What kind of muzzleloaders in 1780's

[tyspappy]

I would like to kow what kind of muzzleloaders did my fore fathers use in the 1780's. what caliber, were they smooth bore or did they have rifling thank s

 

[Birddog6]

About every size, shape, caliber, design, and color of rifles & smoothbore you can think of & all flintlock in that era.

 

The answer to this question has filled several thousand pages over the years. BD6 is completely right. Some of us have studied for 50 years and couldn't say it better. You need to consider a trip to the LIBRARY (shuuuuutttttter!!!) to check out a basic book on the American long rifle or colonial guns. You'll learn more in an hour than we can tell you in days.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Also depends a lot who your forefathers were and where they lived. Smoothbores were more popular in the north and were MUCH more used in militia (I believe it was manditory for able bodied men who couldn't buy out).


Here are some huge, sweeping generalizations: The German and Dutch preferred rifles, unless they settled where geese and ducks were common. By 1780 the Atlantic Flyway was pretty well settled (Upper Hudson, Deleware Bay & the Chesapeake). Hooved game was getting scarce and skittery. Eastern central Pennsylvania was producing the most wonderful rifles the world has ever seen (IMHO) and someone was buying them. The French and English preferred smoothbores, but even the English can learn new tricks. Scots in Appalacia would take a rifle if it could be had not to dearly (why shoot 100 pellets when one good one using 1/3 the lead & 1/2 the powder does the job?). Russians (west coast & north to Alaska) and Spanish overwhelmingly preferred smooth bores.

 

[Zonie]

Stumpkiller took all of my comments and said it better than I could have. The region where they lived was a major factor in what they would have been exposed to, thus what they most likely owned.
Another factor is what did they do for a living?
IMO the Professionals (doctors, lawyers, store owners, etc) were most likely to have owned smooth bores and hunted birds and deer for sport.
Farmers, settlers and hunters/trappers were more likely to own rifles and hunt/defend their homes out of necessity.

By 1780s the guns being used were all flintlocks.

 

Here's one.
: New to this forum- just finished this pistol a week ago. It's a .54 cal. Oct/round with 9" barrel, Walnut stock with an L&R Bailes lock with waterproof pan & silver furniture. The picture doesn't show - how do I enable HTML - anyone??HELP! please.
Daryl
CDN

 

[Zonie]

I know nothing about these computers but when I put up a picture with text in it, it seems to need a underscore between the text_words_like_this.
Try editing your entry to say 1790_Period_.54_English_Pistol_1.jpg[/img] or something like that. Also be careful of capital and lower case letters as the machine seems to be really dumb and only looks for a file name just like you told it.

If this doesn't work, remember I said I know nothing about these things.

 

Thanks for the suggestion- it won't let me edit as edit time has expired - Oh well. Too Bad - nice pistol, late 18th century. Love the flint pistols - accurate too. First time out, I was able to hold approx 2" group at 25yds. & was suitably impressed considering it has a 66" twist (1"
OCTAGONAL rifle barrel, turned and filed to 7/8" Oct, tapered to 13/16, then wedding bands, then further tapered to 3/4", then flared to 13/16".
Daryl

 

[Claude Mathis]

Thanks for the suggestion- it won't let me edit as edit time has expired - Oh well. Too Bad

I took the liberty of trying to edit your post. I found that replacing the spaces in the URL with "%20" (code for the space) is what it needed.

It's best to have no spaces in a URL. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

Daryl,.... You done a real nice job on yore English pistol!! :applause:

 

[djnye]

daryl,

i am truly glad you are here. i have been thinking about a flint pistol for a long time--and yours is close. i assume you did your own machining on the barrel--very nicely proportioned.

take care, daniel

 

First of all, Thankyou very much, Claude for editing my pic.
: Also, thanks guys for the accolades. I really like this pistol, myself. The finish on it is as smooth as a piano with no grain structure showing. Total number of coats of oil are probably over 25 or 20, however, from the top surface of the wood, to the outer finish, there are three thin coats only. It was sanded back to wood, 4 times in all, using 600, 800, and 1500 grit for the final 2 times, then finally polished with a rouge/oil cream. It was a lot of work, but was worth it.
; Secondly, I originally, turned the barrel to a swamped, round barrel, complete with wedding bands, but after looking over several pistols in the English Pistol, Pictoral History Book, chose to file flats to the bands.
: This url has the switch-target blued .45 barrel, 20" twist 7/8" across the flats. Sorry it's so dark.
Daryl
CDN http://outcast.homeunix.org/uploads/.45%20Bl.%20English%20Pistol%201.JPG