Main Discussion Area > Muzzleloaders
Kits at cabelas
sleek:
Well, if a good stock with a curved wrist isnt to be found, i wouldnt object to searching the woods looking for a tree that grew like that. What trees make acceptable stocks?
Eric Krewson:
I have never seen one of these kits break in the wrist, probably because they are pretty beefy in that area with extra wood.
In a perfect world the grain should run through the wrist like this cherry stock blank I am cutting out. I ruined this blank with a errant bandsaw cut when I was shaping it for a southern rifle.
You will not find this grain flow in any production guns or in most of the stock blanks you look at.
Hawkdancer:
Good gunstocks are from walnut, cherry, several hard maples,probably, the other hard shell nut trees, and fruit trees. You could also try the several stock makers and places like Track of the Wolf, and the Gunworks. Good luck with your project.
Hawkdancer
Tracker0721:
I’m thinking the mountain rifle from traditions will be a good one. 32” barrel rather than 28”. I hate that I can buy a used Hawkins for $200 or new for 450 but the kits are 380-425. All the same company too. I may just buy the used Hawkins, buy a slab and cut my own stock, and refinish the metal. Some of the used ones run for around 100 even on armslist!
I’ve done a good bit of gunsmithing and stock work. Just never dipped into muzzleloaders and I feel that’s a gap I wanna look into. Made selfbows, glass bows, compounds interested me for a week or 2, built and fixed a few rifles and shotguns so maybe muzzleloaders will be good for me! Just the cost of the parts that gets me, a custom Rem 700 would be about the same as a kit gun from a majority of the sites!
Thanks for the tips guys! I love following your builds and learning from you!
JW_Halverson:
Downside of buying a used muzzleloader for cheap is that you often don't know if you are buying a pig in a poke. Not many places will let you pull the breech plug for a lookie-loo down the pipe. Sometimes the rot has gotten deep into the threads of the breechplug on the inexpensive production guns because they were not well mated together in the first place.
At the very least, demand to run a lubed patched proper sized jag down the barrel on the end of a nylon or brass cleaning rod. Does it come out clean? Rusty? Toss that first patch and run another lubed patch down and pay attention to spots were it seems to not slide smoothly. Any rough stuff can be serious corrosion/rust. Any spot where it loses grip on the patched jag suddenly can be a bulged barrel that is one shot away from being a hand-held grenade in front of your delicate face. The only one you should buy is the one where the patched jag is gripped lightly and the jag runs smoothly to the bottom and back up with consistent grip all the way.
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