Question on the Bess....

[OldMaineWoodsman]

Gentleman,

Does anyone make a left handed Brown Bess?

Thanks.

 

[jim gray]

I have never seen any military firearm or reproduction that was produced for lefties. I don't think it would be PC. I think during that time period left handed children were forcibly "corrected" before they reached the age of military service.

 

[FearNot]

OldMaine,

I've asked this question many a times on many a board and the answer has always been no. There may be kits out there, but I haven't found them. I spoke with a Sgt at Williamsburg once about it and he stated that he would have beaten any soldier who didn't shoulder his firelock to the right shoulder.

In those days left handedness was considered the work of the devil and was beatenout of children at an early age. My mother, even, was forced to learn to write right handed in grade school back in the 1920s, so it hasn't been very long that us sinister folk have been allowed to use our left hand for much.

You may have to roll your own or opt for something other than a bess. I've heard tell, on this board and elsewhere, that shooting a right-handed flinter isn't all that bad and the few times I've tried it really didn't bother me much. If you're concentrating on the target you tend to forget about the flash. The only problem I encountered shooting a rightie was when I had to use musket caps on a nipple designed for #11 caps - put a pretty good tattoo on my wrist.

If ya hear about a leftie Bess, be sure to post it here. I'd love to find one!!

 

[OldMaineWoodsman]

God, it's never gonna end. It killed my baseball career, and is STILL causing me problems in my other love, muzzleloading. I did find a nice used LH Fusil Fin though.

I'll keep looking, if I find something, I will inform. Thanks.

P.S. The Ruger #1 solved my modern rifle problem.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

There never was a left handed musket adopted for service by any nation. Not so much an anti-lefty bias as it was an attitude of everyone will do everything the same. A lefty loading and firing by the numbers in the ranks would destroy the ability of that unit to load and fire rapidly. To find out, join a reenactment unit and go through the drill - lefty doesn't work. Even the modern day military still teaches soldiers to fire right handed but allows soldiers to fire "with the eye that God gave them" to quote a good friend who was a left-handed Navy SEAL. So, as far as finding a left handed, PC Brown Bess, you won't find one among mass production makers like Navy Arms or others - there simply is nothing to reproduce and it wouldn't sell in the numbers they need to profit from the venture. A custom maker could make one but since there are no easily available locks of the correct pattern, it would be very expensive.

 

[3 stinky dogs]

I was converted to righty from lefty in kindergarden and first grade to.That was about '78 to 1980.It was so dificult that they kept me in a seprate class because I couldent write clearly enugh fast enugh.And thats why I spell so badly :crackup:!Any way I think Track bess kits of some kind with a left hand option.

 

[benvenuto]

you wont find a bess, but I note L&R make a lefthand "Queen Anne 1750 london style" lock $97.50 from TOTW

You could give yourself a promotion from the ranks and build (or get someone to build) an officers fusil for you

 

[musketman]

Gentleman,

Does anyone make a left handed Brown Bess?

Thanks.

I guess you could contact a custom gun maker and see if they will make you one...

I imagine it may cost a few dollars more... :winking:

 

[FearNot]

Some of the semi-custom builders have lefties available. Tip Curtis, TVM ( where I got my southpaw Early Lancaster) and Northstar West offer them. I haven't done so yet, but I was going to enquire of Early Rustic Arms if his Militia Musket and/or his Colonial Smoothbore were available in a left handed version.

P.S. Going through basic I fired a left handed M-16 - ejected to the left, so I got to move to the far left end of the line.