Fowlers

[oneeye]

If a musket is for military use and a fowler is for shooting birds on the wing, what style of gun was used on the frontier for living off the land, and fighting off Indians or other hostile nations, say in the early 18th Century period?

Dan

 

[Stophel]

They used "guns"!!! :winking:

The simple term "gun" was very commonly used to denote any civilian smoothbore gun. (as opposed to a "rifle-gun"). A nice, light smoothbore gun for birding would often be called a "fowling piece". (in German, a light bird gun is called a "Flinte", whereas a heavier, more "general purpose" smoothbore gun gets the name "Gewehr", which is the generic term "gun")

I, myself, like to put things neatly into cubbyholes, but that's a tricky thing a lot of times when it comes to 18th century guns!

 

[tg]

"What is the reason and source for this drive by so many shooters to build or buy a gun that pleases someone else?'

I have not seen this at all, many want a gun that is very close to what the originals were, many want a nice gun with good parts and don't care if it is close to how the originals were made, many choose an out of the box production gun, I think the important point is to offer sound, valid, advice and info when any of the above buyers asks questions so they can make an educated choice if they do not have a lot of resource material or experience under their belts. This does at times seem to ruffle the anti PC feathers but such is life.

 

[oneeye]

"What is the reason and source for this drive by so many shooters to build or buy a gun that pleases someone else?'

I have not seen this at all, many want a gun that is very close to what the originals were, many want a nice gun with good parts and don't care if it is close to how the originals were made, many choose an out of the box production gun, I think the important point is to offer sound, valid, advice and info when any of the above buyers asks questions so they can make an educated choice if they do not have a lot of resource material or experience under their belts. This does at times seem to ruffle the anti PC feathers but such is life.

That is the best advice I have seen. Being new to this, my questions are mainly to gather information before making a decision on how I want to spend MY money. I don't really care what others think, but rather if I am going to be happy with the end product. Thanks to all for answering my rookie questions, as I am sure I will spew more as we go :v

Dan

 

[chuck-ia]

I finished an american fowler about 2 months ago. It has a 44" barrel. I had intentions of putting a rear sight on it but thought I would shoot it a bit before doing so. I have probably only shot it about 75 times so far. After a filing the front sight down a bunch, I can hit a 3" circle about half the time offhand. So, for right now I have put off putting a rear sight on. I think I would shoot the gun a bit before putting a rear sight on. flinch