Your first ML rifle

[Eric Krewson]

It was Ron Shirks that would sell last years model TC Renegade for $90 on an inventory reduction sale at the end of the year.

One of these guns was my first M/L in around 1974.

I bought a variety of TC guns over the years, some were accurate, some were not, we didn't know about working up a load so it was hit or miss.

On my last new TC gun I pulled the lock and found the lock inlet consisted of hot melt glue placed around the inlet to hold the lock in place.

I swore off TC guns after the hot melt deal but ended up making a Renegade from random parts and building a 30 year old TC Hawken kit my father had.

And dang if I didn't buy a new unfired TC Grayhawk at a flea market the other day for $95. I didn't need the gun but couldn't pass up the deal.

TC guns seem to creep back into my life.

 

[don hepler]

I started out, in the 70's with TC 50 Hawken. From there I had a White Mt. Carbine, then a 36 Seneca, followed by a Patriot 45 pistol. Shot a lot of deer and turkey, and then sold off everything. I continued to shoot BP pistols and finally got back in to TC Hawken flintlock, then custom flintlock, more pistols, more TC"s. Replaced ever gun that I once owned and added several more. Over the last seventeen or so, years, I've went a little crazy, buying old TC's and other interesting BP's. It's an addiction, I guess.

 

[excess650]

It was Ron Shirks that would sell last years model TC Renegade for $90 on an inventory reduction sale at the end of the year.

Shirk always seemed to have smokin' deals. I bought from him when he was still selling direct to the public. That business still exists.

And dang if I didn't buy a new unfired TC Grayhawk at a flea market the other day for $95. I didn't need the gun but couldn't pass up the deal.

Grey Hawks aren't terribly traditional, but the svelte stock is a treat to carry. I bought one back in the late '90s for hunting in NY State where it was shotgun and MLer only. It was a .50 and didn't seem to like PRBs much, but would shoot the unmentionables like a laser. Some years back I bought an unfired .54 barrel for it and it does well with PRBs.

I have a Tree Hawk with 12ga barrel that I should find a new home for.

 

[CapPopper]

Ill get one eventually im going to keep my eye out at gun shows sometimes you can find ridiculous deals there.... I saw a 54 lyman gpr a while back for 80 dollars... Too bad I just didnt have the money right then

 

[meanmike8665]

I bought a used TC Hawken in the late 80's. I went to my first club shoot Aug 1989 and did not miss another one for 10 years. Sold that first one off to " upgrade ". I now own a three TC Hawken's, a flint with a GM drop in, another with a Dehass barrel and a 40 with a GM drop in, a Patriot and Seneca. Plus a bunch of custom stuff. I am waiting on a new underhammer due in early March, I think muzzle loading is more addicting that any drug out there anywhere and I love this sport!
Michael

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

hanshi,
I always wanted one of the under hammer H&As, but my true love was/is flintlock. I remember the H&As were $49.95 with a mold no less. Not being able to see the spring in person, can't you just anneal it, open it up a bit and re-temper?
Just a thought cuz it looks like a fun one
Flintlocklar :grin:

 

[varsity07840]

My first taste of black powder happened over 40 years ago when my dad bought me a CVA Kentucky rifle kit. I was about 13 and like many that age I was all excited about it for about 10 minutes then my attention went in another direction. It was three years before I slapped the kit together and I do mean slapped together. It looked awful. It was about 20 years later that I rebuilt it properly.

Mine too. I think I paid less than $50.00 for it. I did a terrible job on it but that little .45 was a tack driver.

 

[hanshi]

I might try the annealing route; can't make it any worse. I'll try "Gun Parts" again, as was suggested.

 

[harleypunk]

My first ML was a cva kentucky back in 72 that someone built from a kit.Barrel was in the white,and no front sight.I browned the barrel and mounted a large shotgun bead for a sight.Ugly but i loved it.After that,I picked up a Pedersoli Penn.rifle that I took my first muzzle loader deer with. Since then I have had a Charles Daley,but the best shooter I have owned was a TC pennsylvania hunter.Took plenty of deer with it. Last winter I built a trad. mountain rifle kit in flint,and am now in the process of building a St.Louis Hawken kit.

 

[Flintleather]

My first was a Sears Robuck .45 cal Kentucky made by Miroku of Japan. My dad made it from a kit and i can still remember how excited we were when we fired it for the first time. My dad passed away last year and now the gun hangs on my wall like a beautiful picture of memories.

 

[Brokennock]

I never liked the halfstock/pseudo-hawken guns, still don't, so when I found a used .45 caliber caplock "Kentucky Rifle" on the used guns for sale table at my fish and game club, I bought it.

I knew nothing about what I was doing. Bought some pyrodex and some triple7 to try, some prelubed patches and some .450 round balls. Yup, fought like hell with that gun. Not just cause of the too tight ball patch combo. Previous owner had filed too much front sight off the gun. Cleaning patches always seemed to get stuck, luckily I'd been given a T-handled steel range rod which I would hook over the rafters of the covered range to pull the rod/patch/jag out. I did manage to get really good groups and windags sighted in at 25 yards, but high. Tried at 50 yards, still high, and WAY off to the right. Bought and installed a new front sight.
For whatever reason had the barrel out of the stock with the new sight one day, my friend was hangi g around at the gun shop I was working in. I felt like I could see too much of one side of the sight when I held the barrel up and looked down it. I handed it to him and asked if he thought the new sight was twisted..... he handed it back and said, "no, but the barrel is bent." And so it was, and is, ignore the sights and just look down the top barrel flat and it is quite obvious.
I still have it, all pulled apart. The rest of the rifle, lock/stock/etc. are fine, I'd love to find a small bore replacement barrel or have this one straightened and reamed smooth.

A Pedersoli "Kentucky Rifle" barrel does NOT match up. I have a brand new one gathering dust.

I learned a lot from that 1st rifle.

 

[Cruzatte]

My first muzzle loading rifle was the good ol' Dixie Gun Works Tennessee Mountain Rifle. I bought it about 1980, I believe. It had a 41 inch barrel 15/16" across the flats, with a .50 caliber bore. The stock was cherry. And boy was it muzzle heavy! But the lock was sure fire, and the double set triggers were pretty good. I finally sold it a few years later. But that rifle sure taught me how to shoot flint locks.

This is not my rifle, but an image I stole off the internet. Mine was left handed just as the one pictured.

 

[Gene L]

Brokennock, I'd try to straighten that barrel out if I were you. Get a dead blow hammer and pound on it in the middle of the bend. Since it's already bent and useless, what harm can you do.

I think this was a pretty common thing back in the day before modern machining, and may still be for all I know.

 

[Billnpatti]

The flat tg/spring is dead so it's now just a wall hanger.

I am pretty sure that Deer Creek products in Waldron, Indiana will likely have a replacement spring for your rifle. They used to sell that rifle. I bought almost all of the parts from them to build one. The last time I checked he still had a lot of parts on his shelves.

 

[eggwelder]

I read once that that's how Lee enfield barrels were straighted out when required.

 

[azmntman]

:rotf: wonder how many barrels were bent when a guy missed a huge trophy animal and tried to wrap it around a tree :surrender:

 

[RedFeather]

I still have my Black Powder Digest with circled listings of guns I was considering as I was leaving the Navy in the spring of '73. Ended up ordering a Zoli Zouave with flask, Lyman Minie mold, melting pot, ladle and an English Bowie, all from Navy Arms. Just before I left Pearl Harbor, I called home and my mom said, "Oh, and your guns are here", plural. ??? When I got home, I unpacked the box and, yes, there were two guns, the Zouave and a 1895 Steyr straight pull carbine for which ammo did not become available until the 90's. Still have the Zoave and it was my first firearm. Also have about all I circled in that book. Just took me 40+ years.

 

[rushlake1]

My first muzzleloading rifle was a 45 cal. break open exterior hammer percussion made buy H&R 1974

What a piece of $__T..used high school graduation money to buy it too. I was robbed.

it was so bad it turned me off to black powder.

Seven years later got sick of repeating arms and bought a T/C Renegade Hunter kit in 54 cal.percussion.

It put the smack in smack-down on deer.

It now carries a gm drop-in 58 cal. barrel and its flint.

center gun

 

[tenngun]

A mowry Allen and Thurber .50. A good shooter and all the brass made it easy on the eyes. Got it for $90.00 and the gunstore threw in a pound of powder, one hundred .490s, a brass tc powder measure, a bag of patches, and a tin of caps. This was in '73. Got me a tandy leather 'possibles bag', a horn that held over a pound of powder, got a Mexican fringed coat and some hippy fringed mocc boots, I was some punkins.

 

[nchawkeye]

My first was a Bob Watts custom flintlock in .45 caliber that I bought from his shop in Stone Mountain in 1977...