Hey everyone I've been inactive on the forum for quite some time. I am looking to get a flintlock rifle. I posted a while back about my local hunting club selling some rifles but they went out of my price range at the auction so I never managed to get one. Now my club has more rifles for sale and I have more money to back me up. I'm stuck between two styles of rifle, the Jaeger and the Longrifle. I like the look of both but I can't really decide which one to pick as I only have enough money for one. What are the ups and downs of both rifle types and does anyone own and hunt with a Jaeger style ? I know mostly everyone here has a Longrifle. The 4 I'm looking at are all custom no name brand rifles. 2 are Jaegers and 2 are longrifles. The 2 Jaegers are 31" and 29" barrels and are .58 and .55 calibers. The 2 Longrifles are 46" and 42" barrels and are .50 and .56 caliber. Both Longrifles and the 29" Jaeger have Siler Locks ( or slier I forgot how it was spelt) and the 31" Jaeger has a Maslam Warranted lock. They are all in decent shape and have good looking rifling with no major pitting inside or out. I would like to get some input from forum members about their personal experiences with these two styles of rifle. I know it will all come down to what fits me best but I would definitely feel more comfortable with my decision if I could get some input from first hand uses of these style of rifles since I've never owned them. Thanks to all who respond. ( To Clarify whatever rifle I choose will be used to hunt White Tail Deer and recreational target shooting, nothing professional ).
I have two longrifles, one production rifle (Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle) and one Early Lancaster with a 44½" swamped barrle by a private builder. Although the Early Lancaster is longer than the Traditions longrifle, it is almost 2-lbs lighter and a pleasure to mount, hold on target, and shoot. Both of my longrifles are .50 caliber.
The Jaeger rifles were commonly about .62 caliber so the ones you are looking at smaller caliber. The two drawbacks about the Jaeger are that it is typically heavier to carry, to mount, hold, and shoot unless it has a swamped barrel. That swamped barrel makes a huge difference in handling the rifle. It is shorter which can be an advantage depending on where you are using it.
It will take a lot more lead to make the balls to shoot in either Jeager rifle, especially the .58 caliber version. Presuming you'll use around a .570 lead ball in it, that lead ball weighs ~278gr. The lead ball for a .50 caliber (presuming a .490 ball) weighs just 177gr. That means you'll get about 25 lead balls per pound with the .58 cal. Jaeger, versus about 40 lead balls per pound for the .50 cal. longrifles. So, about 15 more lead balls per pound with the longrifles than the Jaeger. If you cast your own lead balls, that's a significant difference. If you don't cast your own balls, the cost of the larger balls for the Jaeger is significant too.
My guess would be that at least one of the longrifles uses a swamped barrel, especially the longer one. That makes all the difference in the world on how the rifle feels and handles. My Early Lancaster is a very slim build with a 44½" swamped octagon barrel whereas the Traditions is a straight-tapered 40¼" octagon barrel. Although the Traditions' barrel is more than 4" shorter than my Early Lancaster rifle, the Traditions rifle is very nose-heavy whereas the Early Lancaster is beautifully balanced to sit nicely where I naturally place my hand on the forearm to hold it. I virtually never use the Traditions rifle anymore. I would look closely and whichever of the longrifles has a swamped barrel. That's also a great feature on the shorter Jaeger if either of hem have it.
The longer overall size of the longrifles can be either an advantage or a disadvantage. The longer sighting plane makes them easier to be accurate with than the much shorter Jaeger and when hunting in wooded areas, you can almost always find a branch to place the front of the rifle on for steadier sighting. If you are in a wide open space or area where you need to fire off-hand though, that advantage disappears and whether or not you have a swamped barrel makes all the difference in ease of handling. If the longrifle has a straight tapered barrel, the Jaeger with its shorter barrel would be easier to shoot off-hand.
Lots of choices but I would really look for the swamped barrel in the rifles you are considering, especially the longrifles.
