Your best deal acquiring a muzzleloader, either trade or purchase

[eggwelder]

bought my first 2 muzzleloaders the same day, first one - maybe the worst purchase i ever made, the second, a brand new never fired CVA squirrel for $200 CDN- $ 120 USD

 

[old ugly]

the best deal i ever got on a muzzleloader was when i bought my north star west English trade gun, in kit form, it was not the cheapest gun by far, nor was it the easiest kit to build. but i put so many years on that gun.

 

[eggwelder]

yep. It’s beyond plain and right into homely.


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I really like this rifle

 

[mahd776]

Talking with gun counter guy at local farm store. Had a T-shirt on from National Muzzle Loading Association. He asked if I would be interested in some muzzle loading stuff as he had tried it but did not care for it. Ended up buying a 50 Cal TC Renegade with a scope (sacrilege) and a 45 Cal CVA made in USA Mountain Rifle and a bag full of caps, powder, flasks patches, balls, conicals, lube, jags, cleaning stuff ETC. Bores looked sketchy but just needed a good cleaning. Paid $200 for all of it. Then last year at a small gun show spotted a TC Hawken 45 cal flintlock with a box of all kinds of flasks, measures, jags, caps and balls. Rifle was in great shape and marked $250 or make offer. Stopped and looked twice and he lowered his price both times although I had not made a offer. Stopped a 3rd time before leaving and he said he would be happy to take $200 if I was really interested. It followed me home as well!

 

[rmark]

Bought an unfired like new Pedersoli Tryon that had been used as a wall decoration for $250. Bought another unfired like new Tryon a few years later from an estate sale, also for $250.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

My last woman asked if getting 8 years of teepee creeping was worth my flintlock named "Ye Ole Fence Post".
We got together over black powder, and she loved to shoot, so I gave her custody of ye old fence post.....

I got the better deal

 

[BillRob]

About 15 years ago I bought a finished TC kit Hawken .54 online from a seller in the New England area. I paid $189 plus insurance. The package appeared to be dropped somewhere along the way - and the seller had not packed it well. The brass buttplate was not fitted perfectly and the stock was split when it arrived. I filed a claim with the insurer, and they reimbursed me the $189, but not the shipping or insurance, which was around $20, AND they allowed me to keep the gun. I did some research on how to make the repair myself with a screw and some clamps and glue and have been shooting it ever since. For less than $25, by a long shot my best gun purchase ever!

 

[Treestalker]

I was set up outside local flea market event with almost no cash on me. An older man walked up with a .50 cal. TC Hawken in beautiful shape. The bore looked like a sewer pipe with white crusty funk at the muzzle. He wanted 65 bucks for it, I said I might scrape up 50. He said Ok, so I asked a dealer friend if he had 50 I could borrow until I sold some stuff. No problem. Took it home it cleaned up fine, good bore! I didn't want to keep it so I took it to a gun show. A gentleman offered me $150 for it and I sold it for $165. In the show I bought an original Confederate $20 bill for $40. Later on at another flea event I met a dealer I knew from some time before who had had a percussion revolver of some sort. I didn't see it on his table so I asked about it. He went to his truck and brought out a brass framed G&G repro that looked ok but was frozen up. Make me an offer he said. How about a Confederate $20 bill? Hell yes he said, I've got a guy looking for one! Took the gun home and took off the grips and soaked it in coal oil for a day. It loosened right up and cleaned up fine. it was a Uberti in .44 cal. I named her Susan after my gg grandmother whose husband John Julian, my direct kin, fought for Arkansas in the Confederate Cavalry. Not bad for a $50 loan from a friend. Recently that same friend came into a weird CVA .50 cal. Ml rifle that fires a cap in the breechplug from a central hung hammer he did not want and gave it to me as a gift. The bore truly was crapped out so I've sent the barrel off to have it bored smooth and turned from oct to a tapered round from ten inches of the breech it has a wood half stock and should make a decent garden gun. So ends the trading adventures of your most humble narrator, with thanks for this most interesting thread and the great stories therein.

 

[jefair1]

I was bidding on a Roger Old Army on GB several years ago and was away from my phone when the auction ended and had been outbid. 5 days later, I got a message from the seller saying the purchaser reneged on the gun and I could have it for the last price I had bid. I snapped it up immediately.

 

[Elkpurgatoire]

I was bidding on a Roger Old Army on GB several years ago and was away from my phone when the auction ended and had been outbid. 5 days later, I got a message from the seller saying the purchaser reneged on the gun and I could have it for the last price I had bid. I snapped it up immediately.

Those are great pistols, tough and accurate.

 

[Cowboy]

Acquired a TC New Englander in .50 in mint condition for the overly expensive sum of $50.

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[bpd303]

In 1981 I won a Thompson Center Hawken 50 caliber in a sales contest, still have it.
The best buy was a custom Pope Stock smooth bore 24gauge/58 caliber for $20, December 1988 and still have it.

 

[woodsnwater]

BTTT Cool thread.

 

[azmntman]

2 are tied, grabbed a cool Italian .31 pocket on GB for $149.95 and later grabbed a 20ga dbl brl from GB for $249.00. Two of my favorites....still. Sending the 20 to Caywood shortly. Needs a tight modified and a turkey full.

 

[William Sublette]

I went to a gun show last fall with a $1000 of "just in case" money in my pocket.


Came home with:

Bill Large Plains Rifle
Sharon Trade Rifle
Browning Mtn Rifle

And, still had $25 in my pocket.

 

[azmntman]

Could you not have found a raffle ticket for that final tid bit of revenue? LOL

sounds like a deal.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Try to beat THIS deal!

Mowrey Plains Rifle, low 2-digit s/n, in 50-cal with all brass hardware, a modernized copy of the Allen & Thurber design. I bought mine used for only $60 with a tag that said ... "broken - as is" ... as the screw securing the hammer was broken off inside the tumbler.

I called Bill Mowrey in TX for a new hammer and tumbler and he just sent me the replacement parts for free, along with a note apologizing that a rifle he built had broken!

 

[springfield art]

In 2005 I bought a new-in-the-box Japanese Bess kit from a guy whom I know, who was once a sutler. He had forgotten he had stored several of them when he stopped sutlering in the 1980's. I don't think that counts as I had to be a friend to get the deal....

2018..., or maybe it was early 2019..., (This COVID manure in 2020 has messed up my "time sense" very bad) I saw a Bess for sale, used, on GunBroker. It looked really rusty, but from what I could see of the lock, it was a Pedersoli. I was pretty sure I could read "Grice". Well I had a scrounged Pedersoli Bess lock and a scrounged but new Pedersoli Bess barrel (NO idea how I was able to luck-out on that barrel...but it's new alright because the barrel tennons have no holes... a story for another time). So I went ahead and bid. With the shipping costs, my bid was about what it would cost for an India Origin Bess.

When I bid on stuff like that, I bid then ignore. Either I win or somebody else is "the lucky customer". See I'm looking to "save" used muskets for living history people and battle reenactors. I may have to dump $100 into the gun after I get it to return it to The King's Standards, and then vend it to The Newbie in the unit. I can't be dropping a lot of coin on the gun, then a lot of work both in finish and replacing worn parts, to then sell it for less than I have in the gun. So I have bid on say a dozen muskets in the past five years, but only won two. The guy looking for a musket for personal use normally has a higher budget than I do for a musket I'm going to flip after fixing.

So as I wrote, I won it. Now I had seen that the sideplate appeared in the photos that it might be rounded. That might be a bonus, but I'd not really know until it arrived. When it arrived and I unboxed it, it was a rusty mess of a Pedersoli Bess. IF I was lucky it would only be surface rust, and that was likely why I had won, because the rust made other buyers shy. So all of the steel parts went into the parts bath or the barrel tank, and fresh Evaporust was added. They were left for 24 hours.

When I removed the barrel, I thought that I could hear angels singing. When I put the scope down the bore and took a look, YEP it was angels singing. It had all been surface rust, and... the brass sideplate and comb had been changed out for parts that looked LLP type, PLUS the lock had the engraved date changed to the F&I period. So what I had at a pretty low price for what I got, was a Pedersoli Bess changed to look a lot like a shortened LLP, and in very good condition, plus with the bayonet...., so it probably should've gone for about $350 more than I paid for it.

I was going to flip it, but...., it's my personal Pedersoli SLP now....,

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LD

Speaking of Maryland, during the Bicentennial Era, the 1st MD (re-enactor) Reg't. followed actual 200-yr. anniversaries, and upon the correct date, enacted the Feu De Joi (Fire of Joy) in ranks circling around the MD State House. I was there with the 2nd PA Reg't. plus other regiments, and we fired one man after another, on a crips morning, I don't recall the actual date. It was a "blast"! Pun intended. Wonder if MD would even allow that, now.

 

[2 shots]

won a bid on a brown bess bayonet on g.b. when i saw it was at new local gun store i called and asked if i could pick it up. no problem they said. they turned out to be a m1 garand specialty shop. when i went in was looking at the racks on the floor, spied an octoginal barrel way in the back. i pulled it out , it was a t/c .45 senaca in v/g shape except the crack by the lock bolt. price tag 149.95 showed the guy the crack, asked what he could do..124.95 sold this was only 2 years ago. could only have been better if she was a .36

 

[deerstalkert]

stock and barrel leaning in a corner of a buddy's barn. want it? you betcha! a little work and she is a gem to me! .32 GRDouglas barrel