TOTW Trade Gun Question

[pat i.]

I'm considering trading into what I'm pretty sure is an older TOTW trade gun. Does anyone know who made the barrel and locks for these kits? Also if anyone has one how is the quality? It looks to be put together well enough.

 

[Trot]

Mine has a Davis lock, not sure on the barrel maker. Seems like a well made barrel, being a smoothbore not much can be too wrong.

 

[NorthFork]

@pat i.

Make sure that the kit includes the complete lock! TOTW has been out of stock of that lock for many years with no replacement in sight that I'm aware of. Davis made the lock if I recall correctly. Call TOTW on barrel maker.

 

[tenngun]

I did one, it took about a hundred hours and I can’t say enough good about it in terms of quality. I found it not my favorite gun, as it didn’t fit me as well as my TFC. So I sold it off only to invest in something I wanted more

 

[FlinterNick]

TOTW Northwest Trade Gun Kits are fairly easy to assemble, and only require minimal handwork. The most difficult part is the pinning and drill operations which can be mastered with a pin jig and drill press. A good set of chisels and a drill press (or mill press) in my opinion are essential for any kit.

The barrels are usually by Colerain either rifled or smoothbore.

The Lock is an Tyron Lock by Davis, its a good lock, good enough and serviceable.

Larry Zornes also makes a lock that can be used on the TOW stocks with just deepening the lock mortise slightly.

Overall its nice kit build. Lots of people don’t like the Northwest Trade Gun because it looks cheap, historically it was intended on looking cheap. Some things can be made to make it look nice like, using butt plate screws instead of nails and slightly inletting the trigger guard. You could also add a nose cap and entry pipe to make it more Fowler like.

 

[Eterry]

According to the OP, it is already assembled.

 

[11th corps]

One of the things I like about the T.O.W. trade gun is the simplicity. No fancy Dan brass fittings that do nothing to improve the shoot ability of the smooth bore.