JACO Designs KENTUCKY RIFLE +45 Caliber Muzzle Loader This entire pamphlet copy: tylited In 1976 by JACO Designs © This pamphlet contains all the information you will need to construct the KENTUCKY RIFLE. Study the plans carefully until you can easily picture the parts and how they work with each other. The plans are shown on two prints. The large print shows the entire rifle. The smaller print shows the assembly and details of the lock. You should be able to build this rifle for little more then the cust uf the barrel. The barre! will cost between $25 and $45 depending on where you buy it. The remaining parts can be built from a small amount of 1/8 and 1/4 sheet steel, some steel rod, some brass and various bolts and wood screws. € the thickness of the metal parts is specified, the actual thickness can vary a little and will have no effect on the gun performance. The stock can be made from one plece of wood 5/8 x 10 x 36 of a type of your choice. The Kentucky Rifle rifle represents American firearm design in the mid 1800's. The long barrel and lightweight, almost delicate style, typify the rifle used for protection while traveling on foot and for food gathering. The cap and ball rifle was a carry-over from the fliwt luck style but uelTizing the more effective cap type ignition system. The JACO Kentucky Rifle has been simplified for ease of construction without sacrificing the clean functional design of the originals. The rifle is not an exact copy of any particular rifle. Bullding the rifle is a very rewarding experience and will give you much satisfaction. You will find you do not have to spend a lot of money to have and to enjoy a well built rifle. With it you can participate in the fun and romance of using muzzle loading weapons of the not too distant past. JACO designed the rifle for use in the field such as deer hunting. With round or minte ball, the rifle is accurate out to and exceeding 100 yards. The hammer Is easy to fully cock. This is due to an over center design feature of the main spring drive system. This techniques, used on all JACO gun designs, also results in very low sear notch forces. The low sear notch forces practically eliminates wear on the sear and allows unhardened stock to be used fur che sear bar and the tumbler. It also provides the desired "crisp! trigger release desired by most shooters. The rifle contains a simple patch box in the stock and features a tiger striped ram rod. The patch box, ram rod guides, toe plate and muzzle cap are brass, while everything else is steel. After you have studied the plans and are ready to start construction, you should have the following tools on hand. Hand tools include a small 6 inch file. a 10 inch File, a small rat tail file, hacksaw, pliers, small hammer, center punch, scriber and a vise. The JACO Holding and Filing Fixture is a very handy tool to have and constructing the fixture is good practice for those new to the gun making art. While a drill press is not essential, It 1s highly desirable to have one. The more tools and equipment you have, the easier it will be to make the parts. Unless other material Is called out, all steel parts are made from cold rolled steel sheet stock or rods. An excellent source of Pin material is the common copper coated steel welding rod used with acetylene welding. You will have a completely satisfactory rifle if you build it as instructed. Because we have no control over the materials you will use, the workmanship or possible use of the rifle, JACO will not assume any responsibility for these items. Do not change the design of the rifle as the parts shown have been carefully proportioned to work properly.This pamphlet may not be copied in part or whole without written consent of JACO. 1 = BARREL - The barrel of the JACO KENTUCKY RIFLE is .45 caliber, 13/16 across the flats, octagonal shape, 44 Inches long and with a rifling twist of one turn In 66 Inches. Barrels are available 44 inches long from practically all barrel manufacturers. Get information and prices from the barrel sources JACO provided, select the one you want and order it. When the barrel arrives, the first thing to do Ts to louk Tt uver very carefully. There are several things to consider In deciding which end of the barrel will be the muzzle end and which will be the breech end. If there is a large nick or dent in the barrel, it can be hidden by Installing the nicked spot in the stock. Examine the bore to see how well it is centered in the octagonal ends of the barrel. Pick the end that is best centered and use that as the muzzle end. The end that Is off center should be used as the breech end. Locate the off center condition so that it is either high or low but detinitely not side to side. This is done so that when the sights are installed they will be centered over the barrel. If the barrel is tapped for a breech plug, the muzzle end is selected for you. However, you should cut about 1/2 Inch off the muzzle end to get to perfect riflings. The rifling cutters run out at the muzzle and the easiest way to remove the imperfect riflings is to cut off a bit of the barrel at the muzzle end. Draw file the barrel full length to remove minor dents and sharpen up the octagonal shape. File the muzzle end square, which is easy if you have built a JACO filing fixture. Break the sharp edge of the muzzle octagon with little chamfers at 45° about 1/32 wide Carefully countersink the muzzle riflings with a 90° c'sink down to the groove diameter. Hake a wooden dowel, 1/2 diameter with one end conical the same as your c'sink. Put emery cloth on the conical end and polish the lands you just chamfered. Locate the hole for the drum and drit1 and top for a 5/16 -24 thread. Tap the drum hole as square to the barrel flat as you can. We urge you to buy @ barre! alrcady topped for the breech pluy ty save the effort and because you cannot do it better than the barrel maker anyway. Make three barrel tenons as shown from 3/16 x 1/l steel. Drill ‘the 1/16 holes shown, but do not drill the 1/8 holes. Do not attach to the barrel yet. 2 ~ INSTALLING THE BREECH PLUG - If your barrel is not breech threaded, tap drill the breech end of the barrel with a 9/16 dia. drill 11/16 deep. Make every effort to keep the drill parallel with the barrel. Tap the hole with a 5/8 - I8NF th'd to a depth of 5/8 inches. Grind the end of the tap flat to make a bottoming tap out of it. Re-tap the hole so that the threads go down to the end of the tap drilled hole. Obtain a bolt or piece of threaded rod that is threaded 5/8 - 18. File the end of the threaded rod square and remove the threads back about 3/32 inch. Make a small chamfer on the rod to match the tap drill shape In the barrel. Check your barrel If it came topped since it may have a flat bottomed tap drill hole. If it does, do not chamfer the breech plug face. iow when you screw the rod into the barrel the chamfer should seat on the drill point in the barrel and be a good gas tight seal. This will keep the black powder residue from fouling the threads so that you can remove the breech plug easily If you ever have to. Drive the plug into the barrel hard with a pipe wrench. Cut the plug 30 that 5/8 sticks out of the barrel. File a flat on the top of the plug where the tang will go. The flat should be at about an 8 degree slope to better match the shape of the stock.3 - INSTALL TANG ON BREECH PLUG - The tang is made from a piece of steel 1/8 x 3/8 x 31/2 Inches long. File one end of the tang to fit flat against the barrel when the tang Is held on the breech plug. File the sides of the breech plug to the same width as the tang right up to the end of the barrel. Clamp the tang to the breech plug making sure that the tang Is parallel to the barrel when viewed from above. The tang should fit the rear surface of the harrel with no gape co that when you finich the filing of the tang and barrel there will be no gap. Take the whole works to the local welders and have it welded exactly as follows. Lay a bead in the corner between the tang and the end of the breech plug. Use an arc welder only. If you do the welding use 3/32 rod and about 90 amps current setting. Do not weld along the sides of the tang. Remove the tang and breech plug assembly from the barrel being careful that you do not shift the tang on the breech plug. Now weld along the sides of the tang. Begin welding at the rear of the Dreech plug and move forward toward the threaded end ot the plug. Stop betore you get to the threads and be careful that you do not melt down the upper corner of the tang. File down the weld flush with the sides of the tang. Locate the hole in the tang and dril1 with a 3/16 dia. drill and counter sink for the flat head screw. Round the end of the tang as shown. Bend the tang to the shape required to fit the stock. Install the breech plug in the barrel and file the top of the tang to match the barrel but do not round off the top of the tang yet. You will do this when the barrel is in the stock to get a perfect fit. 4 ~ DRUM AND NIPPLE - Drums and nipples may be purchased from any store dealing In muzzle loader suppTtes. However, they can be made easily if you have a drill press or a netal turning lathe. If you have a lathe, turn down a 7/16 dia. rod to 5/16 dia. for a length of 5/16 inch. Thread to the shoulder with a 5/16 - 2h NF die and drill a 1/8 dia. hole 1,0 inch deep down the center of the drum. Part off so the 7/16 dia. is 5/8 in. long. Turn the part around, face off and tap drill with a #25 (.1495) drill, 1/4 deep. Tap with a #10 - 24NC bottoming tap, 1/4 deep. If you only have a drill press, get a 5/16 dia. rad 2.0 long and a 7/16 dia. rod 1 3/4 long. With a 5/16 - 2h die, run a thread down the 5/16 rod for about 1 1/4 inches. Tap drill the 7/16 dia. rod at least 1.0 deep with a letter "I" (.272) drill and tap with a 5/16 - 24 tap at least 7/8 deep. Cut the tapped end of the 7/16 dia. rod off so you have a sleeve 3/4 long with threads in it. Screw this on the other part so that 5/16 of 5/16 ~ 2h thread sticks out. Flux with liquid type soldering flux and sweat solder together with a small torch. When it cools down, cut off the 5/16 unthreaded end of the rod flush with the 7/16 dia. sleeve. Drill thru’and tap as instructed above to tinish up the drum. Make the spacer out of a 5/16 hex nut. File the spacer to match the drum. Screw the drum into the barrel and tighten. File two flats on the drum 90 degrees from where the nipple will be for wrench flats. Do not drill and tap the drum for the nipple yet. 5 - SIGHTS - The sights are installed in two dovetail notches in the barrel. Make the daveratl notches hy filing a groove acracs the harral 1/16 deen and S/16 wide at the tun locations where the sights will go. Grind off the teeth on one side of a three cornered File to make a safe edge. With the safe edge of this file against the bottom of the notch, you can file out the corners to finish the dovetail notch. Hake the sight bases from a strip of steel 1/8 x 13/32 x 2 by filing the corners off at a 60 degree angle. Try the Fit of the base in the barrel often as you get close to the finished size. The fit should be too tight to install by hand but light hammer taps should easily drive the base Into the barrel. Do one base at a time and do not mix them up once they are fitted. Make the front and rear sight blades from 1/8 steel. Rivet the blades to the bases with 1/16 dia. pins as shown. Use 16 gauge nails as the rivets. 6 - LOCK PLATE - The lock plate is made from 1/8 steel sheet. Cut out and file to the shape shown. File the edges with a slight taper so that the plate will fit tight in the stock. Locate all the holes in tha plate and center punch.