Thoughts on the different rifle styles ?

[54ball]

Changing Gears.....

In my opinion the best flintlock gun ever is a Carolina Gun Type G.
By far it's may favorite. It's like a rifle and can hang with a rifle to at least 75 yards with the right load.
I hunt with one exclusively. It just kills stuff.

 

[SmoothboreMurph]

Changing Gears.....

In my opinion the best flintlock gun ever is a Carolina Gun Type G.
By far it's may favorite. It's like a rifle and can hang with a rifle to at least 75 yards with the right load.
I hunt with one exclusively. It just kills stuff.

Is that the gun where to stock is painted a really bright shade of blue ?

 

[54ball]

Some were. The blue guns are documented to Williamsburg 1775 when the boys militia broke into Lord Dunmore's armory.
They were known to be...
Plain
red
blue
spotted
decorated with vines.
Here's the only handy photo of my son's Clay Smith G. it's decorated as the "death of Wolfe Gun"
Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr

 

[SmoothboreMurph]

Some were. The blue guns are documented to Williamsburg 1775 when the boys militia broke into Lord Dunmore's armory.
They were known to be...
Plain
red
blue
spotted
decorated with vines.
Here's the only handy photo of my son's Clay Smith G. it's decorated as the "death of Wolfe Gun"
Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr
View attachment 94859

Is this a kit gun or is it a complete piece ?

 

[JCKelly]

If you chose to buy a used gun, flintlocks have an outstanding advantage. That is, you are assured that no one has been using smokeless in them.

It is possible to fire a few shots of smokeless with no obvious problem. Except that the barrel metal has been damaged so that it bursts later on when loaded with black powder. About 2009 I had considered a used T/C until the seller mentioned occasional use of smokeless.
“This is a 50 caliber Hawken cap lock muzzle loader. I bought this rifle in 1973, did a few practice shots in my basement and then took it to a hunting preserve in Tennessee and nailed a big white ram and a Russian boar. I still have them on my wall. I mixed some smokeless powder with the black powder and it sounded like my 30-06 when I fired it. . . This is a very good looking rifle and I haven't used it much but I really enjoyed owning and hunting with it.”

And here is another T/C fired with black after trying a little" smokeless -sorry, it does include what happened to the shooter

 

[TraderVic]

There are those people out there, that lack any amount of common sense.
Back to your quest. Many good rifle characteristics to consider as mentioned above. I don't know your background hunting whitetail deer, but shot placement is "the biggie", so you'll certainly want a style that fits you when you're dressed for hunting.

 

[Brazos John]

And here is another T/C fired with black after trying a little" smokeless -sorry, it does include what happened to the shooter

Wow, that's a lot worse than I would have expected!
He's probably lucky that he didn't die!
Everybody needs to read this! It never occurred to me that this kind of injury was possible!
OK, sorry, back to the original post.

 

[54ball]

Is this a kit gun or is it a complete piece ?

It's a complete gun from Clay Smith.
I did do the aging and the decoration.
You cant see it but the rear sight is at the front lock bolt. That rear sight is the butterfly style, close to the breech and is authentic to the period.

That design of sight being so close to breech acts as a peep. I can't see my iron sights anymore. I can shoot the type G, and my Garand just fine. My rifle sights on the other hand are difficult to see. It's frustrating as I love shooting with iron sights.

Of course it's a smoothbore, 42" 20 bore. Historically, 44"-46" 24 bore (.58) would be a more period configuration. The Colerain 42" 20 does fine though. I have made several close shots with it. deer and hogs. My son killed a big boar to point of aim with it at 75 yards, steeped off. The load was 80 grns 2ffg .60 ball with dried (dead) Spanish Moss wadding.

The sight design and being a point and shoot gun makes it great for me, being a middle aged shooter.

 

[Gordoncourtney]

To my mind I would not buy a kit, just buy as the man says a pedrosli Thing is a barrel and lock of your choice is easy to get in USA Impossible in uk, unless you make and rifle your own barrels and neither are they expensive in USA ..,..then get a chunk of cheap maple draw out your rifle and whittle away with knife chisel or whatever gets your fancy Like mine your first bit of woodwork might be crappy but over those long winter months you can slowly creat a masterpiece I mean some of my in letting in early 1971 rifles need a good blob of epoxy, file up and stain. I love my .625 short rifle, with a genuine 1812-20 Brown Bess stronger lock...in all theses years it's just hung on the wall, such are UK laws. But I am proud of it...than.....a .45 long rifle , with a genuine 1840 Flint lock, auctioned as a Birmingham factory closed,,,followed, then a double .600 flinter thanks to L&R locks, then recent a .6, again £242 eBay genuine 1812 Brown Bess lock , 38" barrel with an oval smooth bore . I made a pigs ear of the stock,but it looks 17th Centaury well warn and repaired in battle. , actualy it's French oak, second time I have used it. I love big patch boxes I can keep all my survival gear in it...it's my rifle and I'll do what makes me happy. You don't need any lessons or wood work skills, just take it a bit of a time. Back in 2000 I did the impossible task of building a 50 ft ocean catamaran, I did not think of its size but just made all the small bits to my design then over 3 months assembled it.......it's the challenge that counts .....pleny of support here to look after your progress. I do wish you well Me I am an old fart of 78 but act like 35. Riddled with cancer, 2-5 years to live but just get on with you projects big or small I wish you well

plenty of Flint in UK so if the Neandatols could do flint knaping so can I Flints for locks are a doddle , any shape will do if it's sharp........I gave this arrow to a Scotish friend......it's got swan feathers and a small Flint point. A couple of days ago I let rip with my ionx bow, and did it fly 50 yards smack into my 50 yard target. , the Flint undamaged utterly amazing and what a bang as it struck home. So please stop asking question just grab a few bits and a chunk of wood..let the Force be with you and have real pride in your work The police took away my shotguns as I said I'll shoot the next guy that robs my house, so I cannot belong to a club....but they let me keep my muzzle loading guns as they think they are unless.......I took my compound bow an razor tipped arrows to France hoping we would be attached or robbed in out motorhome, Alas no robbers so no target. I bought my 49 year old son a Hoyt ionx bow for his birthday, best present he ever had....see them on Google Oh he's Stephen Courtney concept director of Dyson. See him on Google He hates guns and hunting mostly a vegitarisn. So David my other son gets my guns, he likes a big bit of rare steak . Ha ha. I wish you all well from uk almost worlds best forum. Very well done...worshipful master. As we say. " happy to meet, sorry to part, but happy to meet again"

 

[Scoper05]

I am usually a smoothbore user when I go hunting and have been using a .75 Cal Brown Bess. Recently though I've been getting the itch to get a flintlock rifle. I am new to muzzleloading and have never owned a ML rifle. I have been looking at the different rifles ( Longrifle, Hawken, European/Jaeger) and to be honest I don't know what direction to go in. I am not a fan of the Hawken style rifles so I've already written them off but now I am between a Long Rifle or a European Rifle. I see a lot of Kibler, TOTW and Chambers mentioned in the Long Rifle category and TRS has a Jaeger kits and a Baker Rifle kit. I've never done a kit before so I don't know how hard they are to make. I don't know the pros and cons of these two rifle styles so I will leave the floor open to input from all who care to help. All input and information is welcomed.

Well if you have never done a kit before then you can't go wrong with a Kibler rifle.they almost put them selves together.lol