New England musket from French fusil parts

[rich pierce]

This is a gun built for a story. Let’s say it belongs to a retired Vermont farmer. Well, farmers don’t retire they just slow down and let their sons do more. The old man carried this musket in the War for Independence. It was all he could “muster” - a gun put together from parts from a French fusil captured during the French and Indian War. He carried this and a tomahawk with the militia. The lower parts of the buttstock and cheek side were torn off by a British musket ball while he was reloading in battle. Being frugal, he kept the gun and when furloughed, had it repaired. The whole toe of the buttstock and most of the cheekpiece side have been replaced, pegged and glued in place.

Regarding specs: .69 caliber, 46” octagon to round barrel. 1728 French fusil ordinaire lock and furniture.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Fascinating tale, and completely possible, plausible and likely that such as this did (and still) are taking place.
I can see in my mind that buttstock being broken as it was used as a battering ram to take out a downed but not neutralized enemy, or possible to take down a door.
Don't throw anything away, re-use everything you can. That's what it took back then, and fun to do now.
I'll bet that is a fun one to shoot!

 

[Brokennock]

Always a story, or similar, that's gone through my mind, having a French style gun here in Connecticut.

What is the real story behind this particular gun/build? How did the stock come to be in need of repair? Was it built that way from scratch from the start?

I've always wondered if there was a way to mark my stock with, "to the victor go the spoils," in a way that could someday be removed, but that would look like someone might have done it in the mid 1700's, thus indicating a battlefield pick up.

 

[rich pierce]

The real story is that I bought a cherry blank for this build. It had more sapwood than it looked in a picture. I got the barrel and lock in before touching the buttstock. Then as I started shaping the buttstock I found much of it had dry rot. At that point I had to start over or cut away the rot and splice in a piece of cherry to replace the whole toe area. Once I had that glued and doweled in I realized much of the cheek side was punky too. So I had to cut that out and glue and dowel in another chunk of cherry! By now I was committed and brainstorming the story.

 

[Brokennock]

Very well done sir. I love it. Nice gun, good story, great save.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Well done, bravo!

 

[Alexander Efremenko]

This is a gun built for a story. Let’s say it belongs to a retired Vermont farmer. Well, farmers don’t retire they just slow down and let their sons do more. The old man carried this musket in the War for Independence. It was all he could “muster” - a gun put together from parts from a French fusil captured during the French and Indian War. He carried this and a tomahawk with the militia. The lower parts of the buttstock and cheek side were torn off by a British musket ball while he was reloading in battle. Being frugal, he kept the gun and when furloughed, had it repaired. The whole toe of the buttstock and most of the cheekpiece side have been replaced, pegged and glued in place.

Regarding specs: .69 caliber, 46” octagon to round barrel. 1728 French fusil ordinaire lock and furniture.

Nicely done! I like it a lot.

 

[Cruzatte]

Now that's what I call sheer artistry. Well done!

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
You could put that in a museum collection and it would look right at home.

dave

 

[Grenadier1758]

As always, you do a good piece of work. I like the lock panel treatment. The repair is very well done. Way to salvage that punky piece of wood.

 

[rickystl]

WOW!!! Nice job Rich. Looks great. I also had one gun made from a "story". Was fun. Congratulations.

Rick

 

[Flinty Scot]

What a base for building a credible persona! Your great save created history.

 

[rich pierce]

As always, you do a good piece of work. I like the lock panel treatment. The repair is very well done. Way to salvage that punky piece of wood.

Mike, now I can play fair at the smoothbore match!

 

[Grenadier1758]

Yeah, I know, you cheated me at the last match. But then I pulled a shot, so I have some culpability in my performance on target.

 

[rich pierce]

I had a great day shooting yesterday. Too bad it wasn’t during a match. Offhand 25 yards with a new gun

 

[Griz44Mag]

You are supposed to drink that - not shoot at it!!!!

Sounds like ya'll had a fun day!

 

[Grenadier1758]

Just what I was afraid of. You don't need the rear sight. Hopefully that was off a rest.

Good shooting. I need to figure out how to get the needed house pass to get to the range. I could sneak out the basement door.

 

[CyrusP]

New guy here. I was with you until you decided to shoot at that Blue Moon.

Kidding aside, what a great piece of work and an equally great story. I’d be proud to own that beauty.

 

[rich pierce]

Hi new guy Cyrus! Send me a message if interested in chatting about custom guns.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

Beautiful work Rich!