A "Curly" made 12 ga trade gun--delicate?

[Cosmoline]

I've got a line on one of these old guns built a while back by someone called "Curly" for what looks like a reasonable price. It's a 12 ga. trade gun style flintlock smooth bore. The hitch is I'm likely to be doing more roundball and buck n' ball than traditional shotgunning with it. Will I be risking hurting it with that kind of load on a regular basis? I don't know much about these but want to get into a flintlock gun.

 

[Mike Brooks]

It will hurt you long before you hurt it. :haha:

 

[Le Grand]

Cosmo, If that is one of Curly Gostomski's Northwest Guns, it isn't too delicate. He was the originator of North Star, which is now North Star West. You'd probably really get a kick out of it.

 

[Cosmoline]

Cool! That is the guy, with the hard-to-spell last name. I did a little investigating and I guess he was instrumental in reviving the trade gun design in the 70's. The piece looks very nice with a few nicks and scrapes from use.

 

[bebloomster]

Curly was well known for putting out some excellent trade guns. He also made a hawk with a cast in pipe bowl. Tried to buy one back in the late 70's but finally cancelled after having been "backordered" for 6 months. He was more interested in taking a bunch of them to Friendship than filling a single piece order that had been paid for in advance. Would still like to find one of those hawks.

 

[flintlock75]

I have a Curly built Trade Gun 20ga. It is a fantastic weapon, very reliable and expertly made.
You will not go wrong with one of his guns.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

What do you use the buck and ball load for?

 

[Tkendrick]

What do you use the buck and ball load for?

Mostly Yankees.

Buck and ball was a standard military load in military smooth bore muskets.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

Right. But it isn't particularly useful for that these days unless you are a sociopath. It's far from the best hunting load and it is illegal in some states. Made me wonder what he was going to use it for--and I still do.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Russ; I agree with you. It is illegal to use this load in most states, except, possibly when hunting varmints, and unprotected species. If I had only a Brown Bess for self defense, as a home defense gun, I would consider loading it with buckshot, but not buck and ball, for that social purpose. There are far better selections of firearms to make, that cost much less than even a replica BB, for self defense, however.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've got a line on one of these old guns built a while back by someone called "Curly" for what looks like a reasonable price. It's a 12 ga. trade gun style flintlock smooth bore. The hitch is I'm likely to be doing more roundball and buck n' ball than traditional shotgunning with it. Will I be risking hurting it with that kind of load on a regular basis? I don't know much about these but want to get into a flintlock gun.

Should not matter. An ounce of lead is an ounce of lead whether it's all in one lump or a bunch of shot.

But, as others have noted, "Buck and Ball" isn't legal to hunt with in a lot of states. Besides, you're better off with one well placed ball than a half-dozen iffy ones.

As for killing Yankees - probably won't work any better now for you than it did in the War of Southern Insurrection. ;-)

 

[Cosmoline]

Sociopaths? :hmm: How can a load be sociopathic? Like killing something extra dead? I'm curious to try it out because I've heard so much about it, but the only thing I'd be using it for in the field is possibly bear. Though I'm more likely to just use a hardcast RB or slug. Will Buck n ball blow up the gun or something? If so please advise and I won't do it.

As an aside, don't worry about hunting regs. I'm from Sarah Palin country and it's a universe unto itself. The AK muzzleloading seasons are restricted to tiny parts of a few GMU's and I'd be using a different gun for those anyway. Unless this one turns out to give me better groups than the Tryon. This is for a knock around meat bag gun for the Chugach Nat'l Forest and some friends property in the mat-su where I like to shoot grouse, hare and such. I usually use my CZ 452 but I'm curious to try a flintlock. For those obviously a very light dose of small shot will suffice. I'll see what patterns well.

B&B is something I'm curious to do some informal testing with as well. I've got another thread on that subject so there's no need to go into it here. Rest assured for any actual big game hunting (as opposed to non-hunting DLP shooting) I will be using a rifle of some type, not a smooth bore.

 

[David Teague]

I too hail from Palin country and I use buck and ball on...

Paper targets.

So... whats with the sociopath remark? Last time I checked I am a bit different from John Q Six-pack but "sociopath" is quite a ways down the road from where I live."Quite a ways".

I haven't shot anything but paper in the last 27 years.

One other thing, Cosmoline never said a word about huntin in his first post...

Hey Cosmoline, you in Anchorage?

Last bit of info, Curly Gostomski came up to Alaska in the late 70's for the Alaska state Rondy. I didn't get to meet him then as I was in Oregon and didn't move up here until 81. Folks were still talking about that Rondy years later.

Cheers,

David

 

[Mulebrain]

I also have a Curly made gun in .20 gauge. You talk about reliable, and well made! When I first picked it up I was amazed at how light weight it is!

You could pack this anywhere! I have not shot it much, but that will change when it gets a little cooler!

Here is a great web link to Curly, and testing his guns!
http://www.gunweek.com/2007/feature0615.html

 

[Cosmoline]

Thanks for that info! The one I'm looking at is not one of the fancier "chief" guns, but that's fine with me.

Yeah I'm from Los Anchorage. All the talk of hunting is pretty academic as I never seem to have more than a one or two days off. I didn't even get to fish this summer.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

A load can't be sociopathic, I was referring to the remark about killing Yankees.

I doubt that the load will burst your barrel. Usually in a twelve bore you have the ball and three buck shot. You can load a premade cartridge or loose, but generally the spread--a pattern is really too much to hope for--is inconsistent. At fairly close range it works O.K., but it probably isn't worth the bother. You do lose some velocity too.

A twelve gauge smoothbore with a single patched ball will take pretty much any game on the continent. There is a well known painting of Curly with a bull buffalo that he took with a single shot from a 20 gauge version of your gun. At reasonable ranges they can be as deadly as a rifle. These smoothbores are seriously effective and versatile hunting tools. And Curly built some great ones! :thumbsup:

 

[Mike Brooks]

I clearly remember several guys shooting those Gostomski 12 bores back in the early 80's....Didn't take them long to realize those guns kill from both ends! :haha: The recoil on the 12 bore trade guns is pretty severe, so take that into consideration.

 

[Cosmoline]

I'll keep that in mind. The only recoil that's ever bugged me much was from a Ruger No. 1 firing maxed out .45-70, and a light weight Mossy 500 firing Brenneke magnums. Those got painful. With this thing I figure I can control the powder charge to lower the ouch factor. I'm really looking forward to this gun!

 

[David Teague]

Hello All,

My NWTG is a 24 gauge. It was built from one of Curly's kits in the early 80's.

Being a 24 gauge it only kills from one end. Ma Teague didn't raise no fools :wink: I choose that gauge on purpose.

Been fond of 58 cal arms since I was 13 (50 now).

Cheers,

DT

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

I had a couple of Curly's north west guns back in the early 80s The recoil did not bother me in hunting and casual shooting. But after a 20 round trail walk my right cheek looked like I had gone 12 with Joe Fraser! I sold or traded both of them.
After I got rid of them I noticed how people had dished out the left side of the high comb to prevent the "Fraser" effect. I still regret getting rid of them.

I was at Friendship in June going through commercial row at the end of the week. This fellow
had an original North West gun that had recently been found behind the wall of an old house. The gun had been there for over 100 years. It had a lot of wear and tear on it, I couldn't believe how light it was! It was 20 gage. I think it had an 1834 date stamped on it or maybe a little later.
Despite the wear and tear, it still looked like a shooter! This fellow carried it all over commercial row that day, was anyone else lucky enough to see it?