Daniel Boone TV Show's Take With a Ferguson Rifle Theme

[user 48702]

Watched this Daniel Boone episode last night, "The Imposter" S4-E16. Although in no way historically correct, it's easy to see that the script borrowed heavily from the idea of Major Ferguson's Flintlock Rifle. Hollywood at its best, but I still enjoyed the episode.

 

[RicM]

Forgotten Weapons Video
For Youtube video also


Cool series, never knew about the Ferguson rifle. On line found in Forgotten Weapons they tested and explained the process. Pretty ingenious for the time!!

 

[RicM]

Here is another Forgotten Weapons a close up examination and history of the Ferguson Rifle

 

[vintovka]

Looks like a Flint Hall rifle.

 

[nchawkeye]

Funny thing about the Daniel Boone series, Fess Parker was a history major...Every few shows he would put in some history, almost like he was whetting our appetites (I know he didn't write these shows but possibly he had some input)...Remember the one that referred to the Lost Colony?? How about the one where he returned to Pennsylvania and told the gunsmith how he wanted his rifle made and describes a Kentucky or Pennsylvania rifle?? Or the one where he was captured by the Shawnee and had to run the gauntlet....There were several more but these came to mind easily...Good stuff and it started many of us into a love of history...

On the Ferguson....Many years ago, I was having a discussing with a local collector, now I live in the Piedmont of NC, maybe a hour and a half from Kings Mountain and 30 minutes from Guilford Courthouse...I had showed this fellow a flintlock I bought from Bob Watts in the '70s and he mentioned a rifle he had an opportunity to buy years before...He ended up buying a Colt revolver the fellow had because he didn't know anything about this rifle until years later...It was a Ferguson, now, how in the world would a Ferguson get in North Carolina and show up for sale by a private seller in NC???

I've never heard that there were Fergusons at Kings Mountain but we all know that Patrick Ferguson was there...Who knows???

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Looks like a Flint Hall rifle.

That's because it is. But from 1964-1970 the fact that they actually used a breech loading flintlock as a prop, makes give me give them an A for effort.

LD

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Funny thing about the Daniel Boone series, Fess Parker was a history major...Every few shows he would put in some history, almost like he was whetting our appetites (I know he didn't write these shows but possibly he had some input)...Remember the one that referred to the Lost Colony?? How about the one where he returned to Pennsylvania and told the gunsmith how he wanted his rifle made and describes a Kentucky or Pennsylvania rifle?? Or the one where he was captured by the Shawnee and had to run the gauntlet....There were several more but these came to mind easily...Good stuff and it started many of us into a love of history...

On the Ferguson....Many years ago, I was having a discussing with a local collector, now I live in the Piedmont of NC, maybe a hour and a half from Kings Mountain and 30 minutes from Guilford Courthouse...I had showed this fellow a flintlock I bought from Bob Watts in the '70s and he mentioned a rifle he had an opportunity to buy years before...He ended up buying a Colt revolver the fellow had because he didn't know anything about this rifle until years later...It was a Ferguson, now, how in the world would a Ferguson get in North Carolina and show up for sale by a private seller in NC???

I've never heard that there were Fergusons at Kings Mountain but we all know that Patrick Ferguson was there...Who knows???

I remember reading that all the Ferguson's shipped to the Colonies were considered "ungentlemanly" and consigned to a New Jersey warehouse not horribly far from the Delaware River. At some point during the war, patriots looted and burned the warehouse. Most of the ferguson rifles were believed burned, but a very few have shown up in attics, etc over the centuries.

 

[Dark Angel]

Watched this Daniel Boone episode last night, "The Imposter" S4-E16. Although in no way historically correct, it's easy to see that the script borrowed heavily from the idea of Major Ferguson's Flintlock Rifle. Hollywood at its best, but I still enjoyed the episode.

Know that perhaps this reply is a bit dated, but in Daniel Boone S4 E6, The Imposter, the rifle used was not a Ferguson. Ferguson rifles did not have tilting, tip-up breeches. On the Ferguson, the trigger guard rotated lowering a screw-plug, giving access to the breech. You loaded a patched ball first, pressing it into the rifling, then measured in the powder. Rotating the trigger guard back into position, closed the plug and pushed excess powder into the flash-pan priming it. Watch the clip showing Mingo loading the rifle. None of the above happened. When all else fails watch a YouTube presentation about the Ferguson. Mingo tilted the breech, loaded 3 or 4 unpatched balls, closed the breech, then primed behind it. At no time did he prime the flash-pan. Love Daniel Boone Episodes, but they a just full of historical inaccuracies. SORRY FOLKS!

 

[david w]

Know that perhaps this reply is a bit dated, but in Daniel Boone S4 E6, The Imposter, the rifle used was not a Ferguson. Ferguson rifles did not have tilting, tip-up breeches. On the Ferguson, the trigger guard rotated lowering a screw-plug, giving access to the breech. You loaded a patched ball first, pressing it into the rifling, then measured in the powder. Rotating the trigger guard back into position, closed the plug and pushed excess powder into the flash-pan priming it. Watch the clip showing Mingo loading the rifle. None of the above happened. When all else fails watch a YouTube presentation about the Ferguson. Mingo tilted the breech, loaded 3 or 4 unpatched balls, closed the breech, then primed behind it. At no time did he prime the flash-pan. Love Daniel Boone Episodes, but they a just full of historical inaccuracies. SORRY FOLKS!

Everything has to be Hollywooded it seems, to make it more interesting to the uneducated viewer. They plan on most of us to be ignorant, and they succeed for the most part. There were only 100 Ferguson rifles made according to my google fu. They were capable of fast loading, but also fouled very quickly. The stock was said to be very weak in the wrist area. Even with today's metals, machining technology, and tolerances, I doubt the Ferguson would be worth a hoot.

 

[vintovka]

this: M1819 Hall rifle - Wikipedia

 

[LRB]

Know that perhaps this reply is a bit dated, but in Daniel Boone S4 E6, The Imposter, the rifle used was not a Ferguson. Ferguson rifles did not have tilting, tip-up breeches. On the Ferguson, the trigger guard rotated lowering a screw-plug, giving access to the breech. You loaded a patched ball first, pressing it into the rifling, then measured in the powder. Rotating the trigger guard back into position, closed the plug and pushed excess powder into the flash-pan priming it. Watch the clip showing Mingo loading the rifle. None of the above happened. When all else fails watch a YouTube presentation about the Ferguson. Mingo tilted the breech, loaded 3 or 4 unpatched balls, closed the breech, then primed behind it. At no time did he prime the flash-pan. Love Daniel Boone Episodes, but they a just full of historical inaccuracies. SORRY FOLKS!

 

[LRB]

NO PATCH. The ball is loaded naked in a Ferguson.