Well, I’ll just add that I’m man enough to admit I erred. Personal attacks and slander are uncalled for and personal apologies have been sent to those I offended. It would have been best if I had kept my beliefs to myself, so my apologies also to you ”“ those reading this. But if you’re read this far ”¦ maybe on some level you’ll understand where the depth of my emotion comes from that led to the vitriol expressed in my post, albeit as a terrible example thereof.
I think we as sportsman need to do everything we can, even at our own expense, to encourage others into our sport. To that end, I was instrumental in building an indoor archery range at my fish & game club that has taught thousands how to shoot archery, earned hundreds of scout merit badges, and annually has well over 100 youths participating in the Winter league. For years I’d scour yard sales and such for used bows & arrows and would fix them up and give them to this junior program.
Then I got into flintlocks - bigtime. As stated, I got a young family member of my girlfriend started into muzzleloading by fixing up an old clunker, a Traditions to be exact. And I have another one being tuned right now ”¦ this one to be given in less than 2 weeks to someone who started out with ”˜junk’ arms (as defined by some of you), who then progressed to a T/C, and then onto a Pedersoli. They now have sold their Pedersoli and are buying a Chambers kit ”¦ but this will leave them without a flintlock for ”“ who knows how long - maybe up to a year, as they’ve never built a kit, any kit. I had the opportunity to buy a ”˜like new’ Traditions PA flintlock like the poster of this post had, for short money. I’m now tuning the lock as we speak and polishing the patent breech, and will test fire it this weekend. My plan is to give it to this man so he can continue to participate in our sport and not stand it on the side lines. After he’s done with it, I’ll play around with the wood and trim it down. Then it will be given out as a prize at a Winter Biathlon, with the sole purpose to be given to a youngster or newcomer to muzzleloading.
If it’s one thing I hate ”¦ it is what I call “drive by” posts, where someone says ”˜no’, like Mike did, without any rationale and reasoning. Now what value is there in that kind of post I ask you to honestly answer? So I offered, to the topic poster, that I would not only give them $10 towards the purchase, but via a PM, I offered to tune the lock and trigger if needed/wanted - for nothing.
A preferred post of ”˜value’ would have made the poster aware of the possible short comings of Traditions flintlocks, like but not limited to ”¦ way too chunky in design, way too much wood on the lock panels, heavy frizzen springs, soft frizzens, misplaced touch holes, heavy triggers, and possibly problems with their patent breech design. All but the wood are simple fixes really and while there’s no way I’m saying tuning a Traditions will make a ”˜silk purse out of a sow’s ear’(less the wood issue), it will make it into a 100% reliable and shootable firearm. And I’m intentionally leaving things out like the way they fasten the ramrod thimbles to the barrel.
Point is for $150, I’d rather have that shooter join our ranks with this Traditions flintlocks than not join us, and they admitted to me they couldn’t afford a Lyman or any other gun for a while. So while I express my strong dislike for “drive by’ posts of no value to the question asked, I understand that my post was more like a “mob hit”. Know that it was not intended with the tone or vitriol it now appears to display; my initial reaction was more like “What the ”¦ ?” kind of reply was that ”¦ more so sarcastically and well, it just got under my skin. But like a roundball fired ”¦ I can’t take it back ”“ it’s out there. And for that, I do express my regrets to the readers of these wonderful forums. Cheers.
