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NOT to beat a dead horse, but — I am not trying to convince myself or anyone else that ALL of the Rangers cut down their muskets, or even that SOME did. AND — you make an excellent point that some of them may have carried French, Dutch or privately purchased forearms. That is JUST EXACTLY what...

I don't claim to be especially knowledgeable about Rogers Rangers — even though they are local heroes to us here in New Hampshire, since Rogers and his men were from this state back when it was a colony, of course. As far as I know, Robert Rogers was a very independent sort of fellow, and so...

Err — actually, I was. Four years in the US Navy. Pleading ignorance might not work, but I would try it anyway. Keep in mind, at that point I am still alive to make my plea. If I am dead, the issue is MOOT.

That might be true. But IF I were a Ranger with Rogers in those days — and I thought a shortened musket was better suited to my needs and therefore more able to help to keep me alive ... I'd do it and worry about any consequences later. "What? Is it shorter? I didn't notice it, sir. It came...

AND I will say it too — Make sure it is not loaded! Do that BEFORE you do anything else! How to do that? Remove the ramrod and lay it against the barrel to make sure it it essentially the same length as the barrel; with just a bit left over, like say about the width of your thumb. Then drop...

I wish you success and — safety. May I suggest laying it in a spare tire and pulling the trigger with a string at a safe distance?

I would respectfully suggest — you look at some photos of mangled hands and fingers before you try firing this gun. Then ask yourself if you want to risk THAT.

Shipping companies have become increasingly unreliable; ESPECIALLY FedEx. Over the last very few years I have had two items never make it to my door while FedEx claimed they delivered them. In both cases, it wasn't porch pirates — because I was home when they claimed they made the...

As a kid, watching movies like Northwest Passage, Drums Along The Mohawk and Disney's Davy Crockett. A few times of seeing the flash of powder in the pan and I was fascinated by these guns, and captivated by the history. Now as an old guy, I appreciate the effort it took to learn how to make a...

Pardon me — but is anyone else disturbed by the marks/gouges/scratches on the face of this frizzen? I have never seen anything like that on the frizzen of my Charleville; some small and rather fine vertical scratches perhaps, but nothing like that. It makes me wonder if the frizzen is properly...

Many just rusted away in old barns and abandoned sheds.

FedEx USEDTO BE a good company — back in the old days. Somebody dropped something real heavy on a package containing one of my revolvers that had gone in for repair. The driver handed me the box with the damaged side down so I did not see it until he was gone. The rear sight was busted right...

I put one of those on the butt of my Charleville. NOT because of recoil, but — I don't want to rough up the steel butt plate on the concrete floor when I load my musket.

October Country is where I get roundball for my Charleville.

I have been buying .62 diameter round balls from October Country. Very uniform, and only a very slight sprue. The ones I got from TOW were pretty crude...

IF my musket is loaded when somebody asks to go Range Cold, I ask them to wait a moment until I fire it. After firing I step back behind the yellow line and we are all set.

Great photos! Seeing the uniforms, I was struck by how relatively small the men must have been as compared to nowadays. I do know the average man was about 5 feet six or seven and weighed about 130-140 pounds. With the physical rigors of campaigning, there were no chubby soldiers, they were...

That is almost exactly as I do it too. One caution that I am sure you all know about. After knapping the flint, be sure to use your brush to sweep away any flint chips from the priming pan before putting in your priming powder. You don't want any bits of flint flying up into your face and maybe...

I have not had burning powder grains from the pan embedded in my fingers — yet. But I have felt the heat of burning grains on the first two fingers of my shooting hand upon occasion when firing my Charleville. I went shooting a week ago and still have a slightly sore spot on my trigger finger...

Probably not. Life for most people way back in THE DAY was often pretty brutal. But in the case of Sacajawea, her contribution to the Lewis and Clarke expedition was truly impressive. She was a young women who had very recently given birth, but there she was on that arduous journey, guiding the...