My Kentucky Long Rifle Build

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druryj

In Remembrance / Dec 27 2021
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Did you make the custom spacer, like you talked about? Maybe I missed it.


.

No. I decided to just use the brass spacer that cam with it. Looking at pictures of completed ones made me feel that the brass spacer tied the rifle together better.


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Snattlerake

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Saweeeeet!

Nice job. Are you going for the high polished finish or a usable knock around, hunting in the woods oiled satin type finish?
 

druryj

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Saweeeeet!

Nice job. Are you going for the high polished finish or a usable knock around, hunting in the woods oiled satin type finish?

As it will spend most of its life hanging above a fireplace, I’m going for the “Dang, That’s a Cool Looking Old Gun” look. It may get fired a few times, but I’m not really interested in lugging this long, heavy thing through the thickets.
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druryj

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I haven’t been working on this much lately, both the wife and I have been feeling poorly. But I got out and did a little bit on it in the last few days. I have the wood sanded down to 320 and ready stain and finish. I’ve steel wooled the barrel to #0000 and it is ready for finish too.

I also very carefully measured the distance from the end of the barrel to the center of the barrel tenons and from the top of the barrel down to the same spot. You have to be careful here and make sure you have the right spot marked on the stock so you can drill through the stock and the barrel tenons to put the tenon pins in. There’s not much room for error here, but I was successful! Here’s a pic.
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druryj

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When you get the kit, you have to fit the 2 barrel tenons into the 2 dovetails on the bottom of the barrel. It’s just like fitting a front or rear sight into their dovetails. This fitting and installation process for the sights and tenons probably took me the better part of a day to get them filed down to snug and installed properly. I’m in no rush and I would rather take my time and do this right than screw it up.

I’m going to begin the staining process after it warms up a bit this afternoon. Going to put a satin poly on top once I have the color I’m trying to get. I’ve decided to just Blue the barrel, I’m using Brownells Oxpho Blue. Pics to follow after I get a first coat on.


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DRC458

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I haven’t been working on this much lately, both the wife and I have been feeling poorly. But I got out and did a little bit on it in the last few days. I have the wood sanded down to 320 and ready stain and finish. I’ve steel wooled the barrel to #0000 and it is ready for finish too.

I also very carefully measured the distance from the end of the barrel to the center of the barrel tenons and from the top of the barrel down to the same spot. You have to be careful here and make sure you have the right spot marked on the stock so you can drill through the stock and the barrel tenons to put the tenon pins in. There’s not much room for error here, but I was successful! Here’s a pic.



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That's kinda' scary, isn't it? When I did mine years ago, I measured, and measured, and re-measured again, then held my breath when I started drilling. I wound up with the hole right at the top of the barrel tenon, but it worked!
 

druryj

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That's kinda' scary, isn't it? When I did mine years ago, I measured, nd measured, and re-measured again, then held my breath when I started drilling. I wound up with the hole right at the top of the barrel tenon, but it worked!

Scary? Oh yeah! This is one thing I wish they could do at the factory. But I understand why they don't; and really; why they can't. With the amount of fitting I had to do to get the breech end of the barrel flush with the top of the stock, in as much as removing some wood on order to drop the barrel down some, it would have thrown those holes all out of alignment anyway, especially the holes near the muzzle end. In my mind, this has been the hardest thing to get right in building this muzzleloader. I even bought a nice new digital caliper off Amazon to make sure my measurements were spot on.

If you are off on your measurements just a tiny bit, you run the risk of missing the barrel tenon entirely, or clipping it on it's bottom edge, or you could hit the bottom of the barrel itself as you drill through the wood stock and the metal tenons. There's also the fact that once you stain and finish the stock, that could possibly throw you off just a tiny bit too, if you let it goop up in the barrel channel for example. Hence, the earlier advice on freezing the tenon pins and heating the barrel tenons to help ease installation. One thing for sure, once I DO get the barrel installed in the stock, it's darn sure going to be stable.

I did a second and third coat of stain today. Blued the barrel with Oxpho-Blue. Tomorrow, its supposed to be in the low 80's, so its on with the Min-Wax Satin Polyurethane for the stock , and another pass of Oxpho-blue on the barrel. If all goes well, I'll have a fully functional .50 caliber black powder percussion fired Kentucky Long Rifle by week's end.

In the pics below, you can see one of the two holes in the stock where the pin will go through the stock and the fitted barrel tenon to help hold it in the stock firmly. At the breech end, there is a long tang screw that goes through the top of the stock and secures the barrel through the breech end to the trigger plate. At the muzzle end, there are two screws that go through the brass muzzle cap and into the barrel near the muzzle. In between, you have these two barrel tenons and their pins, so there are actually 5 screws holding the barrel securely in the stock. Probably a good idea too, since there may be a bit of recoil when you bust a cap on this .50 caliber rifle.

I'm anxious to shoot the darn thing! I needs me a coonskin cap now so's I can act like I'm Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone, out to kilt me a big ol' grizzle bar way out up thar in them the hills in ol' Ken-tuck'!
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Snattlerake

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One tip, look at your wood grain. See the way it reduces in size all the way to the bottom of the shoulder stock? Be careful when bumping that bottom piece. It could spilt off easily.

This is an extreme example. I'm talking about the very tip.

brokenstock.jpg
 

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