Jackie Brown "Carolina Smoothbore"

[Rob M.]

@WALT53 ,

I don’t know how he did that. In my conversations with him in planning this gun, I believe he referred to it as his “antique finish.” I’ll say he accomplished that… this gun looks 300 years old! The photos in post #1 on this thread represent that metal finish just as it looks. It is smooth to the touch, not pitted, but it looks rough, with sort of mottled, uneven coloration.

Again, I don’t know how he did that, but I think I’ve read of people doing an overall cold blue finish, and then spritzing the metal with straight Chlorox. I don’t recall how they “killed” the bleach when the process had reached the desired finish, and in fact the metal on this gun had some rust in the concealed areas, suggesting the agent was not completely neutralized. Jackie may have used a similar procedure, but I can’t say for sure, and I’ve never experimented with it on my own.

There is an outfit called Zombie Tools, up in Montana, I think, that makes fully functional cutlery in fantasy designs. Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse, you know. Anyway, their website says they use 5160 and 80CRV2 steels (carbon tool and spring steels) for their blades, which are treated with ferric chloride. The result looks a lot like the finish on my Jackie Brown fowler, at least in their pictures.

I don’t know if any of that helped or not, but that’s about all I know about it.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

Not trying to but in but ... Ken Netting s antique process is cold bluing a metal part then you put that part in bleach . You can just add the bleach or submerge the part . Man ! The rusting is ....trying to think of fancy word but no luck , ....a bunch of rust I g !! Then you wire wheel the rust off a bit and the surface of the metal is lightly pitted all over . You can just dunk the part in oil for couple days to soak or blue the part . The antiqued surface looks great ! The process is time consuming though but looks good . You do have to watch it carefully for days , make sure it does get dry and start the rusting process again once you want it to stop ....keep it oiled ! Mine I just keep applying hot Browning solution ( cold doesnt work well ) until I get the texture I want ( pics )/ , then stop the process ....

 

[MountainSmoke]

I don't know why Jackie Brown elected to call his fowlers "Carolina Smoothbores." I think he might have been living in one of the Carolinas at one time, but I'm not certain of that.

As for the historic Carolina trade guns, the absolute best reference I know of is Lee Burke's 18th Century English Trade Guns in the South, or the Carolina Gun... (American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin 65: 2-16). Mr. Burke wrote, "English guns made for the Southern Indian trade may appropriately be called 'Carolina guns' as this name was used in British Rules of Proof, and in at least one instance in colonial documents in America" (p. 65/6). He goes on to reference an inventory of a store owned by a man named Thomas Hancock of York County, Virginia, between 1732 and 1740. The inventory lists with the shooting supplies "40 Carolina guns" (p. 65/6).

From reading this paper, it is my understanding that Charleston (or Charles Towne) was the real hub for the buckskin trade with England, at least in the south. Charleston at that time would have been analogous to St. Louis during the beaver trade 80-100 years later. Ships from England anchored in the harbor and unloaded, and traders ("packhorsemen") carried the goods into the interior, and carried the buckskins out. There were almost certainly some white hunters, but it is my understanding that the bulk of the skins were collected by Indians, who resented the white hunters killing their deer. Traders would have been tolerated and in many cases welcomed. Hunters... not so much. Interestingly, this pattern was repeated in the buffalo robe trade of the 19th century.

So, they were called Carolina guns because that was where they were headed when they left England, and they were of a recognizable type. I'm not familiar with the Carolina Rendezvous. Oglethorpe landed in 1733 and laid out the plan for the city that would become Savannah, but I don't know when the port was established there. I'm pretty sure the trade from Charleston was already underway, and I suspect Oglethorpe's traders may have gotten their goods from Charleston, initially. Florida was a Spanish colony at that time and until the end of the Revolutionary War. There were traders heading north out of Pensacola into the Indian Country, under license from Spain. I think most of these guys were actually English, carrying English trade goods. As I understand it, Spain had no real interest in trading, but they had to in order to keep "their" Indians from supporting the British. I don't know where these traders got their goods, whether from brokers in Charleston or Savannah. New Orleans was French until 1763. This really doesn't have much to do with Carolina guns, but the Spanish were trading with their native subjects in Texas pretty early on, to assure their alliance. I found this interesting "price schedule" for trade goods coming out of Nacogdoches on the Texas Beyond History website:

View attachment 325923

Note the date of 1782. Spain owned New Orleans then, but France and Spain were allies, and I'm thinking the east Texas trade goods might have been French. In any event, we see one buckskin would get you five loads of powder and ball, or six gunflints, or a worm for cleaning your piece. A fucil, though, would set you back thirty skins. That sounds like a lot. I don't know how this might compare to prices asked by the English traders farther east. Maybe someone reading this will be kind enough to post the value, in deerskins, of a Carolina gun from that period.

History gets really complicated if you dig into it.

Notchy Bob

Fascinating post, Thanks Notchy Bob

 

[nhmoose]

Yes, he's trying to retire, as I asked him to make a club butt for a friend like he had made for me and he said he can't do it ...

Well good for him though - seriously - I hope he enjoys his well earned retirement!

I love my J Brown club butt!

 

[smoothshooter]

I'm no fowler expert so what is the difference between a Carolina Smoothbore and a Trade Gun for instance. Basically other than possible location it was made ie. Carolina's

The butt plates and trigger guards are different.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Gosh, fellas, maybe we all need to breathe deeply and take chill pills, or at least three fingers of good bourbon. It's all about sharing information and enthusiasm. Type G, Carolina, they are all wonderful.

Will a fine single malt Islay scotch whisky do?

 

[Leatherbark]

The one and only praise i can recall for the one, I had. It was built and sold at a lower cost compared to others for sale. It gave you the feel of a fowler along with the inaccuracy that you eventually learned is relative to all smoothbores compared to rifles. I do like tinkering with them though.


Bob

 

[Heyyou48307]

Our forum brother, @bornintheussr , started a thread about a really cool pistol he had acquired, and we were able to confirm that it had been made by Jackie Brown, a muzzleloading gunmaker in northern Mississippi. Check it out here: my new pistol

Over the course of that discussion, I mentioned owning a Jackie Brown fowler that had some features similar to those on the pistol. I was asked to post some photos of my smoothbore, and rather than hijack the other thread, I thought I would just start a new one.

Mr. Brown called this a "Carolina Smoothbore," but in our correspondence he simply referred to it as a "fowler." Note that some of the early English trade muskets were called "Carolina guns." This one is not a copy or replica of those, nor did Jackie try to represent it as such. The similarity in names is coincidental. Anyway, I ordered this one from Jackie in late 2009 and received it in early 2010. Jackie has built a lot of muzzleloaders, and I think this was more or less a standard model or design for him, although he was happy to accommodate reasonable requests for custom features, such as the type of wood, length of pull, or type of lock. I requested a walnut stock stained dark, an antique finish on the metal, a 13-1/4" LOP, and an L&R Queen Anne lock. The bore is 20 gauge, and I believe it has a Colerain barrel.

Here is a full-length view of the lock side:

View attachment 299454

...and the off side:

View attachment 299456

I apologize for the fuzzy photos. This gun has a 42" barrel, and it was hard to get the whole thing in the picture!

You can't really see it in the photo, but the tapered ramrod is a replacement that I made. The original rod was a simple 3/8" stained hickory stick with a threaded ferrule on one end. I keep it as a backup, but prefer a tapered rod for looks as well as function.

Here we have a close-up of the Queen Anne lock as well as the trigger and guard:

View attachment 299457

This lock had some issues when first received, but I do not consider that Jackie's fault. It was a mediocre to poor sparker and it would eat flints. I understand these are very common problems with L&R flint locks. I sent it to "the Lock Doctor," Brad Emig of Cabin Creek Muzzleloading for remediation. Brad tuned it up and it's as good as any now... very quick and reliable, and easy on flints. I would like to add that this gun does not have a vent liner, nor does it need one. Vent liners are vastly over-rated in my opinion. They can be an advantage for rifles with swamped barrels with heavy, thick sidewalls at the breech, but for a smoothbore like this one, a liner would be more of a liability than an asset.

Moving on, if you look at the pistol photos posted by @bornintheussr in the thread referenced above, you'll see a lot of similarities between that handgun and my fowler. The traditional "Tennessee" sideplate is one of them, also the swept-back trigger with the pigtail curl:

View attachment 299463

Another is the triggerguard itself. In looking at the pistol photos, it seemed to me that the triggerguard bow was quite large, and the guard on my fowler has exactly the same "acorn" finial up front:

View attachment 299464

I'm thinking Mr. Brown may have modified a guard for a fowling piece to fit the pistol. I'll have to say, I like that larger bow on the pistol guard. It looks good to my eye, and I would consider it a very practical adaptation.

For the front sight, Jackie likes the old turtle:

View attachment 299465

We had a little discussion of these "turtle" front sights in a recent trade gun thread. Popular as they are, I don't think think they are authentic or "correct" for any period of distant history. However, muzzleloading gunsmiths are artisans as well as craftsmen, and we as customers need to accept some of the distinctive features these artisan/craftsmen design into the guns they make. With that in mind, Jackie likes the turtle, so that's what I got. Here is the gunmaker's signature:

View attachment 299466

Jackie told me that guns signed "J. Brown" were completed by him, while those guns marked just "Brown" were sold in the white, to be finished by the customer. Mr. Brown sent this one to me as a finished gun.

I have corresponded a little with Jackie recently. He told me he is still building a few guns, but he is not taking orders any more. Time takes its toll on all of us. I will say it was fun planning this fowler with him, and he was great to deal with. I have bought and then sold a few guns, but this one from Jackie Brown is a keeper.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

My brother had one done poorly, no buttplate, fine shooter . He lost interest but it’s in the hands of another dedicated shooter