India-made flintlocks

[dave_person]

No, most are stuck with an India gun. Hate it or love it. Too bad somone doesn't do a how-to article to help them.

Hi Marsh,
I thought about buying an India-made long land Bess from Loyalist Arms and showing how to rework it into something much better but there is too much variation in them. Unlike the Pedersolis, there is not a simple and consistent series of steps to take. It all depends on the individual gun. That is particularly true with respect to the locks and quality of inletting. The only consistent comments I can make are every one of them has a stock that needs to go on a major diet and the buffing wheel polish needs to be stoned off and edges cleaned up. You can see that the workers go too quickly from files to polishing wheels giving everything rounded edges and eliminating almost all crisp details.

dave

 

[Snake Pleskin]

Hi Marsh,
I thought about buying an India-made long land Bess from Loyalist Arms and showing how to rework it into something much better but there is too much variation in them. Unlike the Pedersolis, there is not a simple and consistent series of steps to take. It all depends on the individual gun. That is particularly true with respect to the locks and quality of inletting. The only consistent comments I can make are every one of them has a stock that needs to go on a major diet and the buffing wheel polish needs to be stoned off and edges cleaned up. You can see that the workers go too quickly from files to polishing wheels giving everything rounded edges and eliminating almost all crisp details.

dave

probably paid piece work, so they move as fast as they can, quality suffers

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Some years ago I was changing my impression from a French milicien to a member of the Compagnies franches de la Marine, so I needed a proper French military gun. The only place I could find one was from one of the "India-made" vendors at a large event. I went to Ticonderoga, money in hand, to buy one. When I got there, they had only one left and I just didn't like it. The next year they had 6 or 7 to choose from. That is the way to buy one. Some were not so good, but one was great. A little work and it would have done nicely. But, by then, I had assembled a Rifle Shoppe gun and was very pleased with the results. If I had seen the India gun earlier, I would probably been OK with it. That is the way to buy one. Select from a group that are for sale.

Also, a friend from Canada, posted instructions on how to modify every aspect of the 1728 military fusil. He had before and after pictures and he did an outstanding job. He is not one to accept second best, so the India guns can be made into something nice. Just takes a little work.

That is a very astute observation…

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Agreed. How can a country that takes pride in their scammers have aby interest in producing a quality gun? "India-made" means low-quality junk. Avoid this ******** for anything firearms-related.

That is painting with very broad and unsupported brush. Opinion at most, not fact based at all.

Just curious, Do you work for CNN?

 

[Mikekj]

Those Indian artisans/craftsmen do more with less than anyone on here could do.

Most here couldn't build a descent barrel, much less a whole firearm, with a complete shop at hand.

They are built in the old school way, probably closer to what was built 200 years ago, and with better metal, not mass production, like today.

 

[Surfinator58]

Agree a modicum of work is necessary! I generally spend 8 to 10 hours going over every part on my India built flintlocks but then again I enjoy the work

 

[Loyalist Dave]

OK so once again, (this is not the first such thread on this very topic folks) we have determined there are folks who have no problem with India origin muskets and shoot and hunt with them, there are folks that don't like the workmanship which they have seen in these muskets, and there are folks that don't like the muskets because of their opinion of India and people from India, in general.

LD