- Joined
- Jan 29, 2021
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Living in a 21st century dominated by percussion ignition sidelocks and inlines, I kinda buck the trend by exercising great interests in the firearms of the 18th century. Ya know, the Colonial periods of the F&I and Rev wars. This era was dominated by smoothbore rifles - military muskets and citizen farmer fowlers - and not rifled barrel guns. The main reasons for smoothies are twofold - smoothbores have twice or more the rate of fire as rifles (a military must) and can load both ball and shot (for both four legged and winged critters aike).
A gun could cost a pretty penny and frugal Colonials needed a firearm for food harvesting, defense, and warfare, and that perfectly defines a smoothbore. A military musket ran between .6x and .7x bore, whilst most farmers (literally, every citizen in Colonial times farmed) purchased a fowler in .5x to .6x bore. No question there were rifles and even small rifle brigades within both the American and British armies, but the warefare weapon of those times was the smoothbore.
A year or so back I wanted a flintlock rifle that was representative of the Colonial era, perhaps 'tween two major conflicts. I settled on a Kibler Colonial kit in .54 caliber. Unlike the offshore "screwdriver" kits, with their patent breech plugs, Kibler kits require some level of wood/metal competence, as well as proper tooling. Having built sidelocks before, this was not a problem for me. Knowing that I probably would eventually wind up selling off the gun, I bought the extra fancy tiger maple stock. The build went well, with only the usual minor complications that were all overcome. She turned out to be a good shooter and worthy of hunting and killing any Norte American game if need be. Sold it last year ... to fund yet another smoothbore
Anyhoo, I hope some of the above might spark an interest in learning more about, or acquiring, a good "rock lock".
Thats the way i want mine to look!! what did you do for the finish?? kibler's videos make them too dark to suit me.
