Your Flintlock History

[Iceman]

In 1999 I was working with a guy that was telling me about this New Year’s Day black powder shoot and the trick targets and how good people were and on and on. At this time I was completely shooting USPSA action pistol and some service rifle, trap skeet stuff like that. So I said no way people can’t do with muzzleloaders what you say. So he said come to the shoot and you’ll see, and I went with a loaner percussion gun. I had a blast and the Shooting skill on display was impressive. I talked to some people at the shoot and they told me about a “rendezvous“ that I should go to in the summer so I got a T/C hawken and started black powder shooting. The flintlock came along after a few years as I quickly realized all the cool kids at the shoots had flintlocks. Started with a T/C Pennsylvania Hunter that I put the barrel and flintlock onto my hawken stock. I shot that for many (15?) years. I‘ve upgraded recently (because I found out that not only do the cool kids have flintlocks, the flintlocks are Kiblers) but that T/C would really shoot. Still actively shooting.

 

[tenngun]

I loved old stuff as a kid. Big westren fan, any thing that looked old got my attention. My first gun was a marlin .22 simi auto, and I leaned to shoot. But my tongue was dripping for an old style gun. Saved my pennys and got a lever action.
Then about seventeen got my first ml. A mowrey cap lock. Next year or so discovered there were clubs of guys who shot these, I was hooked.
Not long after a club member let me shoot his bess.
Pennies went in a jar. I bought my first flinter the next year. Caps just didn’t do it for me,
Years later I got a couple of cap guns but just didn’t take. Had to have a flinter.
Been near fifty yeas singing eyebrows and ducking chips…. Just can’t beat it

 

[Sun City]

For 20 some odd years I was into Sharps rifles and I wore myself out casting, loading, cutting patches, rolling bullets to the extent that my back just wouldn't let me sit at the bench for any length of time without hurting. Six years of playing football and having 3 horses fall and rolling over me in past years finally takes its toll! I sold all my Sharps rifles and decided that I'd invest in some Hawken style rifles. I have always wondered what kind of accuracy could be had with a well made custom ML so it's been my endeavor to find out what kind of accuracy was possible. I'll just leave any interested parties reading this with this comment: If our ancestors had any ML just half as good as the accuracy I have gotten out of these I will guarantee you that they had no trouble putting meat on their tables!! At 84 years of age my eyes are still good and I have no problems with any of the flintlocks I shoot in calibers of .58, .54 and .50. You men stay safe and let's all pray for a better political situation than we have at present. GOD BLESS!

 

[BullRunBear]

It was 1982 and I was 30 years old. I was shooting my T/C Renegade caplock as often as a busy work schedule allowed. Went to a gun show held in a university gym (imagine that happening today) and there was a representative from the Traditions company which had just started. Went home with a flintlock long rifle and the salesman included a caplock barrel and lock so the stock could be used for either. With visions of Daniel Boone in my head I shot it a lot. I eventually replaced the frizzen but that gun still works well and is darn accurate. (Note to self: check the percussion barrel for rust since I haven't used it in many years.) Then I added a Lyman GPR flintlock when I got a good deal on it. It weighs a ton but does its job. Finally, I got a TVM Late Lancaster flinter as a retirement gift from my lovely wife. It's gorgeous, made to fit me, and is more accurate than I can shoot it. Whenever I take it out of its case I feel there should be a trumpet fanfare. At my age it is probably my last flintlock, which is fine. The TVM is included in my will. A few years ago I added a Traditions flintlock pistol which is a lot of fun and feeds my pirate captain urges when they crop up.

My flintlocks have always been for targets even though they are capable of hunting accuracy. Don't hunt anymore but when I did it was upland and small game and an old CVA percussion 12 gauge did the job.

Jeff

 

[The Damned Yankee]

Got my first BP gun a CVA Frontier .50 cal. percussion (still have) in 1986. Good gun. Started doing the MT Man rendezvous in CA. The more I learned the more I wanted a flintlock. Got a DGW (Pedersoli) Pennsylvania Flintlock Rifle in .45 cal. two yrs later. Sold that in 1997 after I got a North Star West "Early English" trade gun with modifications. After retiring from the Marine Corps in 1998, the black powder guns went into the closet for a while as I now had to work for a living and had little time for the range or reenacting. I retired again a few years ago and got heavily involved with Sons of the American Revolution. I am now a NMLRA / NRA Muzzleloading instructor and give presentations to the Sons & Daughters of the American Revolution and set up displays to educate the public about the American War for independence and "Daniel Boone Guns" (long rifles & muskets) My long guns for shooting and show & tell currently include the NSW Early English Trade Gun, a Jack Garner Penn. Longrifle, a Miroku Brown Bess, a Potzdam 1740 musket, and latest is a .62 Cal Jaeger by Wes Martin.
Share our sport / lifestyle, embrace and educate new comers, and join organizations & clubs (if for no other reason than to be counted, numbers mean a lot). Stay safe out there. TDY

 

[earlwb]

I go way back as I got my first ML smoothbore at a gun store in the small town nearby. It is a .40 cal caplock. Cheaply made in Brazil. That was circa about 1966 when I was about 16 yoa. I remember tying a rope to it as a sling so I could carry it home on my motorcycle at the time. I used it like a .410 shotgun and got quite a few rabbits etc with it too.

 

[reddogge]

I got my first black powder muzzleloader firearm in May of 2023. It was a Traditions Kentucky pistol kit. This is where I'm at now, chronologically arranged:
https://timje.net/bp/

I counted 13 pistols and rifles since last May. Sir, you may have a problem.

 

[wiscoaster]

.... Sir, you may have a problem.

Yes, it's called RMD. Required Minimum Distribution.

 

[hanshi]

Right after I got out of the army in the late ' 60s I bought my very first flintlock longrifle. It served me well and was fun to shoot. Already for years before the flint rifle I'd been hunting with an early H&A .45 underhammer with a gain twist barrel. It may have been, at least, as accurate a barrel as I've ever owned, but it wasn't a flintlock. The H&A Minuteman was about everything I ever wanted in a flintlock; and that little sucker always did what I asked of it. I still have the H&A .45 Heritage model but it is no longer fired; it has earned a good retirement. But for way too many years I went through life deprived of even one flintlock. I talked with and held a very good opinion of Matt Advance at TVM. My opinion of Matt and his shop went soaring sky high as I opened the box. This "first" rifle from TVM was a slender, late Lancaster .45 with a straight barrel but at 7 lbs it was a featherweight with no muzzle heaviness. I retired from hunting years ago; but during those many years of activity it killed more deer than I'm able to account for.

I now own 5 others that did great work in the forest. I did use it a few times on smaller game but a .445" ball is pretty heavy for a squirrel and besides that I have .32 & .36 longrifles that are better for small stuff. Regardless of caliber if a striking piece of flint is used to fire a rifle or smoothbore, I prefer just to start from there.

 

[Urban Coyote]

1979, I walked into the Plainsman Gunshop in Sedalia, MO and fell in love with a curl mountain ash stocked .36 Southern Mountain rifle. I ended up using a combination trading in my T/C Seneca and a loan to buy it. I was told the gun came out of TVA and was built by Jack Gardner. The story was Jack Gardner and Ernie Tidwell had a fire in their shop and were selling off guns to help get back in business. True? I had no reason to doubt the shop owner's story but I've no way to confirm it. It is a plain but gorgeous rifle having a Haddaway lock, North Star single set trigger and premium Douglas barrel. Hindsight being 20/20 I likely paid too much money for it at the time, about $700 as I recall. I figured to do some squirrel shooting with it but the lock mainspring broke. I was able to track down Doc Haddaway's phone number, there was no internet then, and rousted his son, Freddy, out of the bathtub. He was good natured about the whole thing and mailed me a new spring. It was too late to exercise my squirrel shooting plan as my work had me headed to Washington state about that time. I later took the gun with me to Montana where I managed to bust a few cottotails with it. I still own this gun.

Along the way I've picked up a few more flintlocks, each with thier own stories but this was my first. I don't shoot flintlock guns as much as I should but that may change soon as hard as it has been to find percussion caps.

Flintlocks, you gotta love 'em.

 

[IanH]

I shot my first flintlock not quite a year ago, and I'm almost 50. Been an insufferable gun nut all my life and after enjoying pretty much every other branch of the shooting sports and hobby of collecting, gunsmithing, restoring, scratch-building a few, casting bullets and reloading by the 5-gallon bucket, and playing with NFA toys, I inherited a flintlock wall hanger from my father in law. It needed some help so I asked a friend who is a very accomplished builder and reinactor from Pennsylvania that apprenticed with master builders if he would help me sort out the lock, trigger, and barrel mounting. We got it sorted out to good working order (it has a W. L. Cochran lock and an original, skelp-welded barrel that had been freshened, of all things) and I was instantly hooked. Next came a Kibler SMR, then a local friend gave me a trade gun barrel so I bought some books and built my own left-handed trade fusil from a board. Next I overhauled an original Ohio rifle in .32 with a Kibler flint lock, built another small trade gun from a tree and barrel blank with again a Kibler lock. Finally decided to get a Woodsrunner and am finishing that up, cut a blank for a small-bore Appalachian rifle, and have an old, unfinished LH Isaac Haines kit soon to be on the way from another friend.

Of course we can't stop there, can we? I've been making my own, commercial-grade black powder since the summer and am still experimenting with that, also knap my own flints and have made four powder horns an lots of small kit items. It's been a fun year and it's a good thing there aren't any rondys nearby or I'd probably be working on a full dress kit and camping/cooking outfit. I'll be attending my first ML match this spring.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

My first muzzle stuffer was some Japanese two piece stock, that fell a part in two years of shooting.
Only cap gun ever owned.
Then I got busy with life in the Army and didnt have anything to do with firearms until I retired in 92.

In 92 I met a nice gal who wanted to learn how to shoot black powder, so we drove to Dixie Gun Works and bought a brand new 1803 Harper's Ferry. Drove it home and we went out shootng.

Got 8 shots off before the frizzen went down range.
That was the end of our shooting until the next season. It took DGW 10 months to make me another frizzen, fore the maker did not have spare parts.

Her and I shot the heck out of that flinter. Replaced most of the brass parts on it, they broke from use.
In 98 she went down range, and took that nasty "Ye Ole fence post" with her.

So in 2005 I built my own. All the best parts money could buy, and made the rifle I shoot today.
I have one flintlock rifle, one 1860 Colt revolver and three 45/70s.
All the black powder fun a guy could ever need or want.

 

[williamscroggins@comcast.]

I'm 74 years old. I was born and raised on a small farm in Fannin County in Northeast Texas. I grew up hunting and shooting modern guns at an early age (12, I think). In the late 50s and early 60s I experienced the Davey Crockett craze. Loved it. Went into the Navy in '68 for 4 years. When I got out of the Navy, I bought my first muzzleloader; a repro Model 1863 Remington Zouave by A. Zoli in 1972. That started the fever. That same year I discovered Dixie Gun Works. I bought several muzzle loaders (all flintlocks) from them over the next several years. Then started Civil War Reenacting. I went through owning several '61 Springfield and P53 Enfield rifle-muskets, Model 1851 Colt revolver repros. In the mid 1990s I discovered Track of the Wolf. I bought two custom made guns from them: a Colonial fowler and a North Carolina longrifle in percussion. Those last two are my favorites and I still have them. After my wife passed in 2016, I lost all desire for shooting and just recently revived my interest in muzzleloaders. Recently bought a Kibler SMR in .40 and am currently building it. I don't shoot as much as I used to due to old, tired eyes, but I still love muzzleloaders and especially flintlocks.

 

[Fatboyz]

My journey into flintlocks started quite a while back. I grew up in a hunting family in Alberta Canada, but it was all center fire rifles. In the mid 1970's my dad purchased a CVA 45 cal Mountain pistol kit while we were on a holiday to Disney Land. He brought it back on the plane in a carry on bag, I was 10 yrs old and also brought back a speargun as carry on! After building that kit he bought a percussion CVA mountain rifle kit. It was marked as a 54 cal and never shot real great. He only used it a few times (I have a thread on this as I now have it as my dad has passed. The rifle is actually a .58 with a barrel marked .54 cal). Building the kits was more his passion than the shooting. In 1983 after graduating college I moved to the very Northwest part of the province. It had a nice little gun club and there were a few fellows there shooting BP. I bought a used Spanish 45 cap lock that I shot a lot with. In 1988 I bought a TC 54 cal cap lock kit and sold the 45. In 1990 I moved down into the mountains in the Heart of David Thompson Country where he traveled the North Saskatchewan river. I hunted with the TC a lot and shot several moose and a pile of deer. As time went on I hunted with rifles and bows, an inline TC 50, and the TC cap lock at times. In the last 10 years like many hunters I gravitated back to the more primitive ways. I started shooting, hunting, and building primitive bows. Five years ago as retirement approached I really wanted to slow down from the rat race. The areas I travelled on horse back for work in years past were the same areas David Thompson travelled and the deep backcountry hasn't changed much. No roads, industry or motorized vehicles. I was hunting along the Brazeau river for moose near the Dowling ford and as I filled my coffee pot from the river at the exact spot where the Earl of South Esk would have crossed in 1859 I wondered what kind of coffee pot did he have, what did DT have? What kind of guns did they have? This started my journey to flintlocks. I bought a Traditions 50 cal flinter and hunted with it through the next few years. Learning about smoothbore trade rifles I built a poor mans trade rifle with a Traditions kit as a base and a Colrain 28 gauge smoothbore barrel (I have a thread about that). I have looked at Rob Millers trade rifle builds and it inspires me. Now retired I am saving up for a Clay Smith trade rifle kit. I now trek quietly on foot through the mountains, detached from technology and enjoy the simple side of life. This past year, 2023 I was able to get out camping 113 days. The flintlock journey is only beginning!

 

[Juice Jaws]

Born in 1757, use my flintlock to hunt and keep the Blackfoot away. Tyler says they’re Crow but I can smell ‘em a mile away.

In 1757 the Blackfoot and Crow were un -heard of.

 

[ronaldrothb49]

Got into this in the late 70's. My first rifle was a CVA Mountain Rifle kit, it was a nice accurate rifle off the bench but I could never get good with it offhand, it just didn't fit me. So saved up and bought books and a .40 cal. Douglas barrel and built it to fit me. I called it the ugly duckling, made a lot of mistakes building it but dam it would shoot and that is what it was intended to do. Well next a guy had an ad in Muzzle Blast for a swamped barrel and a stock inlet for it as a package deal. Bought that and got a drawing for a Christian Springs rifle and made my first flintlock, that would be in the early 80's. I lost track of how many I have made over the years. Now at 74 I am just trying to build out of all the parts I have accumulated over the years. Got enough parts that with the addition of a few parts I can build 5 rifles and 3 pistols. Hopefully I can get all that done before I pass.

 

[19112tap]

My story starts in 1980, I came from a hunting family and in Iowa at the time you could hunt deer with shotgun or muzzle loaders and my dad was interested in having a rifle with better accuracy then his old shotgun so he purchased a CVA percussion 45 cal Kentucky rifle and we took turns hunting with it. At about the same time we got a new art teacher at our school Mitchell Blakesley and he was into the mountain man era reenacting, so he stirs my curiosity and got me to heading down the same path as he was. He was a member of a local club and would invite me to visit the shoots they put on which opened me up to more gentlemen that would share their talents with me also. I remember most of these guys were shooting flintlocks most being custom or self made with some shooting old originals, one thing they keep telling me was to not waste my time or money with a production flintlock but save my money for a good one. Well life came along with a wife then children, career , etc. and with that a funds were short so I settled my self with production cap locks and hunted and had fun but the flintlock bug never left me. Fast forward to last year and I found my self in a position and funds to acquire the gun of my dreams a flintlock fowler and boy do I have a lot of fun with this rifle, and working on my second flintlock a Kibler Colonial and thinking about a Kibler SMR. I wish I would have saved up earlier in life and got one but that's water under the bridge.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

In 1757 the Blackfoot and Crow were un -heard of.

That’s ok cuz I was a baby then and too little to use my flintlock.

 

[Bill Bryan]

I’m 73. I bought my first black powder muzzleloader from Dixie Gun Works back in 1972 while I was in high school in South Carolina. It was a Belgian made 14-gauge flintlock. Playing with it got me hooked on black powder muzzleloaders. Since then, I’ve shot black powder in California, Utah and now Georgia. I’m currently a member of the NMLRA Brushy Creek Muzzleloaders Club in Lenox Georgia. I own 2 flintlock Kentucky pistols, 2 percussion rifles, a flintlock Hawken and I’m currently building a Kibler Woods Runner. Bill

 

[WalnutRed]

Around 1973 I found a Belgian flintlock trade musket at a yard sell. It was smoothbore 58 caliber and the lock plate was dated 1863. A teacher at school loaned me a copy of the Dixie Gunworks catalogue and I found enough information in the back to safely shoot and maintain the musket. I sued is on everything from squirrel to whitetail. I soon discovered that the local flea markets were a good source of sporterized Civil War rifle muskets for $25-$30. Dixie at the time sold replacement forends which you spliced on under the rear barrel band. I also discovered that once returned to a close proximation of issue configuration many aspiring young reenactors would buy these desporterized rifle muskets. As they were shooting blanks it didn't matter that many were now smooth bore.

Unfortunately I shoot left handed and at the time there were no factory rifles available. I was informed by my then girlfriend, now wife, that a man in the town she lived was giving gun building classes. So I took classes from a man named R.E. Davis in Lancaster, Ohio and built a left handed flintlock rifle, which I still have. I also spent time as a volunteer in the gun shop at the Ohio Historical Society. A couple years ago I decided that these new fangled percussion caps might actually catch on so I purchased a left hand Lyman GPR in percussion. With large gaps in the story that is the beginning and the present day.