# Anybody Building/Shooting Flinters??



## Osprey

Anybody in Nodak land building or shooting flinters? I just really got into the old stuff this year, have built my first (Armstrong style, 42" .45 bbl, lots of personal custom stuff on it) and taken 3 deer with it already here in Maryland this season. This new obsession, in fact, is part of what kept me from coming out for my normal trip this year, only so much $ to go around! :evil:


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## barebackjack

I built a Lehigh style flinter this summer. Has yet to harvest anything, but is sure purty to look at. Pile drives balls at 50 yards. Its got a 42" greenmountain .50 cal barrel, siler lock, grade 2 curly maple stock which easily has enough curl to make grade 3. I used an aquafortis stain, made it a little darker than i would have liked, but thats what they used back than. I polished the lock and barrel to give it a good contrast to the dark stock, im gonna let it brown on its own.


































I went real "period correct" on this one as far as the build. Not a single piece of sandpaper touched wood, all scraped. I like the kind of "rough" finish this adds to the piece. I did some simple relief carvings, plan on doing some more intricate ones next time. Ive been practicing my hand-engraving skills, and plan on doing some simple engravings on the patchbox lid and of course, signing the barrel.

I love this hobby, when im building one, i cant wait to finish so I can shoot it, and when im shooting one, I cant wait to get workin on another.

Im planning on building a fusil-de-chasse this summer, 44" barrel, chief grade.

Got photos or yours, id love to see it.


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## darkgael

BBJ: Beautiful job. I especially like that you scraped the stock smooth as opposed to sanding. That gun is really something to be proud of.
Building one (or more) of these is an obsession that I have not allowed my self yet. But....seeing those pix makes the idea very tempting. Was that a kit?
I have two flinters - a Lyman and a TVM fowler - I enjoy them much more than my percussion guns. 
Pete


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## weasle414

How much does it cost to make something like that? I'd love to make one of my own someday.


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## barebackjack

To make a shootable rifle, (nothing fancy, no elaborate carvings and such) takes really moderate wood and metalworking skills, and lots and lots of patience. Special tools arent really required, a good set of files and rasps, flathead scredriver, and hand drill or better yet, drill press is really all thats needed.

This rifle was built from scratch, the stock started as a blank, although i did have the barrel channel routed and ramrod hole drilled for me.
I dont want to know how many hours I have in it, but from start to finish was 4 months working here and there when time allowed. My only other previous experience building was a Lyman kit.

I recommend a guy start with a kit first such as Lyman, CVA, and traditions have out, this gives you rough understanding of how everything works together, and allows you to do final inletting and pre-inlet parts. I know my Lyman kit needed alot of "finish" work to make everything fit right, so its a great learning exprience at a relative cheap price.

You can get "kits" from places such as Track of the Wolf in MN, and Pecatonica Longrifle Supply, these are more of a bunch of parts that will work together rather than a kit. Both places have websites.

The parts for this rifle cost right around $400. But the outcome is a rifle worth $1000.


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## darkgael

BBJ: I think that you are selling yourself short. That rifle is worth more than a grand. But....you'll probably never sell it. 
What did you use to do the scraping? Standard cabinet scrapers or something else?
Pete


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## barebackjack

darkgael:

I made a set of heavy tool steel scrapers for taking off large quantities of wood fast. (the other fun thing about this hobby is making your own "specialty" tools). Its amazing how fast you can take off wood with a heavy gauge scraper.
I made a bunch in lots of shapes for concave/convex surfaces with different degrees of bend and such.

For the final finish I used microscope slides with ground edges.

I also think a scraped stock allows the curl and character of the wood to come through alot nicer than a sanded stock.


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## Osprey

Pretty gun Bareback!! I like the Lehigh's, that's what I'm doing next, although I'm not so PC on tools and styling. Gonna do mine with all German Silver furniture and a deep dark red stain, and need to do some engraving for the practice.

Give me few minutes and I'll see if I can pull up the photos of mine...


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## Osprey

Here we go. It's hard to get it all in a photo, longrifles fill the frame too quick!!










Did some brass wire inlay on the cheek and engraved my 'evil moon'...










I hunt sika deer here in Maryland, so I relief carved a stag on the stock...










I got really lucky on the curl, got the parts from Tip Curtis at Dixon's Gunmakers Fair in PA this summer ($730 for everything, although I've spent more on tools and such since!). Colerain bbl, grade 6 wood (by Tip's scale). It works, too. Sika during October season...










...and one of the whitetails from gun season...


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## Osprey

weasle414 said:


> How much does it cost to make something like that? I'd love to make one of my own someday.


Start checking some of the muzzleloading sites and suppliers, get a DVD or book, or three, and see what you're getting into. I had never built one before, but was very lucky to fall in with a group of experienced builders who meet once a week to work on guns - an immense helpl Without them I'd have still had a shooter, but it would never have turned out so well. This is what the parts set/kits look like when you get them...










Still lots of inletting, metal work, filing, sanding, etc. When you get a pre-carve stock you'll first think it's done and ready to go, but lots of wood to take off one to do it correctly. Some parts end up so thin it's pretty scary to work on.

You can get complete pre-carve kits for just under $500, but start adding higher grade wood and swamped bbls (for hunting you'll want that, much better handling and balance) and it goes up fast.


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## barebackjack

Gorgeous rifle Osprey, much fancier than mine!

What did you use for stain?
How difficult did you find the wire inlays to be (which I love by the way)? Lehighs were famous for lots of wire inlay and I really wanted to try it out on mine, but was already learning enough new techniques that I didnt want to try to learn another.

Ive always been drawn to the Lehigh style as well, but they are a strange cat, theres not a straight line on em anywhere.


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## Osprey

barebackjack said:


> What did you use for stain?
> How difficult did you find the wire inlays to be (which I love by the way)? Lehighs were famous for lots of wire inlay and I really wanted to try it out on mine, but was already learning enough new techniques that I didnt want to try to learn another.


I don't remember what the brands or specific colors were as it was bulk stuff the other guys had on hand, but it was a two part stain. First was a BRIGHT yellow stain, then after that dried was a top coat stain of brown. The yellow really helps bring out the curl.

The wire was easy. Was told I did the hardest thing by trying to do straight lines! But use thickish wire, I had some silver from TOTW that was awfully thin and flexible, would have been much harder if I'd have tried that for the first one.


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## rogerw

Well, I have built a couple of CVAs percussion guns many years ago in the early 80s, but since then have acquired some custom guns, mostly flinters. Here is me 4 weeks ago in Texas with my .58 flinter built in N. Alabama by J. Parker 3 yrs ago:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/r ... MG2100.jpg

I was the photographer as well as in the pic, many takes to get it framed well, and was so excited I didn't realize I had my hat on backwards!

I bought that gun to go elk hunting with in Colorado, but have not been back since I bought it.....it has taken 5 or 6 whitetails in the past few yrs including the bucks above and assorted spike/doe.

I also have a nice Tennessee Mountain flint rifle built here in Round Rock Texas by Lee Gaydos. I have lost count how many I have killed with it, but a real nice buck two years ago at 90yds, roundball passthru including leg/shoulder bones! I have never recovered a .50cal roundball, always they passthru.

I have 54yr old eyes with short-vision problems and bifocal corrective lenses for the past 10yrs, and I have been wearing glasses since I was 5yrs old, one eye is nearsighted, one is farsighted, and both have astigmatism. But I can shoot iron sights because I want to, and don't bellyache about it....I just do it. I have a feeling that many simply don't want to, and that is the only real problem they have......that and being Baby Boomers.

YHS,
rogerw


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