Do you have a FOREVER rifle?

[Nessmuk]

What is your Forever rifle?

I have a forever Caplock rifle. Brand or maker is unmarked and doesn't follow any particular style. She's .40 cal, 7 lbs, 2 oz and is 60 inches long. She fits me perfectly.

Now I need a forever Flintlock! I'm looking at Kibler SMR kit in .40 cal.  All I have heard is positive comments about Kibler kits. For the price and quality, is there anything better out there?

[BEAVERMAN]

Yes Sir, the Prom Queen, shes featured in a post here under flintlocks

http://tradmla.org/tmaf/index.php?topic=23440.0

[Nessmuk]

That IS one beautiful Lady.   

[Bigsmoke]

In 1981, my sweetie, Ms. Smoke, got me a Jack Garner SMR flintlock .45 cal rifle.  42 years later, it is still my pride and joy.  She paid extra for an excellent grade of wood, and I think we got way more than she paid for.  It is outstanding.  In the intervening years, I have had a lot of other very nice rifles, but none of them could compare.  Although it is a flinter, it is a keeper.
John (Bigsmoke)

[Winter Hawk]

The one I always fall back on, my Hodgepodge rifle.  Started out as a kit I got from Deer Creek when the old folks still had it, and I think it was cobbled together from old parts they had on hand.  The stock was already stained with an ugly black which would not come off entirely, although it brings out the grain of the beech wood.  The barrel got messed up when I sent it in to a barrel maker to slim it down from 15/16" to 7/8" across the flats.  I learned a lot about the way CVA rifles made the touch holes, when she started leaking around it with every shot.  Captchee replaced it with one from Colerain, and installed a regular breech plug rather than a CVA (antechamber) one.  I slimmed it down quite a lot and over the years fiddled with rounding off the nose cap and installing a patch box.  All in all she is rather ugly, not her fault but more my inletting skills, (or lack of same) but she shoots well, even with a CVA flint lock.  I may get rid of others, but this one is a keeper for me.

~Kees~
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[BEAVERMAN]

Nothing wrong with an old CVA mountain rifle, especially the early ones with the sharon barrels, I have 2 of them ( cap locks) and they are both tack drivers, luckily I have found NOS main springs for the locks when these get weak, Ive worked polished and tuned the locks and triggers on them and they sing opera just fine!

[BEAVERMAN]

What is your Forever rifle?

I have a forever Caplock rifle. Brand or maker is unmarked and doesn't follow any particular style. She's .40 cal, 7 lbs, 2 oz and is 60 inches long. She fits me perfectly.

Now I need a forever Flintlock! I'm looking at Kibler SMR kit in .40 cal.  All I have heard is positive comments about Kibler kits. For the price and quality, is there anything better out there?

I don't think your going to find a better kit, just be patient as I've heard that they have a good size waiting list but that being said I've seen one of his woodsrunner kits and it's basically drop in, finish sand and stain, treat the metal and your off and running! (all pun intended)

[Ohio Joe]

What is your Forever rifle?

I have a forever Caplock rifle. Brand or maker is unmarked and doesn't follow any particular style. She's .40 cal, 7 lbs, 2 oz and is 60 inches long. She fits me perfectly.

Now I need a forever Flintlock! I'm looking at Kibler SMR kit in .40 cal.  All I have heard is positive comments about Kibler kits. For the price and quality, is there anything better out there?

Mine would have to be, ol' Candle Snuffer (that I built on a Dickert Stock / .45 x 7/8 x 36 w/ .010 depth rifling and 1 in 60 Twist - Green Mnt, Brl. / with Conversion L&R Lock(s) which allows me to shoot it in Flint or Cap ignition - (though it's been in the Percussion ignition for the last 5 years at least. It has never failed to place in the top 3 at any "local shoots, Rendezvous, or State ML Competitions). It's produced lot's of Medals, prizes, and Certificates (as well as "Dollars") for me over the years. But she's a getting old (or at least I am).

The reason it's called "Candle Snuffer" is because I've never lost a "snuffing the candle Match" at Rendezvous with it. Also, (so I'm told), it's the only rifle to have hit the 300 yard gong at the woods walk during Chadron Fur Trade Days many years back, and also to have shot a perfect score in the Paper Bottle Match...).

For a rifle with fixed sights, she's never let me down (shooting competitions or hunting). And she ain't nothing fancy to look at - at all. But she's a beauty to me! 

[Nessmuk]

Well, I did it. I ordered the Kibler Southern Mountain Rifle in .40 cal. The website says 1 to 3 week wait even if it proves to be longer, it will still be at my home in OK before I am. I can't work on it up here, no workshop and minimal tools here. Rest assured I'll be memorizing RobD's SMR build thread. I really hope this I'll be my forever Flintlock.

[Ohio Joe]

I'm actually a big fan of the .40 caliber (so much so that I built a duplicate of ol' Candle Snuffer [the rifle I described above] and put a .40 caliber Ed Rayl Brl on it with a 1 in 72 twist & .010 depth round bottom rifling - and that .40 cal will hold its own and handle any charge of 1fg, 2fg, and naturally 3fg, without swabbing between shots in any 5 shot Match out to 50 yards... If it has any draw back, it would be toppling a 1/2 inch NRA Animal Silhouette (it just won't do it even if you hit it high, and even the 3/8 inch thick is very questionable / just forget about toppling the Turkey, Pig, or Ram), but shooting at paper or swinging gongs - it don't get any better!) 

Oh, and I forgot to mention; it can also be converted from percussion to flintlock with the Large Siler Lock's.

[BEAVERMAN]

Well, I did it. I ordered the Kibler Southern Mountain Rifle in .40 cal. The website says 1 to 3 week wait even if it proves to be longer, it will still be at my home in OK before I am. I can't work on it up here, no workshop and minimal tools here. Rest assured I'll be memorizing RobD's SMR build thread. I really hope this I'll be my forever Flintlock.

   new rifle gun for your new bag!

[Ironhand]

Not a rifle but my Jackie Brown trade gun.  62 cal,36 inch barrel, iron furniture and queen Anne lock.
Not fancy but easy to carry and reliable. Hands down my favorite.

Ironhand

[Butler Ford 40]

A Tip Curtis Southern Mountain Rifle in 40 Cal.  My first flintlock.

[PetahW]

.

 

IDK about better, but my forever rifle is a .45 T/C Seneca caplock - which has done whatever I asked of it for several decades.