Thread: American long rifle build

I got this American long rifle kit from a guy who brought it off another guy who started it and made a huge mess of the most important inletting areas





Let's just say he made some howling mistakes

Anyway it's a 50 cal slow twist 42" long full curly maple stocked rifle

I'm just carrying on with the build and solving the problems as I go

Made a flash hole liner from a HT bolt
I bodged it together to out a few shots through it



Then I dropped working on it for a couple of weeks

Now I have fitted the brass butt plate
And salvaged some wood to fill the gaps around the lock



Fitted the stock tie plate



Bedded and released the tang in clear epoxy to tidy up that mess



Fitted the back loading rod pipe . Tricky !



Stripped the lock so I can build in some support where it was overly inletted !
Then I will re assemble the lock and fit it and remove just enough to work and leave enough to correctly support the lock



Once that is sorted I need to relocate the trigger plate to get proper engagement with the double bar single and double set system

Muzzle cap is fitted to the stock
Another tricky job and not made any easier by a long split in the very end of the Stock
This cap and some bedding under it should stop the crack from migrating


Then I laid out the next job
Locations of the last 2 loading rod pipes and the three barrel key tennons that need to be dovetailed into the under side of the barrel

Cool project.
Where does one get one of these kits?

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Cool project.
Where does one get one of these kits?

https://youtu.be/YcCRTRJWR8I
I had one of these ordered..54 cal smoothbore/28 guage shot.police import license, set to be shipped just after March 15.
Jim emailed me to say USPS had received notice from NZ POS that any firearms shipments would be turned back at shippers cost.

Originally Posted by madjon_

https://youtu.be/YcCRTRJWR8I
I had one of these ordered..54 cal smoothbore/28 guage shot.police import license, set to be shipped just after March 15.
Jim emailed me to say USPS had received notice from NZ POS that any firearms shipments would be turned back at shippers cost.

Its probably pretty easy now @madjon
The Americans don't consider these to be firearms in the context of export etc

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Cool project.
Where does one get one of these kits?

@vietnamcam Track of the Wolf has heaps of them
There are plenty of businesses in USA doing them and they are very comprehensive kits

All the pipes are in




What a bonus.
It was supposed to be 28º today so I stayed home
Turns out it was much cooler and I got in some quality workshop time

That is coming along well!

Originally Posted by madjon_

https://youtu.be/YcCRTRJWR8I
I had one of these ordered..54 cal smoothbore/28 guage shot.police import license, set to be shipped just after March 15.
Jim emailed me to say USPS had received notice from NZ POS that any firearms shipments would be turned back at shippers cost.

I could shoot my eye out with that.
Would need to weld half a safe on top of the one I have.....shit its long!
Be a cool project tho.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

I could shoot my eye out with that.
Would need to weld half a safe on top of the one I have.....shit its long!
Be a cool project tho.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

@vietnancam they do short ( children's) ones also

42" is quite a barrel
Stupid long with full stock and very thin for most of that

Finally had a day off and spent a little time on the ALR after cleaning up the workshop and doing my chores

Re inletted the lock into the bedding block I had epoxied into the lock where the previous owner tried the job
Re positioned the trigger plate so that the double set double bar trigger works both as a single trigger and double set trigger
The brass trigger guard will mostly cover the mistakes made at both ends of the trigger plate inletting done previously

Just need to for the lock bolts and trigger mounting screws I I can have a proper play again

Afternoon in workshop
Fitted both lock bolts
Rear one is through the breech plug / tang so lots of measure and check before drilling
Front one has a tiny space to fit in under the barrel and above the loading rod hole

Fitted the double set trigger and have both single and double pulls working well

So I glued on the sights and split some firewood old style





Just cleaned the barrel and certainly nice being a new barrel

Made four brass escutchions for the lock screw heads to sit in


Fitted them in the milling machine finding the centers and cutting the rebate with a 12mm end mill
Nice tight fit and file and sand down flush with the stock

used the surface grinder to thin down the barrel tennons to a 1.2mm base thickness
And milled the first barrel tennon rebate



And hand fitted the dovetail edges with a dead edge 3 corner file
Marked the tennon and barrel so the correct tennon goes in the rebate and the right way around
They will all be unique to a location



Two more to fit and then on to milling in the rear sight
And then I have to make a front sight from scratch because the glue failed that I was using to test the rifle and I have miss placed ( lost temporarily ) the front sight !!

Oh well the front sight was cast iron and didn't show up so well
Might whittle one out of brass

Everything is installed properly now except for the trigger guard which was not big enough for the double set triggers ... and didn't like me trying to modify the shape

Front sight will do for now and is maybe a little thin. But is bright enough



Rear sight looks good and I will play with the sight notch once I have a wider front sight on. It's installed just behind the balance point because you mostly hold these one handed because they are a bit long for slinging over the shoulder



There is a lot of hardware attached to that tiny long thin piece of wood.