I was working at a gun shop that had a black powder corner when the inlines first started coming out. Suddenly nobody wanted the T/C and CVA guns that we had stocked for decades. Soooo.... the boss started stocking Knights and Austin & Hallecks and Remingtons.... oh my.
Oddly enough, I never really had any trouble selling the T/C side-hammer guns. In more modern times, another boss I had hated and still hates traditional guns. I would typically end up with all of those offered on the used market because I would generally outbid my boss at the store I ran. I found that I could sell many more traditional guns than I could inlines.
The traditional guns tended to be in better shape because their owners had taken better care of them... though this was not an absolute. When I DID get a traditional gun in rough shape, I found that I could take it home and have it ready for sale the next day with nothing more than a good cleaning using a bronze bore brush and some water and Murphy's Oil Soap. Surface rust came off with light oil and fine steel wool.
Now, while I do have a single inline gun... an Austin and Halleck, and one T/C flintlock, most of my guns are traditional side-hammer percussion guns. I have started to experiment with plastic sabots and jacketed or cast pistol buillets, but still shoot patched round balls.
I am not impressed with the current generation of youngsters. Most of them would go looking for a left-handed screwdriver or a kerosene lantern battery if I sent them to the hardware store for said items. That said, there are still people doing blacksmithing out there. Still people making Daguerreotype photographs with cameras they built themselves. Still people using traditional platen presses with moveable type composed from a California Job Case.
I don't think traditional black powder guns are going to go the way of the dinosaur any time soon, if ever. I believe I once heard Captain Kirk ask Scotty about mass production of flintlocks once. As long as there is a market, the item will be produced and there will always be a market until or unless the government makes them illegal.... in which case the market with just go underground.
Oddly enough, I never really had any trouble selling the T/C side-hammer guns. In more modern times, another boss I had hated and still hates traditional guns. I would typically end up with all of those offered on the used market because I would generally outbid my boss at the store I ran. I found that I could sell many more traditional guns than I could inlines.
The traditional guns tended to be in better shape because their owners had taken better care of them... though this was not an absolute. When I DID get a traditional gun in rough shape, I found that I could take it home and have it ready for sale the next day with nothing more than a good cleaning using a bronze bore brush and some water and Murphy's Oil Soap. Surface rust came off with light oil and fine steel wool.
Now, while I do have a single inline gun... an Austin and Halleck, and one T/C flintlock, most of my guns are traditional side-hammer percussion guns. I have started to experiment with plastic sabots and jacketed or cast pistol buillets, but still shoot patched round balls.
I am not impressed with the current generation of youngsters. Most of them would go looking for a left-handed screwdriver or a kerosene lantern battery if I sent them to the hardware store for said items. That said, there are still people doing blacksmithing out there. Still people making Daguerreotype photographs with cameras they built themselves. Still people using traditional platen presses with moveable type composed from a California Job Case.
I don't think traditional black powder guns are going to go the way of the dinosaur any time soon, if ever. I believe I once heard Captain Kirk ask Scotty about mass production of flintlocks once. As long as there is a market, the item will be produced and there will always be a market until or unless the government makes them illegal.... in which case the market with just go underground.
