What did they look like & who sells a good kit for one?
Those are my questions. The vast majority of the print and online material for firearms seems to stop mid-1600's with the English Civil War, then pick right up again at the time of the F&I War. In between lies this infuriating gap. So I have decided to de-lurk and seek the advice of this good community.
I attend a lot of Ren Faire reenactments, and have toted a borrowed matchlock a lot of the time, but I am to the point where I would like to have my own -- a long-barreled smoothbore flinter of some sort. I would like to assemble my own, and have that pride of accomplishment, rather than buy one off the shelf. I also intend to hunt large game with it, so this must be a serious working firearm, and not a wall hanger.
I thought I had my heart set on the Buccaneer Fusil from the Rifle Shoppe until I heard a good many discouraging stories about wait times... also, I am not really sure I am up to tempering and hardening and fine-tuning a lock from a kit. I have a lot more faith in my woodworking skills than my metalworking ones!
I also have looked at ToTW's Type C Fusil, with all that handsome brass furniture. Their English Fowler kit looks nice as well, if I substituted the earlier-period 'flaming torch' trigger guard and engraved sideplate. Trouble is, I don't know how early they *are.* It doesn't say and I cannot find the documentation. Jim Chambers' fine New England Militia Fowler kit has the serpentine sideplate that dates, he says, from the early 18th century. Does it go any further? What about the conformation of the stock? Are any of these elements kinda-sorta roll-your-eyes yeah-they-might've appropriate for the late 1600's? I dunno. Can't find anything to tell me.
I've studied paintings, looked at museum displays, and come up dry. My cutoff date for garb & weaponry alike, and all my other accoutrements, is 1700 tops, and would prefer to stay a decade or so earlier to be on the safe side. I cannot show up at the Ren Faire with something from the RevWar period. It'd be like showing up to a RevWar event with a cap-&-ball rifle. Even to an untutored eye it looks weird and sort of spoils things.
I went through this hassle with my garb as well, as there is a similar gap between Elizabethan and early 1700's colonial clothes, in terms of what is available in patterns and documentation. There is just not much in the way of commerially available Baroque-era stuff out there. Now I am going to have to go through it all over again for my longarm, it seems. Can any of you knowledgeable folks give me some advice or point me in the right direction?
Those are my questions. The vast majority of the print and online material for firearms seems to stop mid-1600's with the English Civil War, then pick right up again at the time of the F&I War. In between lies this infuriating gap. So I have decided to de-lurk and seek the advice of this good community.
I attend a lot of Ren Faire reenactments, and have toted a borrowed matchlock a lot of the time, but I am to the point where I would like to have my own -- a long-barreled smoothbore flinter of some sort. I would like to assemble my own, and have that pride of accomplishment, rather than buy one off the shelf. I also intend to hunt large game with it, so this must be a serious working firearm, and not a wall hanger.
I thought I had my heart set on the Buccaneer Fusil from the Rifle Shoppe until I heard a good many discouraging stories about wait times... also, I am not really sure I am up to tempering and hardening and fine-tuning a lock from a kit. I have a lot more faith in my woodworking skills than my metalworking ones!
I also have looked at ToTW's Type C Fusil, with all that handsome brass furniture. Their English Fowler kit looks nice as well, if I substituted the earlier-period 'flaming torch' trigger guard and engraved sideplate. Trouble is, I don't know how early they *are.* It doesn't say and I cannot find the documentation. Jim Chambers' fine New England Militia Fowler kit has the serpentine sideplate that dates, he says, from the early 18th century. Does it go any further? What about the conformation of the stock? Are any of these elements kinda-sorta roll-your-eyes yeah-they-might've appropriate for the late 1600's? I dunno. Can't find anything to tell me.
I've studied paintings, looked at museum displays, and come up dry. My cutoff date for garb & weaponry alike, and all my other accoutrements, is 1700 tops, and would prefer to stay a decade or so earlier to be on the safe side. I cannot show up at the Ren Faire with something from the RevWar period. It'd be like showing up to a RevWar event with a cap-&-ball rifle. Even to an untutored eye it looks weird and sort of spoils things.
I went through this hassle with my garb as well, as there is a similar gap between Elizabethan and early 1700's colonial clothes, in terms of what is available in patterns and documentation. There is just not much in the way of commerially available Baroque-era stuff out there. Now I am going to have to go through it all over again for my longarm, it seems. Can any of you knowledgeable folks give me some advice or point me in the right direction?
