve Jones(aka Bush Ratt)
 
stevejones said:
I am looking at thier trade gun that is a copy of the British fusil de chase trade gun. They say it is one of thier easier kits. Any comments?

Steve Jones(aka Bush Ratt)
Click to expand...

Might be a good idea to spend a extra 20 bucks and get them to inlet the lock and trigger plate for you, that was insanely HARD to do on my charleville.

That said.....That trade gun will muck into a really nice gun!!

My longland kit from loyalist yup the parts are from india, and are really well made ,hand forged high quality components, It puts my piedersoli to shame after I fitted stained and tuned er up.

After all the hype about piedersoli I was expecting their bess kit to be some super high quality thing then after the inspection of the parts...
poor brass work, underpowered lock springs...Its only redeeming quality is the walnut stock which IS very nice, everything else either needs replaceing or HEAVY rework, That said, I have to date fixed the breech problem and now am awaiting a shipment of new springs for the lock

P.I.T.A if you ask me, I could have gotten 2 sitting fox kits, by now with all this running to and fro.
I have said it onece and I will say it again..Piedersoli would have to really work to get 1 red cent from this shooter again, If I want expensive wallhangers I will buy origionals.

Rob
 
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I agree. Inletting the lock looks looks something for someone who has a little more skill than I have. I have an older Pedresoli Brown Bess (Beech stock) and its lock spring is very good. The frizzen caused me to nick name it the Brown B_ich but I had someone re-temper it and now it sparks great. Recoil was something to believe when you had her loaded up but I have found that if you do not have your face forward to the breech it makes a large difference. The shape of the stock causes it to come up and back, cracking me in the cheek bone. If you hold your head back on the stock were it is thicker it stops this from happening. I noticed on John Denners site that he has a Canadian Brown Bess. The Canadian military shaped the butt stocks of them like the Charelville, scoop out the stocks to allow the shooter to bring his face over the stock.

"only in Canada you say?"
 
trade gun...

check this site...
http://www.northstarwest./
I built the tradegun as my first kit project, the lock in inletted. I was quite satisfied of the quality of this US made kit. As well I was very appreciative of the owner (Matt) coaching as I went along this project.

Good product and good after sale support!
 
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