Black Powder, a New Gun, some Bags, and some Old Horns Part 1

The first year I was reenacting was a fun year.  I got to do a lot of fun stuff, but I had to miss out on some fun stuff too.  Most of it was because of time or location.  The thing that irked me the most however was that during the sieges I really couldn't participate.  I didn't have the proper equipment to do so, and to a degree this was a giant hole in my kit also.  I needed a gun, and I needed to learn how to use it. 

I had it in my head that year to try and build my own gun, and after talking to a few fine folks that were experts in the matter I thought I had the skills and materials to get it done.  There was one major problem I found out- I didn't know how a flint lock's lock works.  Or the trigger.  Or the barrel and how you line it all up.  Also I needed to get the proportions right for it to be functional.  This idea was quickly becoming overwhelming.  

That's when I remembered that these buggers come in kit form.  I thought I'd get a kit, put it together, alter it however I wanted, and then copy it and build more down the road.  After looking at kits from a lot of different makers it was as overwhelming as making one from scratch, and I knew I'd have a lot of the same problems- How do you line the parts up?  How do you install that breech plug?  How does the lock work?  How am I going to do this?!  Youtube, yet again, answered a few of my questions.  The fine folks like Mike Beliveau (duelist1954), Dave Canterbury (the Pathfinder School), and a few others I can't remember touted the virtues of the humble Pedersoli made rifle.  The cool thing about Pedersoli's is that they come finished, or in kit form.  So when my birthday rolled around it just so happened a couple of folks that must love me very much hooked me up with the money to give Dixie Gun Works a hollar and order me up a Pedersoli Kentucky Rifle kit.

Now, I picked the Kentucky Rifle kit for a few reasons.  1) It is fairly historically accurate for a general made rifle in the late 18th century and 2) It was shorter than a lot of long rifles, which I thought would make a better running around in the woods gun and 3) I thought it looked cool.  The butt and comb of the gun's architecture more closely resembles that of historical examples I liked, and the patch box wasn't gaudy and super ornate.  I like stuff I can beat up, as you'll notice later.

The gun came to my house unmolested (because black powder guns aren't regulated like everything else), and it was packaged well, with extra parts, and was in the rough.  It needed a lot of sanding and filing and love before it became anything somebody in the 1770's would be hauling around.  Sure, you could slap it together and shoot it as is, but that's not what I wanted was it?  Nope, I had to suffer some before I felt I earned it.

I took my time and sanded, filed and very carefully ground wood and metal away until I got it about where I wanted it.  Then I fit the brass pieces on that I filed up nice and sanded them flush to one another and the walnut stock.  I got the barrel on, got the lock and side plate where I wanted them, then I was working on getting the trigger and guard on when I noticed the trigger guard was bent about 20 degrees off of where it would fit the inletting.  This is annoying because the trigger assembly connects to to the trigger guard to be secure in the rifle.  I assessed the situation and decided I could file it in such a way it'd fit, so off to the vise I went.  I literally clamped it in very gently when this happened-

Here you'll notice two things.  The first being that these pieces don't look too bad in their rough state.  The second is that the front of the guard attachment broke right where the screw hole is.  I examined it pretty well and decided it was a casting flaw.  I contacted Pedersoli about it and they agreed, and sent me a new one.  Problem was it was coming from Italy.  It was going to take a while to get here and I was anxious.  

So I set about trying to find someone that could repair this one.  I tried to braze it but it didn't stick.  I took it to a heavy equipment place that fixes brass fittings and they couldn't fix it.  They thought it was bronze and brass alloy so it was going to be near impossible to fix this one.  As stated before, I had been learning how to blacksmith so I figured I'd give it a try. I took a piece of low carbon steel I had and beat it out to a tracing I made of the original and when I got to that front bend MY guard broke in the same place.  Flaw in design or designer?  

I sat down and had a good think about it, and decided to try again but make the guard in a different method.  I had a few hairy moments forging it, but I got it done, and made it simpler than this one.  I based my successful one off of a trade gun's trigger guard.  I figure stuff broke all the time on the frontier, so you just scrapped together what worked and kept going.  I filed some designs into the metal, deepened the channel on the wood, and plopped that sucker in there.  It fit and worked perfect.  

I tried damn near every type of wood finish I had available to see what made this pretty nice walnut look good, and in the end I used this stuff called Natchez Solution and rubbed it down with my tallow and beeswax mixture used for waterproofing.  It turned out pretty good looks wise, it seemed to function, and as soon as I was satisfied I put it with the rest of stuff I was making for my kit and took a picture.  Here she is, in all her briefly new glory-

     Fun facts- I didn't have any powder, ammo, patches, or practice at making this thing work.  I knew how it worked, I shot a couple before.  But if you're not into black powder guns, and I mean REAL black powder, you'll never really understand how hard this junk is to get.  You either have to order a decently massive amount of it at a massive price or drive to kingdom come to get some.  I chose the later.  I did manage to find about everything I needed at Evan's Firearms and Archery in Lexington, KY, which was great, and it was only a hour and a half drive.  My other option is a 2+ hour drive in the opposite direction, so I was a happy soon to be black powder shooter.

The first shot I made with this rifle (they test them in the factory to make sure they work) was witnessed by my wife, Traci, an EMT, and our good friend and getaway driver standing nearby.  It took place in my backyard, in the middle of town, where I promptly loaded 60 grains of Gratz and Sons 3F Black Powder into the breech, a patch but no ball, and primed with the same.  I held it tight and pulled the trigger and BLAM!  It was fast, and didn't blow up and kill me.  I was pleased and impressed with myself and the rifle.  They were glad they didn't have to do anything.  I learned how to clean my rifle for the first time that day too.  They were glad they didn't have to clean my rifle also.  

But what about that weird looking horn right there, or the big ole bag and that little one?!  Oh, I tell you about them.  Next blog post!