since the ammo scare..I am thinking of shooting more black powder...

was looking at parts to make a small carbine in .36 cal

how hard are percussion caps to find...

how about black powder it self...
lead for casting my own bullets..

or should I just do a matchlock or flintlock...

not looking for traditional just want to be able to shoot more on the cheap...

also looking for a new gun project and figured this would make a nice time waster to build..

Flints are fun, smooth or rifled.





 

sweet....

ME --- The second video

Inlines can be had pretty cheap, but you'll pay more for bullets/sabots than for roundballs.

Flintlocks are lots of fun. Look around on gunbroker, you can find smallbore flintlocks. Percussion guns are good, too, but I only buy flints now.

The price of powder keeps going up, but it's cheaper if you buy in bulk. A local shop sells Goex for $20/pound. You can also order it online. http://www.powderinc.com/

Here are a couple of my rodent snipers. A .32 caplock CVA Varmint Rifle:




And a flintlock T/C Hawken with a custom .36 barrel:

these are my blackpowder muskets most are .58 caliber so I can share ammo between them. I would recommend getting something in.58 since it was
a military caliber you can find more accessories like molds, patches for round ball ect. For powder I only use real black powder like goex or swiss. you can order it online or bass proshops carries goex behind the counter.

Shooting black powder .36 caliber will not happen 'on the cheap.' This is not to say that you shouldn't do it, but supplies and stuff will be that much more difficult to obtain.

You can probably get an old T/C Hawken in .50 caliber with the proper twist rate for Minie Balls. You can get molds for the balls and lube fairly easily if you don't want to buy them. They're more expensive than round ball, but once you find your load, they are a lot more accurate. You can get a mold for round balls and you can cut patches out of cloth, but you'll have to do some extra work to find a rifle with the right barrel for them. 1:48 twist should be typical for a .50 that fires conical bullets (Minnies). It will work with patched round ball, but it won't be as accurate.

Your best practice will be with a flintlock. The brief delay between when you pull the trigger and when the rifle fires will make you hold steady. You'll find yourself shooting cartridge guns much better because you're forcing yourself to hold steady. I shot cap locks. I didn't want to wait.

You should be able to get the T/C rifles fairly cheap, especially compared to .36 caliber. Then you will need a pile of other stuff. Range rod, powder measure, ball extractor, cleaning patches, you should get a powder flask with a built in measure (much easier), and a lot of other stuff that will nickel and dime you quite a bit.

I shoot a Thompson Hawkin rifle in 50 cal and 2 colt style revolvers, brass framed 7" and 5" barrels..
when the panic hit in  December, I bought 1500 rds of 44 and 1000 rds off 50 cal...5lb powder 5000 primers...

Go at least .40 cal. The really small bores get fouled up really quickly. You need to wipe them almost every shot. That ruins the fun.

that is a nice kit...

my wife wants me to make here some scratch built locks that she found some plans for they are very basic locks made with tin snips a torch and dremel...but she wants one as a conversational piece..

I need to look into this under hammer thing

well I was even thinking of doing one in .30 cal and making my own ball molds

well a friend of mine built an inline on a rem 700 reciever that shoots 30cal bullets.... he has even taken a deer with it...

but it is an inline

I'm curious as to why you think .36 caliber is more expensive or hard to find??

You can get a properly built flinter to fire just as fast as a percussion. And nipples belong on a woman, not a man's rifle.

I'd recommend to staying away from TC or CVA. If you want a Hawken style, Lyman makes a nice one. Cabin Creek, Jim Chambers and several others make good longrifle "kits". If you wish to build one, I recommend Homer Dangler's videos.

I prefer longrifles.
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Ya gotta build the stuff that goes with 'em, too.
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They do foul a little quicker but you can use a looser patch/ball combo, use fffg of a charge equal to the caliber, and the right bear grease on your patch and you should get at least 10-15 rounds before needing a spit patch, which is still no big deal.

And nipples belong on a woman, not a man's rifle.



Our group gives guys shootin' a percussion a hard time (all in good fun of course), but I've never heard it put that way before......





 

Thanks I registered over there

I lust after this gun every time you post it.