My Kentucky Long Rifle Build

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druryj

In Remembrance / Dec 27 2021
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My dad has an original muzzle loader he bought in Ohio at an estate sale. It has a 9 pound octagon false muzzle barrel made by B.P. Loar (spelling) with a Joseph Manton lock. It's of a plains design and I believe it's 43 caliber and looks like at one time it may have had a rear flip-up aperture sight. We've only shot it a few times with 70 grains FFFg powder with a heavy patch 40 cal round ball. Who knows, maybe one day I'll have its caliber truly checked and have a mold made.

Bought this little digital caliper on Amazon, shipped, for like $9 bucks. It really is pretty accurate. It has a "zero" button, and an auto OFF. Measures inside and outside diameter, and depth.
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Jcann

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Bought this little digital caliper on Amazon, shipped, for like $9 bucks. It really is pretty accurate. It has a "zero" button, and an auto OFF. Measures inside and outside diameter, and depth.
1d4ccab8f5a0ccada350998d95d5e8f1.jpg

e2c86e3f1b9f9cb22f83f3f0833dc664.
391a689ee7804e3af6fe9bffd94e4cc3.jpg

I have two different dial calipers but if I was going to check the caliber I will probably slug the bore with Cerrosafe and then somehow determine how much to reduce it due to a cloth patch. I assume I could use a minni ball with a patch in lieu of a round ball if I ever get back into shooting smoke poles again.
 

druryj

In Remembrance / Dec 27 2021
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I have two different dial calipers but if I was going to check the caliber I will probably slug the bore with Cerrosafe and then somehow determine how much to reduce it due to a cloth patch. I assume I could use a minni ball with a patch in lieu of a round ball if I ever get back into shooting smoke poles again.

Man that’s beyond me. Sounds good though.


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druryj

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No pics today. Going to just do a little sanding on the stock and clean up inside the barrel channel a bit. You install the brass thimbles that hold the ramrod from inside the barrel channel. I need to make sure they are positioned correctly and then check for fit.

Next step is to start filing/fitting the barrel tenons and sights. After that, it will be time to start finishing the stock and bluing the barrel. Once that is done, I just have to do final assembly and go shoot it!


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druryj

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I am not yet happy with the finish on the brass pieces...so I am polishing away at them today while watching a British Cop Show, Paranoid, on Netflix. Man, this is a lot of work, but I want my brass to be clean and shiny.

Below is a pic of the brass Stock Joining Plate, which is used along with two long steel pins to join the rear and front stock together. It's thin. I wish it was thicker. So I came up with an idea.

To understand what I am saying next, you need to understand that there is about 5/8" inch or so of barrel sticking out at the muzzle end, after the brass End Piece. So you could have a little bit thicker joining plate in between the two pieces of the stock if you wanted to without having a negative effect on the rifle's looks.

I'm thinking about making a new, somewhat thicker Stock Joining Plate out of either a lighter, or darker piece of wood, like ebony or maybe walnut, to use in place of the thin brass stock joining plate. The piece itself is small; like 1.5" X 1.5" roughly. I think I could trace the outline and use a bandsaw to cut a rough part out of a piece of nice wood, and use a Dremel to do the finish cuts. Then it would just be a matter of proper sanding to fit the fabricated wood piece in between the two pieces of the stock.

Check out the pics of this Brass Stock Joining Plate below and if interested, tell me what you think about my idea of making a new thicker one from a piece of good hardwood.

You can see where the Brass Stock Joining Plate fits between the two pieces of the stock just behind the rear sight, in the pic below of a finished Kentucky Long Rifle I pulled off the innerweb. Man, you gotta be careful searching for pics on these things...I was looking for "Butt Plate" awhile ago and Sweet Baby Jeebus the things I saw!
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MacFromOK

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I am not yet happy with the finish on the brass pieces...so I am polishing away at them today while watching a British Cop Show, Paranoid, on Netflix. Man, this is a lot of work, but I want my brass to be clean and shiny.
I don't know much about polishing brass... but for electrical contact points (relays and such) I use 3M 400 grit sandpaper to remove the rough spots, then use the back side of the sandpaper to polish them to a mirror finish (I use both sides dry). Paper is a lot more abrasive than most folks realize, even card stock like recipe cards.

Contacts are generally a tungsten-carbide alloy that is pretty hard, so brass should cut a lot quicker. Might be worth a try on a scrap piece or hidden part of the brass you're working with.

Just a thought. :drunk2:
 

druryj

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I don't know much about polishing brass... but for electrical contact points (relays and such) I use 3M 400 grit sandpaper to remove the rough spots, then use the back side of the sandpaper to polish them to a mirror finish (I use both sides dry). Paper is a lot more abrasive than most folks realize, even card stock like recipe cards.

Contacts are generally a tungsten-carbide alloy that is pretty hard, so brass should cut a lot quicker. Might be worth a try on a scrap piece or hidden part of the brass you're working with.

Just a thought. :drunk2:

It's a good thought. For finish, I just pour a little Brasso on a piece of cardboard RUB A DUB DUB.

* Edit: Rub a dub dub as in I just scrub the brass back and forth across Brasso soaked cardboard for awhile and polish with a soft cloth. The cardboard does a great job of smoothing out flat surfaces very well.
 
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druryj

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The brass is as good as it's gonna get...for now anyway. After yet more polishing, I spent a few hours today sanding the stock down to 400 grit. It's smooth and ready for stain. Then I cleaned up all the drill holes, inside the inletting and barrel channel, and everywhere wood meets metal. I'm no cabinet maker, but this thing is coming together so everything fits right and tight with no gaps or boogered up areas. (At least that will be seen).

I need to get serious now on fitting the sights and barrel tenons to the barrel. Ugh. File, check, file, check...tap, tap, tap. Once I get the tenons installed properly, I have to carefully measure and drill through the wood stock and the steel tenons, with the barrel installed, Then there are two tenon pins to be tapped in through the stock and the holes I just drilled in the tenons to hold the barrel in place. This has to be precise; and that's not my strongest suit. I tend to just beat the crap out of stuff to make it fit, but that approach is not the one I need to take here. I think I'll leave this for later, after I ponder the process a little more and am fresh, and armed with new drill bits to enrich my prospects of doing it right.

The pics show the parts I have to install and get lined up; the barrel, the tenons to be fitted in the dovetails, the tenon pins, and the stock, with it's cut-outs for the barrel tenons to sit down in. Once I install the tenons in the barrel, it's a matter of very precisely measuring how far down and how far back to drill the holes through the stock and barrel tenons. There's not a lot of room for error. If the drill holes don't run cleanly through both sides of the stock and the tenons, so I can tap those tenon pins through, I run the risk of screwing up the tenons and/or the stock.
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MacFromOK

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One more thought...

When you have close-fitting metal parts, you can freeze the inner part and heat the outer part (even a small amount, like with a hair dryer) to gain a bit more temporary clearance when assembling.
:drunk2:
 

druryj

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One more thought...

When you have close-fitting metal parts, you can freeze the inner part and heat the outer part (even a small amount, like with a hair dryer) to gain a bit more temporary clearance when assembling.
:drunk2:

That's a great idea! So let me get this straight...freeze the tenon pins and heat up the tenons (while installed on the barrel) like with a heat gun? Then quickly slap that barrel with the heated tenons down in the channel in the stock and then quickly tap the frozen pins in through the stock?

Is that right? :scratch:
 

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