Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Flintlock kit

For quite some time I have been wanting to build a flintlock kit. I have looked at the Kibler kits, but wanted to ask if there are other high quality flintlocks to consider.

It must be .45-.50 caliber and have a high quality lock. It will be used for whitetail hunting regularly. Easy dismounting of the barrel from the stock is a plus as it will be used in wet and snowy conditions in the midwest- this feature appears not to be an attribute of the Kibler rifles.

Thank you for any recommendations.

I've gotten back into black myself and like you am looking at doing a kit. Sounds like you will want something like a Hawken/Plains Rifle kit. You can find some pretty nice kits at Track of the Wolf or The Hawken Shop or imported kits at Dixie Gunworks.

I have the same concerns about weather being a factor with the flintlock rifles, but it looks like the use of a "cows knee" or the application of some kind of wax product can help a lot while hunting in wet weather.

Good luck in your search.

Byron

Thanks for the reply. I am not worried about weather affecting the lock, that is part of the nature of the sport and can be moderated in the ways you allude to.

I am interested in a high quality lock that sparks well and doesn't need to be re hardened or reshaped in order to work correctly.

My interest in being able to easily dismount the barrel from the stock has to do with cleaning and rust prevention after use in wet weather.

Any additional suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

"Flintlock" and "easy" do not coexist in the same equation. If you desire using and hunting with a flintlock, you assume a level of difficulty as an integral part of it. "Easy" is the reason for modern inlines.

Jim Kibler, though I can't stand the dude's arrogance on the personal level, builds THE BEST kit on the market bar none. You can literally assemble the raw parts and fire it in just a few hours. That's how far he has perfected his CNC manufacturing of the parts. If you have a problem with one of his kits, or even one of his parts, he WILL make it right with you and often insist on personally addressing the issue himself. He might come off as a total jerk, but he fully and completely understands what a satisfied, happy customer is. A well-done and well finished Kibler rifle or smooth rifle is an absolutely beautiful thing.

I won't personally buy a Kibler because Jim Kibler doesn't offer a left handed model and literally considers left handed shooters a second class type of person. No joke. I've seen him post to that effect. So my dollars will never make it to his bank account. But, if you can live with a right handed flintlock kit you simply cannot do any better than a Kibler without being a rifle builder yourself and building one from scratch.

Pecatonica makes a fantastic kit but requires much more fitting and finishing than anything Kibler. Stay the f-uck away from TVM unless you love fixing all of their inletting mistakes before you start building your rifle. Chambers is good to go, but also requires quite a bit of fit & finish.

Flintlocks and hunting, and weather. Preventing rusting of the metal in the stock requires waxing both the metal and the wood (both inside all the inletting as well as the exterior). Properly waxed with a proper wax like Axe Wax or Renaissance Wax, or even simple bees wax, will prevent rusting if the rifle is hunted in fowl weather. Using a cows knee, shielding the lock from rain, and changing your prime often keeps the reliability of ignition at its best.

Cleaning a pinned barrel flintlock....starts with using Holy Black and a good natural patch lube. I use a 50/50 mix of bear oil and deer tallow for a patch lube. Keeps the fouling soft and easy to get out. Remove your lock because you need to clean and lube it anyway after shooting. Chuck the rifle up in a gun vise with the flash hole pointing down at 6:00. Using cold or warm water (no need at all for hot/boiling) Scrub the bore with bronze brushes, cotton patches, or a worm loaded with tow, and you will have a clean bore in no time. Like I said, easy isn't part of it, you have to use some elbow grease. Pointing the flash hole down at 6:00 keeps anything you push out from sopping into the wood and getting into places you don't want it. Let it fall and drip onto a rag beneath the rifle. Dry the clean bore well and patch it with your natural patch lube. Done.

Feral American pretty well hit it on the head.

I'll add a few things:
I really wanted to take up building muzzleloaders years ago. I have a lot of parts, tools, and a couple stocks that I never did get around to finishing. You can get into issues with kits that you may not know how to correct and then have to figure out how to fix your screw ups.

I wish the Kibler kits had been around when I got into it. Early Flintlocks are the simplest rifles to build and getting one together correctly would have taught me a lot that I couldn't figure out on the internet or from books. It takes a lot of reading just to understand how different rifles should look on the OUTSIDE (that's the easy part).

A word on Hawkens. The late Hawken Caplocks are really cool rifles but have some pretty advanced geometry going on between the lock, lug, tang, trigger bar and trigger guard. Even the outside of the lock inlets are angled in relation to the stock and the barrel on the late model Hawkens. A rough inletted Hawken Kit is not a place for beginners. If I were convinced I wanted a nice Hawken (I don't mean CVA, TC, or even Lyman, they bear no resemblance to the originals other than being half stocked), I'd save my pennies and look for a used custom or have one built (John Bergman, Roger Sells, plenty of good Hawken builders out there, living and dead).

Honestly, unless you have A LOT of HAND woodworking tools, and a LOT of time on your hands, you can buy a nice custom Flintlock or late Hawken for less than you can get in to it for. The rifles seem expensive, but unless you want this to be a dedicated hobby, trust me, they are not. Once you get into it, you develop a real appreciation for the guys that are good at it.

Do some looking around on the American Longrifle Forum and the Contemporary Builders website. It's a serious rabbit hole, even if you're just going to buy a completed rifle. Also, Track of the Wolf's website is pretty educational, order their print catalog if they still do one. It's handy for learning about what parts go with what.

Thanks for the replies. I used the word easily only in reference only to taking the barrel from the stock as I felt this would be necessary for cleaning and maintenance on a gun used and foul weather. I am not trying to make anything else about hunting with a flintlock easy. I built a Thompson Center, Hawken from a kit in high school approximately 40 years ago. It turned out decently and has shot a pile of deer. I am now looking to my deer hunting more interesting by using a Flintlock.

I mainly wanted recommendations of kits besides Kiblers that also had offered good barrels and locks or conversely, things to absolutely stay away from.

Thank you

In my opinion "kits" are just a quicker means to the same end, in theory. It's also my opinion that to properly build a flintlock kit, you really need to understand the process of building from scratch the way the original builders did things.

Take the time to watch and enjoy this 8 part series. This cat knows his stuff. Absorb everything he says and your build will be better for it, whether your building just a kit or not.

There's another video worth watching that's out of Colonial Williamsburg VA. I'll dig that up and post it here too.

Wallace Gusler, first contemporary master gunsmith at Colonial Williamsburg likely forgot more about rifle building than any of us could ever know. He passed away last year at age 90. Long video, but worth every minute.

Some good info has been given. Just my 2 cents. IF you decide to build a flintlock Don't worry about removing the barrel from the stock. As stated, wax the barrel channel and put Rig grease sparingly on the underside of the barrel then put beeswax along the edge of the barrel channel against the side of the barrel and you will not have any problems. Removing a barrel from the stock is not necessary to clean it. Just use a good rod with correct sized jag and patches. Everyone has their own method or concoction for cleaning. I use 90 percent rubbing alcohol, murphy's oil soap and hydrogen peroxide mixed in equal parts for cleaning. Read about it in Muzzle Blasts magazine years ago, tried it and it works.

I built a Track of the Wolf parts set (that's what they are) few years ago and it took awhile to fit and finish. Kibler is the best going now. If not look at buying one already built. The money spent on quality parts and labor is a good investment, less trouble and more enjoyment.

You can replace the pins with small wedge keys on a flintlock if you must have an easily removed barrel. I have friends with very decorated Lancaster style rifles which have small silver keys. I don't recommend removing those barrels often. The wood on a proper long rifle is very thin along the barrel and could easily break without the support of the barrel. For that reason, my Lancaster rifle has a thin layer of epoxy sealing the inside of the barrel channel. It is not visible, and is there to seal the wood. I have waxed the underside of the barrel to help keep moisture out. My rifle is pinned and the pins are tapered on each end as not to chip the wood. I have only removed the barrel twice after I got caught in some light rain. Scared me to remove it, but I found no moisture between barrel and wood either time.

In my opinion, pins are no more difficult to remove than keys. Just be careful replacing the pins that you don't chip the wood around the hole.

I appreciate all the good information here.

I built a percussion 54 cal from a kit 50+ years ago and shot more than a few whitetail with it. I sold it, dang it.

Now, I’m interested in building or buying a flintlock, making my own BP as well. I have a lot to learn and I really appreciate the information here.

I’d like mine to be 45 or 50 caliber, preferable 50, I suppose.

Back in the day, late sixties to around 1980, I built thirteen muzzle loaders. Never used a kit. A few were pretty awful. I was a shop teacher at the time and used many of the operations ad demonstrations on inletting, carving, shaping, routing. Several shotguns, one using (ugh) Thompson Hawken locks and with a drum and nipple for percussion and a touch hole liner to swap in for flint. Several pistols, flint and percussion. A couple of traditional flint lock rifles using Russ Hamm and Bob Roller locks. A couple of half stock rifles and a .31 cal squirrel rifle for my wife.
Walnut and maple planks, barrels from Douglass, Num rich and one Bill Large. Joe Mellott made me a 36" full choke 12 ga barrel for my trap gun.
I always hated the mainstream kits from TC, CVA, Traditions and a few others as they looked like factory knockoffs.
There are some good books on building your own and if you can handle a router, surgeon tool, band saw, chisels and drill you can, over time, build a pretty nice gun.
I'd make an early Hawken half stock flinter for your requirements.
I did make a couple locks, using the internals from old shotgun hammer locks. Failed on one flint lock from a kit.