A couple of questions for the muzzle loader experts please...

1) I am looking for a muzzle loader kit to build and would like it to be percussion, .54cal and a twist of 1:32 or better for conical. I read about the Lyman Great Plains Hunter... sounds like quality in the kits is spotty... Any suggestions / recommendations from the ML experts ? BTW - I did have a ML years ago and love shooting it....

2) I am likely mis-remembering but I thought COLT Arms made a Muzzle Loader years and years ago... a very nice piece of work. Anyone remember?

I have 2 Lyman GPR kit rifles. One percussion and one flinter. I highly reccommend them but both are 1:66. I don't know if the GPR comes in 1:32. If so, I wouldn't hesitate to buy one.

However, to be honest both have upgraded triggers and the flinter has an upgraded lock assy. A set of target triggers from Track of the Wolf costs $42 and is worth 10 times that much.

I put together a 54cal TC renegade kit years ago but think they have been discontinued now. Might find one out ther still un assembled somewhere. If you have to have that twist rte and cannot find it in a kit, you might get the kit then another barrel for it from http://www.gmriflebarrel.com/catalog.aspx?catid=1inchlongrangehunter and have a barrel with slow and another with faster twist

Thank you for the replies. What other tools besides the wood working tools are needed for the kit ? For example what is required for finishing the metal ?

The Lyman Great Plains Hunter is a 1:28 twist it will shoot sabots and all.

Cool thing about the GPR is that the fast twist and slow twist barrels are interchangable. I own the GPR but with a slow twist...it shoots very well. I have no experience with the GPR kit though.

The only woodworking tools you should need are a set of woodcarving chisels and a rasp. And a LOT of various grit sandpaper. If this is your first kit, I'd seriously resist using power tools but that's your call. Inletting is pretty simple. You just need a wax candle to put soot on the metal to see where it contacts the wood. Depending on the stock, you may have to remove quite a bit of wood. And Walnut is pretty hard.

I used Walnut Tung Oil for the wood finish. You can finish the metal different ways. Black, blue, brown, grey, or any combination of those.

I have an older T/C Hawken side lock percussion rifle that came with a 1:32 twist barrel..I know it shoots both ball and conicals very well all the way out to 100 yards.

I thought all T/C ever made were 1-48 and 1-66 barrels.

If I were going to build a BP rifle I might look on Ebay for parts. You can buy a Green Mountain barrel for a T/C Hawken or Renegade in a fast twist.
T/C Hawken barrels are all 15/16" across the flats unless the caliber is larger than 50 and all are 28" long. All Renegade barrels are 1" across the flats and 26" long. Any T/C barrels in 1" will fit the Renegade. The fancy but plate on the Hawken looks good but is not fun to shoot.
I have no experience with Lyman, but they look like they are very well made.

Are files or other equipment needed for working the metal "furniture" ? The brass or iron that has to be mounted -

I drew a file down the barrel flats to remove milling marks. I know some guys that draw enough off to remove some lettering (like the warning stuff) but I mostly just smoothed it up. If you do that, be extremely careful to hold the file flat and to not create any waves in the edges of the flats. They will show. If you have casting ridges, be careful taking them off. The one power tool I would recommend is the use of a Dremel tool to polish the metal. On eBay, you can get rubber polishing wheel sets for the Dremel tool. They will polish the metal beautifully and give you a very nice finish...if you want a smooth glossy finish. Some do; some don't.

Except for those cases, I'd recommend removing wood; not metal to make parts fit. If you accidentally take out too much wood under an inlet area, you can rebuild it with epoxy. Once you take the metal off, it's gone. Again, eBay is a good source for the chisels. I think you can get a set of wood carving chisels with several profiles for about $25.

What takes the longest is removing wood from the outer side of the stock. They usually leave a lot of extra wood so you can customize the shape. I used a small block plane for the mass removal but you better be careful. Remember, this is a kit. This is your chance to shape the stock any way you want. Sharp edges, rounded edges, Monte Carlo-type cheek piece, wrist thickness and profile, and on and on. Look at as many rifle pictures as you can and see what you like about each one. Everybody has their own reason for building a kit rifle. Mine was to make it unique to my exact specs. You may not care about that and want to go simple. Nothing at all wrong with that. A lot of people would look at mine and think it was just a standard stock. But I see the uniqueness in it.

Versatility is the greatest part of a kit. For example, when I finished my metal, I blacked the wedge heads and the wedge escutcheon screw heads. I vinegar etched the wedge escutcheon plates grey. I may be the only person to ever notice this but it's the first thing I see every time I pick up the rifle and I imagine it's a rare combination of finishes. The barrel, buttplate, forend cap, trigger guard, and wedge escutcheons are grey. All screw heads and the sights are black. The percussion lock is case hardened. The flint lock is grey.

My mistake..it is a 1:48 twist.