New-fangled percussion long rifle converted to old-fangled Flintlock

[RonRC]

Jonathan,

That is a Neill Fields Late Lancaster(?) rifle with an original, late H.W. Mortimer lock from England around 1800-1820. Mortimer was one of the gunsmiths that could say they were "Amourer to the Queen."

It has a 7/8x36" .50 barrel and was completed February 14, 1990.
It sparks like mad, has a rollered frizzen, very smooth internals. The rifle weighs in at just 6.5 lbs. Barrel has 8 lands and grooves.

Ron

 

[exMember]

hooooweeeee! That is a freakin beautiful rifle! Especially that lock, they really out did themselves on that!

 

[BigAl52]

Ron has all the cool stuff he just never shows his friends. He always keeps us guessing. Al

 

[exMember]

That bastard! I'll have to take a baseball bat to his other knee now that you let the secret out!

 

[OSR]

I do remember Davey Crockett. But Jeremiah Johnson kicked butt with his caplock to. Al

  :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol: !


You should have watched Charlton Heston & Brian Keith in "The Mountain Men", with their flintlocks, a much better movie.

 

[exMember]

A great movie! Except where Keith shoots an injun in the river when his rifle has no front sight!

 

[Fyrstyk]

I too have converted my Hatfield in .45 and Blue Ridge in .36 from cap to flint and back again.  It was getting very difficult to find real BP here in CT so I converted to cap so I could use substitutes if BP could not be found.  Then the cap shortage, so i converted back to Flint and went 1/2 with a buddy to buy real bp from Powder Inc.  I really like the ability to switch back and fort as the need arises.  Makes the gun more versatile to me.

 

[BigAl52]

I do remember Davey Crockett. But Jeremiah Johnson kicked butt with his caplock to. Al

  :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol: !


You should have watched Charlton Heston & Brian Keith in "The Mountain Men", with their flintlocks, a much better movie.

After Jon told me about that movie I did watch it along with man in the wilderness with Richard Harris. I havent seen the Revenant yet. Have nothing against Flintlocks I just wanted to give RonC a bad time because hes always pulling out another toy. Al

 

[RonRC]

I do remember Davey Crockett. But Jeremiah Johnson kicked butt with his caplock to. Al

  :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol: !


You should have watched Charlton Heston & Brian Keith in "The Mountain Men", with their flintlocks, a much better movie.

After Jon told me about that movie I did watch it along with man in the wilderness with Richard Harris. I havent seen the Revenant yet. Have nothing against Flintlocks I just wanted to give RonC a bad time because hes always pulling out another toy. Al

And I enjoy all the ribbing!
Ron

 

[OSR]

The movie "Man in the Wilderness" with Richard Harris, and "The Revenant" are actually both about the same person: Hugh Glass.  BTW the movie version of "The Revenant", was as they say "Hollywoodified" to make it more exciting.  There was an article in The American Rifleman (May 2016 NRA magazine) about the movie.
If your interested in more information about Hugh Glass, this link gives you some more information.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/real-story-revenant-is-far-867620

 

[OSR]

I too have converted my Hatfield in .45 and Blue Ridge in .36 from cap to flint and back again.  It was getting very difficult to find real BP here in CT so I converted to cap so I could use substitutes if BP could not be found.  Then the cap shortage, so i converted back to Flint and went 1/2 with a buddy to buy real bp from Powder Inc.  I really like the ability to switch back and fort as the need arises.  Makes the gun more versatile to me.

Valid points, makes one think.

 

[Sharpsman]

It would have been a better movie if the powers that be could have dug up and revived Stepin Fetchit to play the part of Glass rather than Retardo DeCrapo! :Wow: :barf:

 

[Buck Conner1]

Jonathan,

That is a Neill Fields Late Lancaster(?) rifle with an original, late H.W. Mortimer lock from England around 1800-1820. Mortimer was one of the gunsmiths that could say they were "Amourer to the Queen."

Ron

Hang on to this one Ron. Just got off the phone with Neill, he tells me the construction on his new shop is going very slow, plus finding new tools is even slower at this time. I was wanting him to put us down for several new GRRW.CA rifles coming up on the "Customer Waiting List". I was told not to schedule him until the issues mentioned have been taken care of. It's hell to have a fire like he had and still be as positive as he is. God Bless the man.

 

[Buck Conner1]

You should have watched Charlton Heston & Brian Keith in "The Mountain Men", with their flintlocks, a much better movie.

And I enjoy all the ribbing!
Ron

Myself and several others had to work the flintlocks over correcting problems that the prop folks screwed up. They have never learned to clean anything, plugged vent holes and using 2FF powder for priming were just a few of several problems they built in. Heston wanted to use my GRRW trade gun, which I shot down on the spot after seeing how all of them throw things around.

But Charlton arranged for his son to go on a buffalo hunt that fall after filming with us, so that was a plus. On that hunt we had gathered several of the other members of the filming crew from the "Mountain Men". Fun times...

 

[RonRC]

I certainly will treasure this flintlock that Neill made!
Frankly, I never thought that I would have one this nice.
As for the GRRW rifles, Phil Meeks has created an appreciation for them. I am always in awe of his knowledge about GRRW.
Now that BigAl52 has one, the pressure is on me as the last holdout.

How could Charlton Heston have one of those flintlocks? After all, they weren't available in the time of Moses. I could envision it now: "Hey, look folks. Isn't that Moses coming down the hill? Looks like he has a couple of stone tablets in one arm and a GRRW Trade Rifle in the other."
ROn

 

[Buck Conner1]

How could Charlton Heston have one of those flintlocks? After all, they weren't available in the time of Moses. I could envision it now: "Hey, look folks. Isn't that Moses coming down the hill? Looks like he has a couple of stone tablets in one arm and a GRRW Trade Rifle in the other."
ROn

Ron you mentioning Moses brings back a funny story. Many of us were at the Nationals at La Veta Co with John Baird following this movie the next year.

Here comes Charlton Heston with some of the film crew (big surprise), with a generator and the new movie for a first showing of the now called "Mountain Men". By the way the original name was to be called "Wind River" - changed when another movie was in production with a similar name. That's a story in its self which I'll share in a moment.

Anyway we gather a bunch of tipi poles set them up to make a frame to hang bed sheets on for a movie screen. The movie folks have the generator setup with the movie ready to go. A mild wind is blowing, the movie starts, we get through the credits and the wind takes the screen down.

Charlton steps up in front of us, looks to the sky with raised hands and says "How soon they forget" just like his character as Moses. The whole rendezvous goes crazy with everyone cheering for him.

Heston shooting at that rendezvous.​

 

[Buck Conner1]

I mentioned being in the movie "Mountain Men"' as a back ground actor, a small group of us had been in "Centennial" the year before and got to know many of the folks from Columbia and Universal studios at that time.

​

We were told this was a big screen production: "Wind River Rendezvous" filmed near Jackson Hole Wyoming. Told it would be 5-7 days became a 3 week event. We called home, then work, there goes the rest of our vacation times. Looks like our muzzle loading hunting will be done on weekends now !#$%^



As mention the name was changed but the cast had all ready made belt buckles with the original name "Wind River Rendezvous". We didn't know this as they were not offered to us at the time and limited in supply.



AMERICAN SPORTSMEN SHOW" folks appear the third week at the making of this movie John Wayne has passed away. Many of the production crew and stunt men had worked with him at different times of his movie career. The TV show "American Sportsmen" shows up on the set, they asked about holding a shoot in honor of Mr. Wayne which they will film for their show. After an hour of inquiring who would be a good person on the set for making this happen. I was asked to setup the shoot, me being the "Head Range Officer" with a "Firing Line Officer" (Trapper Tom was assigned this duty) for the "John Wayne Shoot".



We setup several matches for those in attendance, then the stars of the movie show up with Heston wanting to shoot. I changed the contest quickly without him seeing what was hung to shoot at.



Then I announced to everyone that we have an "An Egg Shoot" next and explained if you miss your egg you the eat the raw egg in front of everyone. Needless to say - Charlton Heston tried to take his shot laying down over the firing line log.

​

Heston tried to lay on the ground. I told him "You have to stand on your back legs and shoot like a man", the crowd went nuts, film crew loved the remark.

​

I had a little success at this movie selling several of these items; sold both rifles with bags​

 and the pistol to other background actors and trade off the knife and hawk.
​

​

 

[RonRC]

Those are great memories! Thank you for sharing!
Ron

 

[Kentucky Colonel]

Well,that is great! Looks like a lot of fun! Love it.

 

[exMember]

Superb info and pics! Memories like that NEED to be written down!