Kibler "Woodsrunner" flintlock completed
- Thread starter Ian
- Start date
Ian
Notorious member
They carry nicely, don't they?
I could have plugged this little one yesterday, but I'd rather enjoy seeing her around for years to come than eating her up in a few meals.
Missionary
Well-Known Member
Well done ! I think a .54 could near do all I will ever need done. But the .58-.62 smoothies also still beg to go outside and play.
So what dream load did that barrel teach you about ?
So what dream load did that barrel teach you about ?
Rick H
Well-Known Member
I was a bit leery about carrying a flintlock during Michigan's fickle, humid, early December weather. I did a little still hunting as well as from a blind. We had temperature swings from 19 degrees to 60 degrees. I loaded the rifle the day before the season opened and kept that load the entire nine days. I emptied the priming pan each time I came in and reprimed when I went out. While I was never hunting in a downpour, I was out in damp drizzle/light rain. I did my best to protect the lock with a "cows knee" but was fearful that I might have been carrying a dead stick.
As much as I would like to have had the shot on a deer it was not to be. The area I hunt has antler restrictions and I didn't see a legal buck. The evening of the last day I took the shot at a swinging 6" steel gong near camp. After 9 days in and out of the weather the charge went off with no hesitation and rang the gong at 50 yds. The Woodsrunner is a handful in the popup canvas blind. I am just able to move it around in there. The SMR would be too long.
I am anxiously waiting for next years season to get a chance to blood my Woodsrunner. It is a keeper for sure. I gained a lot of respect for flintlocks. They are not just quaint relics from the past but viable, accurate, and reliable hunting tools.
I just started on a 36cal. SMR. It is an addiction.
As much as I would like to have had the shot on a deer it was not to be. The area I hunt has antler restrictions and I didn't see a legal buck. The evening of the last day I took the shot at a swinging 6" steel gong near camp. After 9 days in and out of the weather the charge went off with no hesitation and rang the gong at 50 yds. The Woodsrunner is a handful in the popup canvas blind. I am just able to move it around in there. The SMR would be too long.
I am anxiously waiting for next years season to get a chance to blood my Woodsrunner. It is a keeper for sure. I gained a lot of respect for flintlocks. They are not just quaint relics from the past but viable, accurate, and reliable hunting tools.
I just started on a 36cal. SMR. It is an addiction.
richhodg66
Well-Known Member
That's a fine rifle. I need to get back to muzzle loading.
Ian
Notorious member
It likes 70 or 75 grains of 3F and 90 grains of 2F both very well, but didn't particularly DIS-like any other charges. I'm still learning, need to work up a grease lube load for "winter". It was 70 sumthin on NYD.
I will eventually have a 12 or 16-bore, I love my 20 and 24s with shot, buck, or ball.
Ian
Notorious member
I was trying hard to understate the carving as per the style of the original maker, although a used an entirely different motif. Barrel, trigger, trigger plate, and steel screws were hot-water rust-blued with Mark Lee #1. Stock finish is secret sauce and JW will sic the Polish Longrifle Mafia on me if I tell
. I can say that it is a scratch-made linseed varnish and the first, penetrating coat didn't have resin in it.
Ian
Notorious member
Was it the cedar, caliche, limestone, tiny whitetail, slope of the hill, or the redneck target stand that gave it away?