Kibler Kit

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Hawg

New member
I've been wanting a flintlock rifle for a long time. I don't spend a lot of money now so I decided to go ahead and get a Kibler Woodsrunner kit. I was worried that I'd just mess it up but it's practically already built. All the inletting is perfect. The butt plate, trigger guard and entry pipe are already installed. The barrel is a .54 caliber Green Mountain and is swamped. All the holes are drilled and tapped where called for. The lugs for the ramrod thimbles are forged with the barrel. The barrel has very little tool marks. The butt plate is almost finished and the wood to metal fit as is isn't all that bad. It will take very little sanding to mate the wood to the metal. The trigger guard is the worst. I ordered a plain maple stock but it has some figure to it and even some striping.


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ligonierbill

New member
We all like fancy wood, but many old guns are plain. When your life depends on it, reliability and accuracy trump tiger stripes. When I built one "from scratch ", I went with plain wood figuring I'd botch it. Didn't, but I'm glad I stayed plain.

Good luck with your project.
 
H

Hawg

New member
ligonierbill said:
We all like fancy wood, but many old guns are plain. When your life depends on it, reliability and accuracy trump tiger stripes. When I built one "from scratch ", I went with plain wood figuring I'd botch it. Didn't, but I'm glad I stayed plain.

Good luck with your project.
Click to expand...

I ordered plain wood. This is what they sent. No, I'm not complaining. :D

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Oliver Sudden

New member
I got the medium grade wood on mine, looks like you got nearly the same grade! You’ll be dazzled by how that rifle feels in your hand.
 
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H

Hawg

New member
Oliver Sudden said:
I got the medium grade wood on mine, looks like you got nearly the same grade! You’ll be dazzled by how that rifle feels in your hand.
Click to expand...

Got pics?

I am dazzled by it. Jim says to assemble it before doing any sanding. It feels amazing. I never had anything with a swamped barrel before and it balances perfectly.
 
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Oliver Sudden

New member
I made the toe plate, patch box end and ram rod tip to gussy it up a bit. The end piece was a piece of brass that got bent to shape and filed to fit.
 
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Hawg

New member
I have made some progress with it. I've got the nose cap and butt plate mated to the stock and got the ramrod slimmed down so it fits the hole in the stock. I even got the tip put on and pinned. I used a bigger nail to pin it than the one that came with it. I couldn't find a drill bit that would work with it. The pics make it look worse than it is. you can run your fingers across the joints and you won't be able to feel where wood meets metal. There are a few spots where you can barely feel it with your thumbnail on the butt plate but I'm calling it good. The next project is filing the tang down. I haven't polished any of the metal yet. I've got the whole stock sanded down with 120 and 220 grit. I've been over it twice with 220 but I keep finding tool marks. I'm sanding those spots as I find them. Once I get them all out to my satisfaction I'll go over the whole stock with 320.

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As you can see the tang is going to take a good bit of filing.

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If there's anything you see that you think needs more work say so.
 
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Oliver Sudden

New member
Don’t file the tang down, figure out why it isn’t pulled down by the screw. To make it easier to get the machine marks out of the wood use a weak water based stain to put a bit of color in the wood. Then use fine sand paper (320) and you’ll see the marks well.
 
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Hawg

New member
I think the inlet isn't deep enough. In Jim's building video it shows him filing it down so I just assumed it was a necessary thing. If I was good with hand tools I'd deepen the inlet and bend the tang down some. That's a good idea about the weak stain.
 
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Hawg

New member
I'll measure it and see if I can bend it down some. If I can't I'll have to file it. I have the chisels and gouges to deepen the inlet but I don't have the experience to use them.
 
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ligonierbill

New member
Sharp chisel, mallet, patience (and more patience). Since you are only changing the depth of the inlet, it's fairly straightforward.
 
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Hawg

New member
It's really not that much. The camera makes it look worse than it is. The battery in my calipers is dead so I can't tell how much difference there is but the tang is definitely thicker than the inlet is deep. There's a lot of meat on the tang so I don't see where filing a few thousandths off is going to hurt anything. The screw does pull the tang down into the inlet some without any strain but when it stops it stops solid. I think I'm going to file the bottom until I get past the screw hole so I don't mess up the countersink and then file from the top where the tang is thicker.

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