Parts arrived today Feb. 6, 2004. Mr Stith also sends along a CD that includes history and photos of the five known surviving original rifles and reproduction 1792 rifles, to help the builder with details on shaping the thimbles, tang, and variations in the patch box shape.

The Sugar maple stock and custom Ed Rayl 42" .54 cal swamped barrel as it arrived. Mr Stith is reproducing the gun in its original .49 cal but he had one .54 cal barrel made up for a project that he did not get to and offered it to me. I'm sure theres nothing wrong with the .49 cal but the .54 is just abit better and a bigger hole punched in the same size barrel makes for a slightly lighter gun.

Parts as they arrived. Nice high quality parts, I really hope I don't screw this up!                Parts inventory

One can forgo the sling swivels and inlet a Siler lock, to  reproduce a Contract rifle made during the period of 1792 - 1794. To reproduce a Lewis and Clark Expedition rifle, we need to inlet a 1803 Harpers Ferry lock. I have a 1803 Harpers Ferry lock made by R.E.Davis obtained from Track of the Wolf, of which I will fit to the gun. It takes roughly 100 hours to build a Longrifle and I'll start work on it soon as I get over the fear of messing it up and I'm able to touch it...

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