54 cal finished.

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petew

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After a month of scraping and fitting things my long barrel half stock is done. It has a new 54 cal green Mountain 1/70 twist barrel 36" long, and weighs 10.36 pounds empty.Total length is 54". The donor stock came from a percussion parts gun {Investarm} that had a couple cracks, and the new barrel came from a swap. The lock came from a Lyman Deer Stalker. The sight is a TC mid barrel V type I converted to a tang mount peep with the help of a Brass insert for arrows and some solder.
I used super glue on the cracks in the stock, and then a dowel and epoxy for good luck. The dowel is under the trigger guard and not visible. The crack was very fine and wicked the super glue in . After I scraped the finish and did 6 coats of Tru oil you can not tell is ever had a crack. I think the crack came from the original gun not firing with Pyrodex, and a high speed encounter with a tree from the previous owner.
I learned a few lessons putting the gun together.
1/ Barrels are not threaded properly from the factory. They don't use a bottoming tap. so you need to buy one and finish the job.
2/ plugs are not always threaded properly and you end up buying a die so they will screw into the barrel.
3/ a 5/8 plug in a 54 cal barrel does not leave much of a shoulder to seat the plug against.
4/ a 54 cal 15/16 barrel does not have much meat left for cutting in dovetails or drilling for sights, and lugs etc.
In the end I hope it is a shooter, and it was fun making it.
I decided to Solder the Thimble lug and wedge lugs rather than drill and tap them.

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The wire in the sight was temporary, it has a pin now.
 
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You can cut range estimates by a yard. I wanted to do a full stock, Curly maple but shipping from the US was $86 bucks, just for the stock. A half stock like this one ships for $16.00. So I decided for now to go with the donor stock I had.

Now if I can find another barrel I will do it all over again , just diferent.
 
Well done, love the loooonnngg barrel. I'm surprised GM does not finish threading their barrels????

I've got one I'm building from "scratch" (parts) for my daughter right now (scaled down Pennsylvanian "inspired" - almost the opposite of yours) but my time is so painfully limited right now progress is slow. I'm using a Colerain barrel - no issues.
 
NorthCoastBigBore said:
Well done, love the loooonnngg barrel. I'm surprised GM does not finish threading their barrels????

I've got one I'm building from "scratch" (parts) for my daughter right now (scaled down Pennsylvanian "inspired" - almost the opposite of yours) but my time is so painfully limited right now progress is slow. I'm using a Colerain barrel - no issues.
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GM just taps the thread with a normal tapered tap, not a bottoming tap. Kind of shoddy I think.
 
What surprises me the most is that it is accepted by the Muzzle loading community in general that you need to buy a bottom tap and create the shoulder for the plug to seal against, and that you should expect to need to complete putting the threads on the plugs. Sure we should expect to do the fit of the plug to the barrel,for length and seal, but buying threaded parts that are not threaded correctly for the intended application is just wrong and poor quality.
 
I hear that - the Colerain barrels have required nothing more than some light filing to finish-fit the breech plugs. VERY little at all to get it flush & line up with the flats (tried a couple of different breech plugs now, was the same scenario on each).
 
Colerain and Rice barrels I have bought already had the breech plug fitted. I agree about the GM barrels and have created a bottom tap to finish the threads and clean out the threads when doing other work at the breech that results in crud in the threads. Not to worry as apparently GM is no longer making muzzle loading barrels - according to a note in the TOTW website.

Nice work!!
 
A better man than I. I've a GM based on a Buchanan ( Spelling ) design languishing on a shelf at about the 30 % stage 'cause I'm wood retarded, lol.
Metalwise I'm great, but at wood a scared schoolkid.
Nice work.
 
tokguy said:
A better man than I. I've a GM based on a Buchanan ( Spelling ) design languishing on a shelf at about the 30 % stage 'cause I'm wood retarded, lol.
Metalwise I'm great, but at wood a scared schoolkid.
Nice work.
Click to expand...

That's a shame to have the parts and not finish it , and the rest of us have a devil of a time getting parts.
 
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