So there I was, smudging the glass at Bass Pro Shop yet again, when my will finally broke. I've been lusting after the Traditions Trapper .50 cal kit for a while now. Seems my Hawken needs a companion.
There are no directions with the kit (ok by me for the most part). A good bit of wood needs to be shaped, and some screw holes drilled to put everything together. The wood is not figured as well as I would like, but is a reasonable looking hunk of walnut none the less. The barrel is in the white, lock is hardened, and brass is fine enough for a production gun.
Brings me to a couple of questions. First, I wanted to brown the barrel. Out comes the Roy Dunlop book, and he lists plain old salt water as being a fine way to do it. I degrease as best I can, then wrap it up in an old sock soaked roughly 10% in salt water. Hoping to rust it and card maybe a dozen times over the next week or two. I'm on day 2 of browning now, and all I'm getting are little patches of bluish brown gunk. Twice now I've used 0000 steel wool to smooth out most of the rust before re-salt watering. It's not rusting quite as well as I had hoped. I've never done this before, so let me know if I'm on the right track here. Should it be rusting quicker? I can get twice as much on a blued gun in summer from my sweat alone Any tricks that anyone can suggest for a better browned finish?
Second question - any load suggestions? I do intend to try to aquire whatever manual I can. Does anyone with this particular suggestions on load max/min (yeah, I know. I'm trying to find a manual)?
Thanks
There are no directions with the kit (ok by me for the most part). A good bit of wood needs to be shaped, and some screw holes drilled to put everything together. The wood is not figured as well as I would like, but is a reasonable looking hunk of walnut none the less. The barrel is in the white, lock is hardened, and brass is fine enough for a production gun.
Brings me to a couple of questions. First, I wanted to brown the barrel. Out comes the Roy Dunlop book, and he lists plain old salt water as being a fine way to do it. I degrease as best I can, then wrap it up in an old sock soaked roughly 10% in salt water. Hoping to rust it and card maybe a dozen times over the next week or two. I'm on day 2 of browning now, and all I'm getting are little patches of bluish brown gunk. Twice now I've used 0000 steel wool to smooth out most of the rust before re-salt watering. It's not rusting quite as well as I had hoped. I've never done this before, so let me know if I'm on the right track here. Should it be rusting quicker? I can get twice as much on a blued gun in summer from my sweat alone Any tricks that anyone can suggest for a better browned finish?
Second question - any load suggestions? I do intend to try to aquire whatever manual I can. Does anyone with this particular suggestions on load max/min (yeah, I know. I'm trying to find a manual)?
Thanks