Blunderbuss Kits Compared · Volume 3
The Parts-Set Middle: Pecatonica River
The moment you decide the Traditions .54 is too small, too cosmetic, or too anachronistic for what you want, the next real rung is Pecatonica River Long Rifle Supply - and the character of the build changes completely. This is where “kit” stops meaning “assembly” and starts meaning “gunsmithing.” You are no longer finishing a pre-fit gun; you are building one from a precarve stock and a pile of parts, cutting channels and inletting metal into wood. It is the intermediate maker’s blunderbuss, and it is the most historically credible gun you can build without either a year-long wait or expert-level castings work.
3.1 What it is - and what “à la carte” means
Pecatonica does not sell a boxed blunderbuss kit. They sell every part on one page, each with its own price and its own inletting charge, on their standard “buy the stock and the parts” model. You assemble the order yourself. That is worth understanding before you shop, because the total is the sum of a list, not a single sticker.
The gun it builds is an English coaching buss in .75 caliber - roughly 12 gauge - on a 20-inch barrel. The stock is precarve walnut, 1-1/4 inches at the muzzle, 36 inches overall, with a 14-1/2-inch length of pull. The lock is an L&R Queen Anne flint, a round-face style appropriate to the type. Crucially, the furniture is iron, not brass - iron buttplate, iron trigger guard, iron side plate. That is a genuine period choice for an English working buss and a point of authenticity over the brass-furnitured Traditions.
3.2 The real cost, itemized
Because you build the order from a list, the price is worth laying out exactly. The 2024 page prices are:
Table 1 — Because you build the order from a list, the price is worth laying out exactly. The 2024 page prices are
| Part | Price |
|---|---|
| Precarve walnut stock | $235.00 |
| Barrel (.75, 20”, with breechplug) | $295.00 |
| Lock (L&R Queen Anne flint) | $215.00 |
| Trigger | $30.00 |
| Iron buttplate | $28.00 |
| Iron trigger guard | $28.00 |
| Thimbles | $18.00 |
| Iron side plate | $8.00 |
| Stock inletting | $82.50 |
| Stock-and-parts total | $964.50 |
Small parts - touch-hole liner, ramrod, jag, screws, lugs - round out the order. The number to notice is the $82.50 stock inletting charge. That is optional, and it is the tell for what this build actually demands. Pay it and Pecatonica pre-inlets the stock for you, softening the hardest part of the build. Skip it and you are cutting the barrel channel and lock mortice yourself from the precarve profile - the 19-7/8-inch channel, the 7-1/4 by 1-9/16-inch lock mortice - which is exactly the intermediate-level work that separates this from the Traditions.
3.3 What the build demands
Even with the inletting charge paid, this is not a drop-together kit. You are fitting a lock, mounting and shaping iron furniture into wood, installing a breechplug and touch-hole liner, drilling for pins and lugs, and finishing both a figured walnut stock and a steel barrel. It expects a maker who has done real inletting and fitting before, or one willing to learn it carefully on a stock that costs enough to make mistakes sting. It is made to order, so plan on a lead time rather than off-the-shelf delivery.
What you get for that work is the sweet spot of the whole ladder. The Pecatonica is a solid, historically credible English coaching buss - a real .75 bore, correct iron furniture, a proper English flintlock - at roughly twice the price of the Traditions but a fraction of the cost, difficulty, and wait of the premium builds above it. For the maker who wants a period-right blunderbuss and has the bench skills to inlet a barrel, this is the value pick of the serious options.
3.4 Where it sits
Think of Pecatonica as the honest middle. Above the Traditions in bore, fidelity, and skill; below the Stonewall Creek 4-gauge and The Rifle Shoppe Ketland in cost, difficulty, and wait. It is the first rung where you are genuinely building a gun rather than assembling one, and it is the last rung before the builds that demand either a year of patience or expert castings work. If the verdict in Volume 7 steers you toward “a serious historic build I can start this month,” this is very often the answer.
Sources
Pecatonica River Long Rifle Supply; L&R Lock Company.
Comments (0)