Traditional Firearms
 

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?

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

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!

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

Sounds like you know your rifles!

I may have a friend build mine. I want a 54 cal flinter in the trade gun style. He makes a beautifull rifle and usually gets some great wood for a stock (full stock would be my preference in the flinter too). He also does soem great carving work on the stock to give a more personal look. Hopefully I can help him build it, or just have him guide me along...

keep your powder dry!

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

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Awe C'mon!

If you're going to take that plunge..... break into the wife's piggy bank[:@]anddrop the jaws ofthose enactors when you show up the very first day. This make belowhas got your name written all over one of these models.... you just figure out which one it is.

http://www.austinhalleck.com/AH-Mountain.html

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

Nice looking rifles, but I still think i am looking for a full stock.

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

i shoot a T/C 50 cal hawken flinter.......when im done with college i plan on building a few flinters......big bore....and a small bore for squirrels and such.........till then...the hawken makes smoke just as good as anthing

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

The Great Plains & Trade are not full-stock in traditional lingo... I think! I'm not into reenactment so I don't know for sure. Ialways thoughtthe rifles with stock all the way to the muzzle are full-stocks. Ihave always looked atthe one-piece ones like the Lymans & A & Hsas beingmore "modern traditional". I just prefer the wood, looks & shouldering of the Mountain rifle over the Great Plains.

I own one of these below in percussion. It's a wall hanger rifle that I hardly shoot.

http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.CFPage?&mode=article&objectID=2875 8&cat=Gear&subcatID=0&objectType=artic le

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

I also own and hunt with a number of traditional rifles. They range in caliber from .50 all the way to .62 caliber smoothbores. This includes flintlocks and percussion rifles. In fact the most accurate rifle I own that sports open sights is a .58 caliber Green Mountian Barrel that sits in a T/C Renegade stock. The rifle hasa 1-70 twist and will lay roundballs out at 100 yards with 110 grains of Goex 2f all day with the best of them. My flintlock rifles are also excellent shooters with good fast locks and the right load, they are nothing to over look. My biggest problem is deciding which rifle gets to go hunting with me that day....

I also shoot a number of inline rifles, all .50 caliber. Most of them are used in the modern rifle season.

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

I'm not 100% sure where the breakdown on full or half stock is, especially when your talking historical accuracy (full stock being wood all the way to the muzzle). My observation when looking around at shoots with the re-enactment group I'm with is your later period (post 1800) rifles incorporated the 1/2 stock. You see them in the Hawkin and Great Plains style rifles. Your earlier frontier period (pre-1800) rifles had the full stocks. You see them a lot in the Kentuky and Tennessee style rifles.

I'll post this inthe re-enactment forum I'm in. There is a few history nuts in that group and I should get a thorough response as to the "what is what".

RE: Traditional Firearms
 

Early periods, check some of the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Jaeger, and Cumberland style rifles... http://www.earlyrusticarms.com/main.htm take a look at some of his rifles.. That's where I am headed next is a early Lancaster rifle in the big bore caliber. The bigger the better, but I am going with a rifle and not a smoothbore.... I had my fill of the smoothbores already with my .62 caliber...