Kits at cabelas

[JW_Halverson]

Well no, depending on the type of rifle they go from fairly easy to impossible. I suspect the Traditions breechplug will fall into the impossible category.

 I don't recommend anyone pulling a breechplug to check for fowling in the threads as corrosion in this area is almost never found, even on antique firearms, the threads seal themselves. A properly breeched gun will have the breechplug tightly fitted to the breech face inside the barrel and nothing can get by.

My advice is to drop a bore light into the barrel and take a look, you can see if the bore is shiny or not. Most folk use a cheap fishing bobber light as a bore light, a couple of bucks at Walmart.

On roached out barrels they will be corroded from the breech to the bore and will look like a sewer pipe inside. Like this;

I have seen two guns with failing breechs, one was so bad it leaked WD-40! 

Good luck with the TC Hawken, sounds like a deal impossible to pass up.

[Eric Krewson]

I did an older TC kit about 6 months ago;



I changed things up a bit, took a lot of wood off and reshaped the lock panels;



I added a toe plate and completely reshaped the cheek piece to look like a real hawken;



Overall I thought the kit wasn't that easy to put together, stuff didn't fit very well. Could be my gun building experience was more advanced than the average kit builder and I needed to have a better metal to wood fit to be satisfied.

Being an old kit that sat in a basement for 30+ years I was surprised to find the barrel in pristine condition. Not so with the lock, it wouldn't set off. Somehow the sear spring plunger had gotten moisture in it and completely rusted out the plunger and spring as well as welding them into the housing. Luckily a friend with a milling machine was able to mill the rusted mass out leaving a perfectly cut hole the right size. It took some looking to find a spring and plunger but I was able to get everything back together and functioning perfectly.

[Eric Krewson]

Another thing about a TC kit, back at the hook breech they leave lot of wood sticking up above the breech. I don't have a before picture but here is an after picture, the wood should slope down to a barrel flat, the side panel should slope up to meet this wood, same on the lock side.



If you have any questions on how things should be shaped ask me and I will take a picture.