I too would suggest buying a kit - they are better described as parts sets - from Track or from Jim Chambers. I've done two Chambers rifles, each on the go for more than a year. There's plenty of challenge and artistry involved with these parts sets if you want to make something special, particularly in finishing the stocks, and you have the advantage of recreating a longrifle that is closely based on an actual surviving original (particularly so in the case of the Jim Chambers kits).
Regarding locks, if you don't do a kit then you should choose a lock that is right for the rifle you are intending to recreate - if late 18th century a round-faced English or a Germanic style lock (as was the original Siler), or if early 19th century then probably an English Ketland-style lock. Brown Bess musket locks were not used on longrifles, probably because the locks were too large for the slender stock favoured by the Pennsylvania makers, though you do see them on American fowlers of this period. On New England militia muskets you occasionally see pistol-sized Tower locks, though don't be fooled by Pedersoli's 'Kentucky' rifle into thinking that little pistol-sized locks were standard for the American longrifle - I don't know why Pedersoli made that rifle with those little locks. The standard sized Siler locks sold by Track and Chambers accurately represent the size of locks on most original rifles of the late 18th century.
I found the Muzzleloading Forum to be a huge help when I was starting. There are some remarkable gunmakers there and the forum contains a phenomenal amount of information. There, you will see several gifted makers who work from scratch - except barrels and locks - and as you look at their work you see that they are successful because they have a huge knowledge of the American longrifle and its regional variations, and so can recreate rifles that are entirely in keeping with the historical context rather than just being generic.
I also found the following books indispensable: Peter Alexander's The Gunsmith of Grenville County: Building the American Longrifle, Dixons' The Art of Building the Pennsylvania Longrifle, and Buchele, Shumway and Alexander's Recreating the American Longrifle. I was also lucky to acquire a copy of the bible of the American longrifle, Shumway's two-volume Rifles of Colonial America, which allowed me to study the originals that Jim Chambers used as the basis for his kits.
Regarding locks, if you don't do a kit then you should choose a lock that is right for the rifle you are intending to recreate - if late 18th century a round-faced English or a Germanic style lock (as was the original Siler), or if early 19th century then probably an English Ketland-style lock. Brown Bess musket locks were not used on longrifles, probably because the locks were too large for the slender stock favoured by the Pennsylvania makers, though you do see them on American fowlers of this period. On New England militia muskets you occasionally see pistol-sized Tower locks, though don't be fooled by Pedersoli's 'Kentucky' rifle into thinking that little pistol-sized locks were standard for the American longrifle - I don't know why Pedersoli made that rifle with those little locks. The standard sized Siler locks sold by Track and Chambers accurately represent the size of locks on most original rifles of the late 18th century.
I found the Muzzleloading Forum to be a huge help when I was starting. There are some remarkable gunmakers there and the forum contains a phenomenal amount of information. There, you will see several gifted makers who work from scratch - except barrels and locks - and as you look at their work you see that they are successful because they have a huge knowledge of the American longrifle and its regional variations, and so can recreate rifles that are entirely in keeping with the historical context rather than just being generic.
I also found the following books indispensable: Peter Alexander's The Gunsmith of Grenville County: Building the American Longrifle, Dixons' The Art of Building the Pennsylvania Longrifle, and Buchele, Shumway and Alexander's Recreating the American Longrifle. I was also lucky to acquire a copy of the bible of the American longrifle, Shumway's two-volume Rifles of Colonial America, which allowed me to study the originals that Jim Chambers used as the basis for his kits.
