Longrifles

[Stumpkiller]

heck boys hunt with them and shoot them thats what they are built for. :grin:

That's the way I feel. I can see keeping an original safe and indoors but a reproduction or modern custom ought to be out there making your hunts more enjoyable. How many hunts total do you get in your lifetime? Why not make every one special? I sold off LOTS of guns after going wild in my younger days. Now I have few but use them.

I have just one flintlock rifle presently. It's a good one, and it's what gets used when I shoot a flintlock rifle. It's been through rain and sleet and snow, been clobbered a few times when I've slipped going down ravines in the mud or ice and had a few extra "beauty marks" kissed into her in the process. A rub with boiled linseed oil and some wax on the metal and I'm back at it.

Nothing sader to see than a pretty nun. ;-)

 

[Dane]

Roundball, I've attached an image of my latest Lancaster Elk/deer gun.

The $2000 to 3000 price tag is a pretty good investment, when you figure you, your children and your grandchildren will be able to take this in the field. This kind of gun was made to shoot and take in the field.
Little dings and nicks add to character, and the quality of the parts, name brand locks and barrels, as well as proper care and feeding, will allow them to last indefinitely.

Not much else in that price range that offer so much enjoyment and longevity. (remember the automobile?)

 

[tg]

Nice looking gun, I will agree that one should take them out and use them it is a shame to just hang one on the wall and have it miss out on all the fun.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

I have a Hawken that has been appraised at varying amounts--usually between $2500 and $3000. I was advised to keep it in the safe and only take it out to look at it now and then. This is complete nonsense! Whether it cost $500 or $2500 it is a rifle. I have shot it many a time and hauled it through the woods often. It does have some scratches and a few dings on it, but it is my rifle and each mark means something to me. If I wanted to have something beautiful but useless I would put my money in knick-knacks and other foo-faw-raw.

 

[tg]

"we would be better off to just have one rifle or smoothbore that just fit like a glove in the caliber we end up favoring"

That is pretty much what I have done but the 30+ years of geting there and shooting/owning lots of different cal/type/level of guns was a lot of fun.

 

[Halftail]

I have a Hawken that has been appraised at varying amounts--usually between $2500 and $3000. I was advised to keep it in the safe and only take it out to look at it now and then. This is complete nonsense! Whether it cost $500 or $2500 it is a rifle. I have shot it many a time and hauled it through the woods often. It does have some scratches and a few dings on it, but it is my rifle and each mark means something to me. If I wanted to have something beautiful but useless I would put my money in knick-knacks and other foo-faw-raw.

I should have said in my first post that I do Shoot often with my Longrifle and can actually do quite well with it,If I do my part.
Russ,
I'm glad you like hunting with yours.Me.....I'll shoot mine on the range and woodswalks.That's what Mine was made for.Besides I got a few others(Shall I say,more Managable guns) for the Thick Deer woods of Nova Scotia.Haven't killed any game with the Yorke but have brought a fair share of trips to the prize table with it. :wink:

 

[rf50cal]

I check the rifles on Track almost daily. It's kind of like the feeling I used to get when I was a kid and the Christmas catalog came in the mail.

A few years ago I bought a beautiful Berks Co. rifle, that the builder had entered in the contest at Dixon's. Have hunted with it ever since. Waited too many years to get one to not use it. Besides, when the deer aren't moving, I pass the time admiring my rifle!

 

[Hamourkiller]

Hey Roundball, I found this link on Jim Chambers Web site. (Links section)

It fits your price range and teaches you how to build future rifles/smoothies!
http://www.ext.vt.edu/resources/4h/holiday/flintlockrifle.html

I plan on doing this next year on my home leave and it should be a blast.

Traditional Flintlock Rifle Workshop

March 9-14, 2008
The deadline is very early because the parts are custom made and time must be allowed for their construction.

Registration Deadline: November 10, 2007

Click here for Registration form. (PDF format)



Learn how to build your own custom made Flintlock Rifle! Rifle building experience not needed. Instruction and kits provided by Rifle builder Troy Roope of Stonewall Creek Outfitters. Meals and lodging provided as part of this package.

Visit Troy's web page at www.stonewallcreekoutfitters.com



About the rifle you would build:

Custom 50, 54, 58, or 62 caliber barrel
Custom Flintlocks
Grade 4-5 curly maple wood
Rifle Brass Mounted
Wooden Patch Box
Available Rifle Kits:

Rifle Kits are provided in part by Jim Chambers Flintlocks Ltd. Visit them at www.flintlocks.com


Early Landcaster Pennsylvania Rifle
Early York Pennsylvania Rifle
Isaac Haines Christians Spring - Edward Marshall
Mark Silver - Virginia Rifle

Other Custum Rifles:
If you have experience in rifle building and are interested in building a rifle other those listed on the previous page, you may contact Troy Roope to discuss possible options for other custum rifles or you may contact the Program Director - Nate Mahanes.

About this program:

You will pay less for this workshop than you would pay a craftsman to build this custom rifle. The custom rifle you build and some tools from the workshop are yours to keep.
Small class size with lots of instructor time - 6 to 1 student/teacher ratio.
Develop basic, beginner level flintlock rifle building skills
Meals and lodging the entire workshop time.
Cost: Only $1,500.00!! This covers all programming fees, instruction, the rifle kit, meals, and lodging

Refund Policy
Meals and lodging fees are refundable; the kit will be shipped to you. You can choose to attend the next workshop at the meals and lodging rate. In the event there is a waiting list and a replacement is available the full fee will be refunded.

Full: by January 11, 2008
50%: after January 11, 2008
Nonrefundable after: January 18, 2008
About the Instructors:
Troy L. Roope was born and raised in Stonewall, Virginia. He has been building rifles and shooting competitions with these rifles since 1994. He enjoys doing this art the old fashion way, building his rifles with hand tools and only machining certain parts. Some of his mentors have been Jim Hash of Appomattox, VA and the Gunsmiths of Colonial Williamsburg.

Jimmy Blanks has spent his entire life and professional career as a sportsman and outdoorsman. After retiring from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Jimmy turned his attention to his passion of FlintlockRifleBuilding and quickly earned himself recognition as an extremely knowledgeable and skilled craftsman. His knowledge of the intricacies and history of Flintlock Rifles as well as his “surgeon like” attention to detail relating to rifle construction is second to none.



Special Information:

This is an intensive course, come prepared to work! You take home what you put into it!
Rustic but comfortable bunk style lodging. Linens not provided.
A health form (no physical required), a list of items to bring, and other information will be sent as soon as your registration form has been received.
For more information Contact Nate Mahanes at 434-248-5444 or [email protected] or Troy Roope at (434) 993-3557




Return to Virginia 4-H
or
Virginia Cooperative Extension

 

[Gunrunner]

Pretty good lookin' rifle.

 

[roundball]

HK, I appreciate your cutting & pasting that and I sure somebody who sees it may get benefit of it but I'm afraid I won't be doing that.

One of few good things about getting older is you reach a point where you look over your shoulder and summarize a list of all the things you learned that are strengths and another list of things that you don't seem to be in harmony with, and you become "OK" with those lists.

I have and still would remove, tear down, rebuild, and fire off on the first try a chevy 350 engine without hesitation...so that's on my "strengths list".

But doing any sort of wood work beyond cutting a straight line across a 2" x 4" is not on my strengths list and I'm OK with that...I've learned to leave certain things like rifle building for the folks who have the skill and temperment to do that on THEIR strengths lists. :grin:

 

[Eric Krewson]

A good friend gave me all his BP rifles, pistols, bags and horns when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. His silver mounted rifle is such a thing of beauty that I was reluctant to take it to the woods. At first I carried it to my treestand in a case to keep from marring it.

On day while casing it up to lower it to the ground I thought"this is nuts", this gun was made to be hunted with and enjoyed not sheltered like some fragile work of art. This is when I really began to look forward to our tips to the woods together.

Five deer in the freezer later with this gun, I have decided any gun I own is going to be used for what it was made for, shooting and hunting.

 

[Eric Krewson]

A couple of pictures of the wood in this gun. You can see why I was reluctant to take it to the woods at first.

The buttstock.

And forend

 

[Vaino]

Your "do" and "won't do" lists are a nice way of expressing what a person's limitations are and makes one realize that one person's undertakings are another's folly and vice versa. Even within the gun building "trade" there are skill levels that are way beyond some of us and it's a very humbling experience to view some of the outstanding "work" of the truly gifted builders. This does not necessarily mean carved and engraved rifles, but those that have excellent architecture whether it be a Hawken, fowler or a LR of one of the various "schools". If a plain rifle has the architctural "correctness" and is pleasing to the eye, then possibly good carving and engraving would add to the esthetics. The appeal of a well done, "plain" "Hawken" is equal to that of a fancy LR and the "beauty" of each is in the "eye of the beholder".....Fred

 

[Roy]

:haha: that is a good way of putting it... :thumbsup: I'd about rather eat a bowl of dirt before I would have to work on my car :haha:

 

Hey Roundball. You pimp my ride and I'll build ya a longrifle. I hate workin' on auto mo biles.

 

[Halftail]

Eric,
What kind of wood is that?Walnut?

 

[roundball]

Hey Roundball. You pimp my ride and I'll build ya a longrifle. I hate workin' on auto mo biles.

There's an old saying about how to measure the effectiveness of man, and it's something like:
"It's not important how you start out in life...what's important is how you end up"

I can just see you sayin a few words at my funeral..."well, roundball struggled with life a long time but right there at the end he turned into a pimp"

 

[Eric Krewson]

The wood is birds eye, flame and tiger stripe maple all in the same stock.

 

[Halftail]

It sure is purty!

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I might mention that there WAS a reasonably priced longrifle, the Dixie Gun Works Tennessee Mountain Rifle. It came in big bore or squirrel rifle size, flint or percussion, right or left hand and was really quite a decent rifle for the price. It has now been dropped, presumably for lack of sales. The last price I recall seeing on it was under six hundred. I really don't believe there is a great market for a mid-priced longrifle, at least there wasn't enough to keep that one alive.