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Old 04-28-2018, 02:47 PM
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Dean2 Dean2 is online now
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Near Edmonton
Posts: 15,054
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I too am left handed. I shoot LH flinter guns and I have put more than a few together. From what you have written, this will be a paper puncher only. If correct a 40 Cal is what you want. They shoot well, buck wind far better than a 32 or 36, are are generally easier to get along with. That said, I love my 32, but I use it for small game more than paper.

If you are going to shoot paper, are you shooting offhand, trail walks, group shooting from rest or something else; as all of these makes the style of rifle you want change. For sure in the 40 caliber make sure you get a swamped barrel, more money but they balance far better and are significantly lighter than a straight or straight tapered barrel. Order the barrel with a normal breech, patent breeches are no advantage in a flintlock and are more difficult to clean well. If you are using liners order three, get them all drilled .060, just shy of 1/16. Great starting spot for fast ignition. You can always open it up a little more later on if you want.

Be careful what steel you buy in the barrel. Most ML are made of 12L14. It is very soft and while it stands up okay it is pretty much the same as stuff made 300 years ago. I much prefer barrels made of gun modern quality steel and they aren't all that much more money. Ed Rayl makes some barrels out of 8620 and he may be using 4150 as well. Jim McLemore uses certified for gun barrels grade 4150 as does Sleepy Hills Barrels.
Rice make some barrels that are 4150 as does Green Mountain if I remember correctly.
Rice would be my preferred supplier due to quality and broad choice of contours but any of them that makes the better quality steel barrels is just fine as long as they can so the length, twist and contour/swamp you are looking for.

As far as stock making goes, I would recommend you order a pre-carved stock that fits the barrel and Lock you get. There are lots of places that will do this very inexpensively once you know what style gun you want to build. Also, get barrel wedges instead of pins. The pins make removing the barrel a true pain in the butt.

Chambers makes EXCELLENT fully tuned locks, I also have some L and Rs because they make lots of lefty's but they must be tuned by an expert to get the most out of them.

If you tell me exactly what type of target shooting you want to mostly do I can tell you what type of styles to look into closer.
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