Trade gun photos please....

[Phillip McDonald]

I want a trade gun soooo bad!

 

[Cruzatte]

I want a trade gun soooo bad!

They are fun and so addictive! :thumbsup:

 

[chuck-ia]

A trade gun I made a few years ago, chambers col. virg. lock, Colerain 20 gage barrel, home made trigger guard, trigger and plate. flinch

 

[lbothell]

This is a 72 caliber / 12 gauge Curly made early on, weighs 5lbs and is a blast to shoot! I know 20s are all the rage but this big bore beauty puts a thumpin on a deer

 

[Hiverano]

Green River Rifle Works & Green River Rifle Works Collectors Association Guns​

This is a copy of an original 1850's NW tradegun right down to the size of the original's bore - a .50 caliber smoothbore. Hanson thought it was built to reach out (longer range) with the buffalo becoming wary of humans.

Mr. Koziol has done similier testing if you remember on another GRRW Collectors Association guns - a J&S Hawken full stock flinter built by Carl Walker last year. Jonathan was amazed how nice that rifle turned out.

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Jonathan loves to shoot and improve on the guns he has tested, that's the reason I sent this NW Trade Gun to him. Plus he'll use his different great products and services to improve on what the original copy started out as.

This was a surprise to have Doc comment on someone's work like he has with Jonathan. What Doc White and myself like is how he is making this information available to you guys, should be an interesting review with the addition of his videos .....

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Story behind this NW Trade Gun

GRRW No.1 H.E. Leman North West Trade Gun .50cal. Did a little shooting today and had a blast! Tomorrow, I will be setting up my shooting bags and try it off something stable. Ignition was fast, trigger pull was maybe in the 3 to 4lb range. A very comfortable gun. It was weird getting used to that flat butt plate as I shoot a Hawken, but it was a nice feeling on the shoulder. I am hoping to find an accurate load out to at least 75 yards with this smoothbore and use it for a mule deer hunt in September. An extremely well put together NW gun! Doc did one heck of a job one this one!

H.E. Leman NW Trade Gun built by Doc White
GRRW.CA H.E. Leman North West Trade Gun
[GRRW.CA #NW01 DGW].​

I get a chance this week I will share some of photo of NW Trade Guns we have owned and sold over the years. Back in the 1920s and '30s these were the cheapest guns available for collectors. My family has had several antique stores in PA buying selling and trading firearms along with other household goods. The NW Trade Guns were considered at the bottom of the pile for weapon collecting. Don't get me wrong, this is were my father took advantage of the opportunity and bought everyone of the NW guns that became available at the family stores. Why not, he was paying anywhere from $0.99 cents to a high of $3.00 per gun (in good condition), had to make payments in those days. I showed Charles E. Hanson, Jr. (Museum of the Fur Trade) pictures of some of these old purchases and he went crazy with excitement. An example of one of these guns I sold a few years ago: Paid $1.25 cents in mid 1930's for a 75% NW Trade Gun by Sharpe, sold the gun a few years ago for $3,500 to Ryan R. Gale author of For Trade and Treaty: Firearms of the American Indians.
Fun stuff

Buck

 

[Rob M.]

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[Hiverano]

I'll share a few items if interested on thes guns from one of my books that Kindle published.

If you're a fan of the North West Trade Gun, reading everything available by Hanson, Hamilton and other authors, now republished for it's 3rd printing "Success in the North American Fur Trade" is now available once again.

Mr. Conner has gone a step further than his counterpart by not only furnishing the history of the arms. He has included a list from the London Board of Ordnance showing the maker, time frame and type of production. Included with each maker in a second reference, the German version of the same firm with time period of business, location and whom they supplied. When both sources are compared the reader gets a better understanding of the demand for arms and the importance of this industry.

This book is a "must have item" for those interested in early North American History and Enterprise, a book for the living history folks to the students of the fur trade.

John William Eaton, Field Editor
"The Colonial Society" Journal

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[WALT53]

...

My first ever build with help from Rob M . Say high to slim ..

 

[Rob M.]

My first ever build with help from Rob M . Say high to slim ..

" Hi Slim ! Your frikken awesome !! "

 

[JRBCo.]

My first ever build with help from Rob M . Say high to slim ..

Nice job. What is the length of the barrel?

 

[Rob M.]

Nice job. What is the length of the barrel?

Its 26" long barrel ,24 ga.

 

[Rob M.]

On the Subject of TRADE Guns.
It was my understanding that trade guns were made with the intention of exchanging them for piles of fur from the Indians. A pile of fur that were so many feet thick for a trade gun which was always a smooth bore. I had been given the impression that these guns were generally of minimum quality just enough there to perform as a shooting piece.
Not cheating the Indians had apparently never occurred to anyone. . I understood that the Hudsons Bay Company pretty much was founded on this practice.



How far off reality I might be is of interest to me if that is the case
Any correction of my errors would be appreciated if expressed briefly

Dutch

Prices of trade guns ( if I got the right picture , can't see on this tiny phone , LOL ) . 10 to 12 beaver for a trade gun .

 

[WALT53]

Nice job. What is the length of the barrel?

It shoots shot really good to ,I’m still playing with it but so far so good .

 

[WALT53]

Opps wrong picture sorry .hear yeah go .

 

[Rob M.]

...

 

[randyt]

Here's mine 20 ga caywood. I love it

 

[Rob M.]

Here's one I made ....N.W. Trade gun ... Let's see ... 26 bucks in the barrel ,24 ga., ,15 in the breech plug , 18 in the side plate , 200 in the lock , stock was free but most cost me 50 , trigger guard and trigger made from scrap iron , buttplate from some scrap ...10-14 dollars for bolts and finish nails ....thin brass sold at hardware for ramrod pipes ....ramrod was firewood split down and rasp .... So probably about 325 bucks or so in this N.W. gun .... Little varnish too ... Thats the way to build them !! Wish we could get good round face flintlocks for less than 200 f&%#ing doll@rs and more for some !!

 

[Rob M.]

Blanket gun .... Start and finish.....kinda neat . About 270 bucks in one ...

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Here’s mine:

 

[IanH]

Mine's like Rob's. $310 Kibler lock delivered, barrel blank $42 delivered, about $40 on hardware and breech plug, $80 in cartridge brass bar, $3 red oak dowel from the hardware store, scrap for pins, trigger, salvaged antique cabinet and door screws, cut the standing dead cherry tree from my property.