What got you interested in flintlocks?

[Loyalist Dave]

What got you interested in flintlocks? How many people have you introduced to the hobby? Seems we all recruit friends family and they get hooked!!!!

I had done ACW reenacting as a teenager but wan't thinking of doing reenacting again...,

but then I saw Last of The Mohicans in 1992, and thought that building a rifle from a kit using the book The Art of Building The Pennsylvania Longrifle, appealed to me...,

So once built, I had to use it....

LD

 

[BBGun]

Main reason I have a flintlock is for the SHTF scenario, and all other ignition availability is gone. I do love them old sparkers and they are a lot of fun, but it's my last resort more then anything because it can be kept alive when the rest stop working. Until then I'll stick with my wicked evil black rifle that is so widely loved and hated and work my way backwards as needed! By the way' I'm a big Davy Crocket fan too.


"We do what we must"

 

[Colonialnerd]

My interest has come and gone through the years. I do like history and go through periods of passing fancy. What renewed my interest was learning about Primitive Biathlon. Wooden snowshoes, plodding through the woods, competitive shooting, period attire…. Yes please. A winter chance to be an Action Nerd!

 

[BP Addict]

I’ve been shooting muzzies since the mid-1980s. For some reason I got it in my head that a half-stock should be Percussion and a Long Rifle should be Flint.

I started out with a “Hawken” style gun. Around 1996, I bought a used CVA FL Kentucky rifle. The pan kept spraying unburnt powder across my forehead with every shot, so I sold it. It wasn’t until I read Eric Bye’s Flintlock book years later that I realized I not only overfilled the pan but allowed the powder to enter the touch hole!

I switched to Flintlocks a couple of years ago. Flints were $1.50, then went up to $2.50. Still cheaper than caps. I bought them a little long and sharpened them when needed. I have 75 shots with the one on my rifle and 50 on my pistol. Both are still sparking.

Now the bad news. A while back, I developed sinus issues. I’m allergic to smoke of any kind. The last time I shot my FL rifle, I developed a Sinus infection from the extra smoke in front of my face. To my disappointment, I switched back to Percussion as a result.

I prefer to emulate the Western Fur Trapper or Mountain Man. Percussion caps weren’t popular outside of the settlements. If you ran out of caps, you’re left with a club. If you ran out of Flints, there were rocks that could be used instead.

My Paternal ancestors immigrated from Norway (North Dakota) and Germany (Minnesota) in the mid-1800s. I’m not sure what type of rifle they would have had. My Maternal folks have been here much longer, settling in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee (according to Ancestry.com). My Flintlock is an Issac Haines. My Germanic ancestors might have used something like it. My latest acquisition is a Southern Poorboy in Percussion. Even with my Sinus issues, I’ve considered buying the parts to convert it to Flint.

There is definitely something alluring about the Flintlock Long Rifle!

Happy Shootin!

Walt

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

Back in 1976 my Parents brought me to Williamsburg. After watching the Smith making a Flintlock and a visit to the Armory The interest started. I however did not have my first muzzle loader until years later.

 

[Pratt]

I watched all of the Disney Davy Crockett TV series. The Hawkeye TV series. I wanted to shoot as accurately as Hollywood pioneers. I shot expert all three army years with an M14. So even years later I am still shooting and building. My .32 traditions accurate and goes to shoots with me I have a Kibler SMR in process. Expecting great things. Skinners call me Hornbender.

 

[th1840]

The government. With a flint gun I can make my own bullets and powder and keep shooting without government interferance. I don't care if I shoot another metalic cartridge gun again. I replaced my "evil AR15 spray ther entire world blow you lung out of your body" gun with something that requires thought and patience before you pull the trigger. You only have one shot so you should think about the balistics and use the sights to make it a productive shot. I was a Marine and we use to always laugh at the Army spray and pray method of marksmanship. I like the purpose driven life of a black powder shooter. I think it's the solitude of not having to listen to the government and WOKE nonsence as I punch holes in my recycled paper targets.

I like your thoughts on one shot to think before you pull the trigger. I remember a date when a good friend and I spend the whole day shooting our flint guns, whole pound of BP, drinking from local stream and eating PBJ sandwiches (private land) so we could enjoy the 2 flints I made, Issac Haines 38" 45 cal and Christian springs 58 cal 32". It was a very fine day

 

[yellowhammer]

I'm pretty danged old; a combination of all of the above for me starting 50+ years ago: Fess Parker; Foxfire, Wallace Gusler, older cousins and uncles shooting BP, etc. The '60's and '70's were fun for a ML'er; wish I'd paid more attention.

 

[bronko220002]

i still remember the feeling i got from that Mountain rifle. and Ginny's daughter.

Now that's funny. Now as much as I enjoy shooting my flinters the "feeling" in not the same as that of my mother-in-laws daughter! Of course at my age now I get more use out of my flinters!
I started flinters right of high school in 71. Killed my first deer with a .45 PRB T/C Hawken flintlock the first day of PAs new primitive season. I've been hooked ever since. I have a bunch of muzzleloaders now but love hunting with my Renegade flintlock with a .58 custom barrel by B. Hoyt.

 

[Muddly]

Couple extra weeks to get a buck here in Pennsylvania.
Initially.
They wound up vexing me to the point of " I will not be defeated!"
Now, I have more flintlocks than percussions.
Or unmentionables.

 

[olskool]

i grew up hunting, any and everything, i was born in the 50s and mama said my first sentence was, i want to go coon hunting! my daddy was a big-time coon hunter. i watched Daniel Boone as a kid, i would take a board and Wittle it down for my fake flintlock and drive a nail in and bend it back for a cock, and nail for a trigger, corny i know but for a little kid it was great fun!

 

[olskool]

in the late 50's we had a neighbor lady that stood about 4' tall. She owned a family heirloom from somewhere in the Appalachians. said heirloom was the longest, slimmest, most elegant rifle i had ever seen. It hung above the mantle on their stone fireplace.
being of unending curiosity and boundless mischief making, and being the Huck Finn to her sons Tom Sawyer, we snuck that rifle out one day. we had a rudimentary idea of how it worked and we set about with match heads getting a poof of smoke from the pan.
being somewhat blood thirsty we aimed it down range at Ginniy's Plymouth Rock rooster. not a thought that it might be loaded until it went off with a cloud of smoke that instantly soaked into my soul.
after we buried the late rooster and replaced the rifle over the fireplace, swearing each other to silence until death, i would wake up thinking of that glorious cloud of smoke. about that time Ginny's daughter got my attention and it was years before i had the pleasure of a flintlock again. i still remember the feeling i got from that Mountain rifle. and Ginny's daughter.

at least Ginny's mama didn't turn that mountain rifle on you for the feeling her daughter gave. or you might have ended up like the rooster,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[tnlonghunter]

My Dad was a literature professor - a lot of it early American - and could tell some great stories. He would make up Davy Crockett stories when I was a kid. Later I found the Disney Crockett movies on the back shelf at the movie rental place. This was about 1988 or so. So I've always been fascinated with that era of history.

We also shot a lot, but Dad never really knew anything about muzzleloading. He mostly was into .22s and air guns, and I was too young to know there wasuch more.

Fast forward another 10-12 years to college, and Mom and Dad bought property to shoot on that had a log cabin. The former owner built handmade flintlocks and moved just down the road a ways. Turns out that guy was Steve Davis. Of course, we didn't have any idea about any of the big names in the flintlock resurgence, so it was lost on us that one of Herschel House's protégés was pur neighbor. We just knew he built amazingly beautiful and expensive rifles.

Dad had bought a Jack Garner Tennessee Mountain rifle, mostly as a decoration for the cabin, I suspect. But I started hunting with it whenever i was there. I won't say Steve "took me under his wing" or "taught me everything he knew". It wasn't that kind of connection. But he gladly made sure the Garner rifle was safe to shoot and taught me the basics of it and let me handle a few of the rifles he built for customers before shipping them out over the years we were neighbors.

Dad gave me that rifle for Christmas that year; I think that was 2000 or so. I was pretty hooked at thar point. It was the only rifle I ever shot or hunted with for several years. I've still got it. Shot it the other day.

 

[Rob M.]

Foxfire #5 growing up , reading history books and realizing they were using flintlocks in most of the interesting parts , then meeting three amazing guys that build flintlocks , love history and went to rendezvous , Lew Sowers , Ken Netting and Alan Pine , and then reading the great books by T.M. Hamilton while first starting to build trade guns ....

 

[Bnewberry]

Foxfire was also an inspiration, but latent. Getting older like I am I was drawn to the slower pace and atmosphere of woodswalks. But what made me go for it was a tv show my wife was watching for a while called Outlander. A season of it was set in Colonial America and the muzzleloaders intrigued me.

 

[Songwriter]

i would take a board and Wittle it down for my fake flintlock and drive a nail in and bend it back for a cock, and nail for a trigger, corny i know but for a little kid it was great fun!

Your first build!

 

[reddogge]

After graduating from college mid 60s my fraternity brother was into NSSA shooting and talked me into buying a Zouave rifle. I shot that for a while and sold it to a friend who had it accurized and won tons of stuff with it. I moved on to a T/C Hawken kit joined a muzzleloading club in MD and shot little competitions. I sold the T/C became a Hawken nut and bought an Ithaca Hawken kit. My fraternity brother and some others in the club gravitated to forming a rendezvous/camping group. Most of the guys shot flintlocks and since I was a history nut I had to have one too so I built a southern mountain rifle from scratch. And so it goes.

 

[oldwood]

In the toilet at home in the 1950's , there was an ever present copy of the Dixie Gun Works catalog. Required reading , and I had already gone full circle through cartridge guns , and began loosing interest in modern custom guns. 1970 , started to build kits , and eventually scratch building deer rifles for the Pa. late season flint hunting.

 

[reddogge]

The flintlock requirement in PA seemed to attract a lot of flintlock shooters. In MD muzzleloading season means inlines, scopes, conical projectiles, Pyrodex, 200 grain and 200 yard loads. Hats off to PA.

 

[Alan O]

For me, it happened at Fort George, in Canada, some years ago. Somehow, we happened upon a full re-enactment of some battle we Americans would rather forget. But there were scores of cannon, regimental riflemen (with flintlocks) - all up close. It was wonderful. I got a good look at the rifles, loading, firing (and mis-firing) -- all of it fascinating. It went on for *hours*. From then on, I knew I wanted a flintlock. I started with pistols, because I didn't have to spend lots of $$ to start. I bought busted ones from a local gunsmith here in CT and fixed 'em up, I bought kits from different vendors, the last one from MBS that needed some real assembly, which was a *great* excuse to buy some new tools, like a drill press. So today I'm swimming in seven pistols in various states of readiness, and I'm loving the time I need to spend on them. The firing of each is a different matter. Each shot, if you think about it, is a careful crafting of the right amount of powder in the barrel, with the perfect patch and lube around the ball, tamped just right, And the priming has to be just so, with a perfectly knapped flint that strikes a properly hardened frizzen at the right angle to produce a generous spark in a pan filled with primer powder. Each shot is like a carefully crafted work on its own, like a meditative act, in which one devotes full attention to making it work as best it can. So, yeah, I'm hooked. PS. I'm a 2nd-amendment supporting Democrat who has always loved placing a good shot on a target. Flintlocks bring a new historical and maker-centered dimension to shooting, and I love it. So, what got me interested? If was the careful building of the gun, and its wise blend of wood, metal, stone and chemical (powder) to make it work.