Kibler teases upcoming Pistol Kit on ALR Forum

Instead of Saturday morning cartoons, forum members got an early look at “Another upcoming kit” from Kibler’s Longrifles.

The kit, which looks to be a traditional muzzleloading pistol kit shows a variety of details, but no lock. It’s styling however, leans heavily to the flintlock era.

The renders of a Kibler pistol kit show a curly wood stock and iron hardware. The kit looks to feature an iron nose cap, two barrel keys, an ornate trigger guard, a wrist escutcheon, and an inlay in the grip area of the pistol. Notably, a lock is not shown in the renders.

Being ever mysterious with these early looks, Jim hasn’t provided much detail, but instead shares two cropped images that appear to be printed.

At the time of writing, Jim doesn’t have an exact match to the lock featured in the images (below). It’s possible Jim could develop a new lock for this kit, pistol locks can be smaller than rifle locks, but it’s also possible that Jim uses one of his production locks as the engine for this particular kit, getting it to market faster.

At the time of writing, Jim didn’t provide any other detail in the forum post, more information can be found in the image filenames. Jim titled these renders “Sheets-pistol-short”, giving those not familiar with historic builders a clue on who to look at for more information. John Sheets was a gunsmith of Staunton, Virginia. Sheets is recorded as a maker of Flintlocks circa 1810. "AMERICAN GUNSMITHS" also lists Jacob Sheetz of Charleston, Virginia and John Jacob Sheetz of Shepherdstown, Virginia, as gunsmiths who made Kentucky rifles in the years prior to the War of 1812.

Jim has stated in the past, with kits like the Colonial, Fowler, and Hawken, that his kits are historically accurate, but slight changes in style and design may be made to fit his personal preference, or manufacturing needs. It’s possible this Kibler Pistol kit could be heavily inspired by one of the Sheets, but not a direct copy.

Kibler’s marketing strategy has picked up in recent months. I have no doubt his early release of these and renders for other kits is a part of that strategy.