Places to get a matchlock?

[Ian Straus]

No, i'm not writing about joining an internait0nal or olympic team. I'm 69 myself and olympics are always a your person's sport. I'm writing about holding a competition and get-together open to all matchlock shooters.

 

[Rudyard]

Maybe a postal per MLAIC rules then you can compare with the highest known standards . Ime getting' rusty' but the guns arn't. That big 200 ? French target is more difficult to find but the standard PL7 International targets are readily available & you can convert at least if your in the smaller target. its black is about 8 ' ' and makes a good aiming mark That might be do able.
Regards Rudyard

 

[TobJohn]

Geo,
The powder horns at that time had a valve to close them off, Really quite modern !
I will look for a thread on them on the other channel.
Courtesy of Michael yet again!

Not exactly what I was looking for, but look at post numbers #42, #44, and #47 on the link below:

Earliest Arquebusier's and Musketeer's Trapezoidal Powder Flasks, ca. 1530-1590 - Page 2 - Ethnographic Arms & Armour (vikingsword.com)

and the following, post # 7

14th-15th c.: How Powder and Ball etc. Were Kept Before Powder Flasks Appeared - Ethnographic Arms & Armour (vikingsword.com)

Looking through Michael's posts in the link, has anyone here tried a leather bag of powder? It seems very finicky and dangerous.

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

Looking through Michael's posts in the link, has anyone here tried a leather bag of powder? It seems very finicky and dangerous.

I recall many years back seeing an old leather flask for powder. The smooth inside was coated with a waxy substance. It had a hard ringed mouth and was closed by a wooden stopper. The whole thing seemed lightweight and had dried until it was fairly firm in the hand. Guess it was always non-sparking and dent-proof. I was left wondering if the original owner used a measure, or simply poured powder into the palm of their hand and then dumped it into the barrel.

 

[TobJohn]

I was left wondering if the original owner used a measure, or simply poured powder into then palm of the hand and their dumped it into the barrel.

That is part of my curiosity too. Both the Viking Sword thread and a book on medieval handgonnes describes taking some out by hand and putting it directly in the barrel, which seems really sketchy to do, especially with a match/tinder/heated wire as part of the process.

 

[Rudyard]

I recall many years back seeing an old leather flask for powder. The smooth inside was coated with a waxy substance. It had a hard ringed mouth and was closed by a wooden stopper. The whole thing seemed lightweight and had dried until it was fairly firm in the hand. Guess it was always non-sparking and dent-proof. I was left wondering if the original owner used a measure, or simply poured powder into the palm of their hand and then dumped it into the barrel.

Ide think leather would be subject to damp but beats loose powder in contempory pockets ! Wasnt that a problem for John Smith or some such period entity .
Cheers Rudyard

 

[TFoley]

Thanks,guys, the adventure continues

I was amazed that snaplocks could be as fast as percussions; but then some people claim flintlocks are too. I really don't know...

If in doubt, watch capandball shooting that matchlock carbine on my post under matchlocks - you'll be surprised at the speed of the action.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...or-ballistic-information.153345/#post-2166633

 

[TFoley]

Talking about matchlocks reminds me that here in UK there is a large and very popular re-enactment group called The Sealed Knot. Their period is the entire duration of the last English Civil War from 1645 to 1649, and the battles therein.

Needless to say, ALL the long arms carried are matchlocks, although some of the officers do have wheellock pistols. A couple of thousand matchlocks - all made in India, all used in all weathers at all times of the year. Sure, they are only used to shoot blanks, but there are quite a few members of the MLAGB who also shoot matchlocks in competition, as mentioned above.

Thus is one well-known source here in UK - YMMV - Authentic 17th-Century weaponry

 

[TobJohn]

Talking about matchlocks reminds me that here in UK there is a large and very popular re-enactment group called The Sealed Knot. Their period is the entire duration of the last English Civil War from 1645 to 1649, and the battles therein.

Needless to say, ALL the long arms carried are matchlocks, although some of the officers do have wheellock pistols. A couple of thousand matchlocks - all made in India, all used in all weathers at all times of the year. Sure, they are only used to shoot blanks, but there are quite a few members of the MLAGB who also shoot matchlocks in competition, as mentioned above.

I think I have seen them various places online. I have noticed the interest/existence of English civil war reenacting helps to provide English language resources for matchlocks and similar period arms.

Here is a reenactor group that is about 200 years earlier. I wonder where they got their guns...

 

[Rudyard]

Yehh! Bring it on " Build a better matchlock & the World will beat a path to your door " ! & ?.
I've never used one in reenactment but by long study I became a" Virtuoso on the Concert Matchlock ."& certainly made enough.
Regards Rudyard

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

Ide think leather would be subject to damp but beats loose powder in contempory pockets ! Wasnt that a problem for John Smith or some such period entity .
Cheers Rudyard

Dampness is a point well taken! But waxing the dried leather would definitely help control that.

As to John Smith, if memory serves, he was severely injured while he was asleep in a large canoe, riding with several companions. Attempted murder was later mentioned. Mysteriously, somehow, his 'bag' of gunpowder caught fire and detonated while he slept. The explosion threw him into the water, quenching the flames. He survived and was sent back to England. Wish we know more details about the material and construction of those bags though...

 

[Uncle Miltie]

Japanese matchlocks come in longarms (Tanegashima) or pistol (Tanzutsu) and would likely need to be purchased online these days. Jurgen Kreckel made European style matchlocks but I don't think he makes them anymore. Dixie Gun Works used to sell them.

 

[Rudyard]

Japanese matchlocks come in longarms (Tanegashima) or pistol (Tanzutsu) and would likely need to be purchased online these days. Jurgen Kreckel made European style matchlocks but I don't think he makes them anymore. Dixie Gun Works used to sell them.

Kreckels dead made rubbish anyway . owed me money. I don't know any others besides me. But the Japo ones where someone's commercial offering never seen them in use .only old ones . Rudyard

 

[TFoley]

Japanese matchlocks come in longarms (Tanegashima) or pistol (Tanzutsu) and would likely need to be purchased online these days. Jurgen Kreckel made European style matchlocks but I don't think he makes them anymore. Dixie Gun Works used to sell them.

Interestingly, the descriptive word 'Tanegashima' comes from the name of the island. It was the sole port-of-entry for the Portuguese and Dutch traders/mariners who were the only people allowed to have dealings with feudal Japan - on pain of death. James Clavell's remarkable book, 'Shogun', covers this aspect of 17th century Japan in great detail. The 'hero', John Blackthorne, was not a fiction, but a real British man who crewed a Dutch vessel that had foundered. Using his native wit and deep knowledge of things maritime, he became a famous and highly-respected part of Japanese culture and is known there as Anjin Miura - the Pilot of Miura.

 

[Jay Templin]

Looking through Michael's posts in the link, has anyone here tried a leather bag of powder? It seems very finicky and dangerous.

You can ask Captain John Smith how finicky and dangerous a leather powder bag is!
Jay

 

[Pukka Bundook]

I made a leather powder flask. it was simple, but boiled leather, shaped is about hard enough for someone to stand on without hurting it.
A separate measure was often used, even in the 19th century by country folks in England.
The bowl of a clay pipe was believed to hold, "Just the right amount" of powder!
even though my collection of clay pipe bowls vary in capacity between just over a dram, and 3 1/4 drams!
I see a leather flask as safer in theory. A leather flask would produce much less shrapnel if it went up.

I have two or three matchlocks that need making Rudyard.
They are still in my head but hope to get time this winter!

 

[Ian Straus]

It's winter, Pukka Bundook, how are you progressing on your matchlock construction?

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Still busting my donkey on farm stuff. Been an open back end so trying to get cultivated, but think winter here now.
Hunting season starts today, so off out for a dekko.
Hopefully when I find me workshop I can get at it!

 

[Rudyard]

Dear Esteemed Pukka .Work is the curse of the drinking classes ! I mean it's a four letter word ! Didn't Burl Ives tell us on his way to the big rock candy mountain they hung the jerk that invented work ?. Old Paddy Griffith Nephew of uncle Ned Kelly once described a traction engine that was buggerered in the fire box but still sharp in the cogs Saying " There's a lot of work that engines never done "I thought that was classic Can't you lease the farmland & focus of the creative skills you demonstrably have in such abundance ..( And I don't even want to borrow a quid !).
Regards Rudyard

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Such thoughts, dear Rudyard, are coming to my mind ever more frequently!
As in, some folks have a day off now and then, or Do something besides work.....
Today was first day of hunting season. Quick look out, then two folks wanted hay today before it storms. have had bought ages ago. so spent most of the day moving or loading hay.
Such is life.