ORIGINAL: trouthunter
Just wondering how many traditional firearms /re-enactment enthusiests there are out there? I noticed in the Archery forum there is a "traditional bow" section. I put in a request/wish in the technical forum for a traditional firearm forum as well. I know we have the black powder forum, but there is a HUGE gap between a traditional firearm and a modern muzzleloader.
Anyways, just wanted to get some posts going about Ye old smoke poles. I have a 50 Cal. Hawkin and pioneer style 50 cal pistol, both in cap lock. I am just getting into the Fir Trade era reenactment and going on "primitive hunts" with those in my community who share my interests. I may be looking to get a 54 cal. Great Plains or Trade rifle in a flint lock. Any suggestions?
I started shooting black powder in 1954 when a kid I knew had a British Home Guard rifle he'd purchased while his father was stationed in England. It was a .58 cal. sidleock with arotating wedge system breechblock that made it a breechloader-for the first three or four shots, after which the breechplug was so crapped up it would no longer open. From that point on, you had to load from the muzzle!
Then I built a DGW Kentucky kit, a .45 caplock which some turkey later stole out of my mother's den, where it was hanging over the fireplace. My next project was a Bedford County flintlock, a .45, which turned out nice. I gave it to a friend. Since then I've built a flintlock fullstock Hawken (.58) with a Green River Rifle Works barrel, and am now working on a .73-cal. flintlock Jaeger. In the late 60's, I was fortunate enough to purchase two Hawkens made by Virgil Hartley in Indianapolis using Bill Large barrels-these two are extremely powerful and accurate rifles! I also have two inlines, a .45 and a .50, which I have zeroed in but never use, a Jedediah Smith Coimmemorative Hawken, and a Navy Arms "Hawken Hunter " with 1/22" twist for shooting heavy conicals. I use the Lyman 342-grain 457122 HP (Gould) bullet sized to .451" in it.
I like the flintlocks best of all! They're fun, and a challenge to shoot!
Bill Large barrels shoot well!
I personally think a flintlock should be a fullstock, but that Lyman Great Plains rifle is about as close to the architecture of a real Hawken as you can get in a production rifle - AND they shoot well!