Best bet for a first smooth bore

[just4fun63]

I’m going to get my first smoothbore for a kit this winter,
What’s your opinion on the most enjoyable to shoot
English Fowler
Fusil de Chase
Or maybe the Pedersoli Indian Trade Musket?

I live out west and mostly do Rocky Mountain fur trade events but I’m developing a F&I / Rev war era persona for some planned trips back east next year.
Thanks for your ideas.

 

[Grenadier1758]

For F&I, will you side with the British or the French? Are you located in the far north east.

British civilians in the south might use an English fowler or a long land pattern King's musket. British in the far north east might have a club butt fowler in the Dutch pattern or an early French Charleville that was captured from Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.Scotia. The western plains would likely use the Pedersoli trade gun.

It all depends on what you intend for your greatest usage.

 

[Rat]

I know the Brown Bess "carbine" is historically incorrect for a trade gun, but mine has a persona, even though I don't. She was captured with a damaged muzzle, and then cut down to carbine length by a German gunsmith. Then traded to an Indian who spruced it up with brass nails and a serpent side plate.

Just a thought, the Pedersoli Bess carbine kit is a good one, but yeah, I know, many would turn up their noses at such a gun, poo poo it, and say it couldn't happen. But I sure like mine, and make no excuses.

Having said all that, Gren offers good advice in this regard.

 

[jrmflintlock]

I’m going to get my first smoothbore for a kit this winter,
What’s your opinion on the most enjoyable to shoot
English Fowler
Fusil de Chase
Or maybe the Pedersoli Indian Trade Musket?

I live out west and mostly do Rocky Mountain fur trade events but I’m developing a F&I / Rev war era persona for some planned trips back east next year.
Thanks for your ideas.

Are you getting a kit to build? Or are you getting a smoothbore for “your kit”
If you are building a smoothbore than there are any number of variations you can build.

I would go with a Fowler!

 

[just4fun63]

Are you getting a kit to build? Or are you getting a smoothbore for “your kit”
If you are building a smoothbore than there are any number of variations you can build.

I would go with a Fowler!

I’m looking for a kit to build this winter.

 

[FlinterNick]

Jim Chambers makes a nice fowler kit. Very easy to build too.

 

[Brokennock]

The where and when and which side of the conflict of your persona will dictate a lot of which gun is correct.
Also your build will.have influence on the answer to some of your questions. Many complain about the Fusil Des Chase slapping their face, I have not had this issue with it at all. But, it is a unique stock and comb profiles that does not work for everyone.
A Type-G, aka a "Carolina" gun, would be just about perfect for what, when, and where you have mentioned this far, unless siding with the French.

 

[FatBack]

The where and when and which side of the conflict of your persona will dictate a lot of which gun is correct.
Also your build will.have influence on the answer to some of your questions. Many complain about the Fusil Des Chase slapping their face, I have not had this issue with it at all. But, it is a unique stock and comb profiles that does not work for everyone.
A Type-G, aka a "Carolina" gun, would be just about perfect for what, when, and where you have mentioned this far, unless siding with the French.

The French have great military rifles for sale, never fired only dropped once. Ballistol still on them....sorry, could not resist.

 

[Brokennock]

In the past 30 years, maybe.
In the periods we discuss here, they were still a formidable and determined force.

 

[Tommy Bruce]

I'd second Chambers for a fowling piece kit, or Clay Smith if you wanted a type G (Carolina Gun). Honestly it depends on how serious you want to get about your persona. A lot of guys carry Pedersoli Brown Bess muskets in the short land and carbine form even though neither is historically accurate for F&I. But they are good guns and the details are relatively minor.

Deciding which side you were going to fight on would be key too. I have a centermark FDC and like it very much, but that pretty much narrows it down to fighting for the French, unless you use the battlefield pick up thing. I also have a New England fowling piece for doing militia/ranger and an above mentioned Pedersoli for Rev. war Brit.

If you are going to hit a few events, I'd go with the pedersoli. They are good guns that are robust and take a beating. If you are going to attend events & hunt, I'd opt for a fowling piece or type G. In the event that you don't want a kit, shoot me a pm.

 

[tenngun]

Sitting fox offers an early NWG, at its earliest it was an English FDC. SF’s side plate is wrong for the style they sell but with a little effort can match an early trade gun.

 

[just4fun63]

I’ll definitely be English/American. Most likely a rural family man who steps up to fight for the crown. Not a dirt poor family but not well off, maybe someone who was comfortable on his farm Just making it. Gun would be his everything gun, big game and birds now war. He would have bought the best he could afford or maybe trade for. Still that would be a plain gun. Haven’t settled on an area yet.
my family on my fathers side were actually frontier folks back then, Carolinas, Virginia then west to Tennessee (then to Texas in the 1840s)
Still thinking this out.

 

[Brokennock]

I’ll definitely be English/American. Most likely a rural family man who steps up to fight for the crown. Not a dirt poor family but not well off, maybe someone who was comfortable on his farm Just making it. Gun would be his everything gun, big game and birds now war. He would have bought the best he could afford or maybe trade for. Still that would be a plain gun. Haven’t settled on an area yet.
my family on my fathers side were actually frontier folks back then, Carolinas, Virginia then west to Tennessee (then to Texas in the 1840s)
Still thinking this out.

Sounds like a Type-G "Carolina gun" would be perfect.

 

[dave951]

If you don't absolutely have to have a rock lock, look into an 1842 Springfield. It was the last smoothbore in US military production. We shoot variations of these in North South Skirmish competition and they can be quite accurate without patches of any kind. I shoot a 42 Macon which is a cut down Springfield. Bore is .69 and I shoot a .685 ball with no patch and it will make one ragged hole at 25yd.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
A correctly made English fowler beats all the rest on your list hands down. I've built multiple versions of each (NW trade guns but not a Pedersoli kit) and shot them all. A mid 18th-century English fowler has the best architecture for form and function. Having said that, an English fowler is not a good first project. Better in that respect is a NW trade gun because the originals showed a lot of variation in quality and refinement. That means you can make a lot of new builder mistakes like leaving too much wood, poorly shaping the lock area, etc and still have a reasonably correct looking trade gun. On an English fowler, those kinds of mistakes ruin the whole thing. Below are photos of fowlers representing the time period you mentioned. The first is New England but with heavy French styling and parts, the second is English from the 1750s, the third is New England from the 1740s again with French influence, and the last set are of an original English fowler from the 1760s, which gives you a good idea about what I mean by "slim".

dave

 

[tenngun]

Looking at the beautiful wood work on those guns brings up a point. So many of us want a ‘plane Jane’ and some plain guns were made. This was the eighteenth century and things tended to be a might fancy. Gingerbread was often slapped on where not needed. Compare a an eighteenth century Bess or Charley to a WTBS gun.
Even ‘cheap’ NWG of the early nineteenth century had gingerbread that served no function and would go out of style later in the century.

 

[just4fun63]

Dave_person. Thanks for the beautiful pictures and information.

tengun. I’m thinking I’m going to do one upgrade on the wood, add a thumb piece inlay and a little relief carving around the tang. Subtle gingerbread

 

[smoothshooter]

What kind of

If you don't absolutely have to have a rock lock, look into an 1842 Springfield. It was the last smoothbore in US military production. We shoot variations of these in North South Skirmish competition and they can be quite accurate without patches of any kind. I shoot a 42 Macon which is a cut down Springfield. Bore is .69 and I shoot a .685 ball with no patch and it will make one ragged hole at 25yd.

What kind of accuracy do your better shooters get at 50, 75, and 100 yards?

 

[tenngun]

From a smoothie? Twenty five yards pretty good, black ring mostly at fifty. Some boys get hunting accuracies at seventy five. A hundred, I wouldn’t want to try it.
There were shooting contest in Central Europe at over two hundred yards for smoothies.
Twenty five left fifty right

 

[terrydull]

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