Flint lock turkey chasing

There were a lot of fowlers, smooth rifles and smooth bore trade guns ont the frontier. Muzzle loader building goes back pretty far in my family. Itd also deeply rooted in ohios history. Also ohio was the heart of the resurgance of popularity of muzzleloading dure the 60s. Ohioians like locksmith Bob Roller, barrel smith Bill Large, gun smith harry rife, marksman bull thompson, marksman Homer Bailey and master gunsmith Jack lewis were a huge part of the movement. If you read a Muzzle Blast Magazine you will be hard pressed to find an issue that doesnt show case the work of an ohio smith or marksmen. Im in the process of building a 36 caliber squirrel rifle. The l&r locks are the fastest sparking and were all designed by by Bob Roller. I'd plan to spend 750 to 1200 dallors on a firearm plus tools.

Bigslam51 said:

Did it happen to say how many? I know they were wiped clean in the early 1900's from Ohio.

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A quote from The Wildness War book I'm reading now.
"the wild turkes very plenty the young ones yelping throug the woods as if it was inhabbited ever so thick" Misspelled words their's not mine.
THis was the area NY and PA but it's the same writings for OHIO back in the 1700's.

Archertl said:

There were a lot of fowlers, smooth rifles and smooth bore trade guns ont the frontier. Muzzle loader building goes back pretty far in my family. It also deeply rooted in ohios history. Also ohio was the heart of the resurgance of popularity of muzzleloading dure the 60s. Ohioians like locksmith Bob Roller, barrel smith Bill Large, gun smith harry rife, marksman bull thompson, marksman Homer Bailey and master gunsmith Jack lewis where a huge part of the movement. If you read a Muzzle Blast Magazine you will be hard pressed to find an issue that doesnt show case the work of an ohio smith or markmen. the process of building a 36 caliber squirrel rifle. The l&r locks are the fastest sparking and where all designed by by Bob Roller. I'd plan to spend 750 to 1200 dallors on a firearm plus tools.

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Tom, my father in law was very good friends with Harry Rife. Harry gave my fil a rifle with a 200* year old stock in 40 caliber. He deer hunted with it, loading two round balls at a time. Yeah, I know it wasn't legal. He gave Mason that rifle shortly before he passed away back in August. Btw, Harry told Joe the stock was 200 years old in the mid 1970s. It's in shooting/hunting condition even today. It's a greenish stained curly maple.

That'd be a fun one to shoot! Serious history

brock ratcliff said:

Tom, my father in law was very good friends with Harry Rife. Harry gave my fil a rifle with a 200* year old stock in 40 caliber. He deer hunted with it, loading two round balls at a time. Yeah, I know it wasn't legal. He gave Mason that rifle shortly before he passed away back in August. Btw, Harry told Joe the stock was 200 years old in the mid 1970s. It's in shooting/hunting condition even today. It's a greenish stained curly maple.

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Interesting story brock I wonder if Harry refinished the stock of that rife. Harry was known for finishing curly maple so it looked greenish yellow. There is a term for the process that I can't remember. I have seen two other of Harry rife's guns with greenish curly maple stocks. Somewhere i have a picture of one in a group of guns in Homer Bailey's shop. Homer often told a story that he wanted one of Harry guns but due to there friendship Harry wouldn't let Homer place a formal order. Harry told Homer if he came by the shop and there was a finished gun he would give it to him. After a many visits between the two friends Harry never had a finished gun to give Homer at the time of his visit. Harry past away without giving Homer a rifle. Homer saw someone walking into a gun show with the destinctive colored stock and knew it was a Harry rife gun. Homer purchased that rifle. The barrel and mountings were browned and the curly maple stock finished in a greenish yellow color.

You nailed it. All metal is brown, greenish yellow curly maple. I'll post some pics of it when I get home from fishing. Joe ran around with a bunch of characters back in the day. He had a guy named Howard Kelley build me a rifle when Krista and I first got married. I met Howard once at his home and once at Friendship. He too was a well known gunsmith that had apparently worked with Harry to learn the craft.
Roger Dillard is another one my father in law introduced me to. Have you ever heard of him? He made a living as a "mountain man". He was on a lot TV shows and movies, catching arrows and axes thrown at his head, that sort of thing. He is supposedly going to show Mason how to throw tomahawks this summer. Interesting folks get into black powder toys.

Yes I have heard a few stories about dillard amd kelley who where both barrel smiths and gun smiths. If your father in law knew rife and kelley he probably met a man named Tommy Dick. Tommy is another Scioto county smith. Tommy could make just about anything well. He made a cane for my mom from cast off curly maple

I'm excited to see a pic of that gun

Also, your going to have to document the 'tomahawk' throwing.

Awesomeness

giles said:

You guys keep talking, I'm digging all the history! I'm pretty sure the only way I'm gonna be able to do this is garage sale shopping. I seriously had no idea how expensive these were.

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Yeah your looking at a very large piece of high grade wood.
A barrel depending on what you want that can run you 150 to 450 dollars for factory barrels. Then 800 and more for hand wrought and rifled.
A lock will cost you 150 ish
Technically you can make your own triggers because they are really simple. But most buy R E Davis triggers that work with the l&r, siler, and RE Davis locks. 75 dallors there
Then you are going to need all your brass or iron mountings.
Pins
Sights
Tools like a ramrod drill bit, nice carving knives, chisels, in letting scrapers and knives, ect also add up quickly.

The good thing is you can buy all this in pieces. Buy a stock blank and barrel. You will have a good project hustle cutting the barrel Channel and ramrod tunnel. Then buy a lock and inlet that. After that buy a spokeshave, some rasps, chisels and carving tools, then start working on your stock. However you are going to want to spend time practicing enletting triggers, locks, butt plates, trigger gaurds and patch boxes until you learn the techniques required. Most fowlers are pretty simple and do not have and nose cap or complicated patch box. Crescent butt plates and patch boxes are the hardest to inlet right. If you decide to either brown or blue the metal part of the gun you get to go through all the prep and process of that step. Then you can finish your gun with aqua fortis.

Getting caught up on your thread Dave, sounds like a great idea!! I've thought about doing that myself over the years, just for turkey. During muzzleloader season I dusted off my old cap lock, a Thompson Center New Englander that came in a kit. My dad and I put it together back when I was still in high school. I really enjoyed shooting that gun before season and had fun carrying it around those couple days. Was even more fun having my son Allen shoot it a few times as well.

Most of my knowledge of smiths and muzzleloader shooting are from stories told to me my Homer Bailey, Tommy Dick and Jack Lewis. Homer took me to the friendship Indiania shoot once. I met Howard kelley once however i didnt know he was a gummaker until afterward. i spent the afternoon talking cur dogs and grouse hunting with him at Tommy dicks house.

The greenish tint does not show up well in the pics. Harry gave him the stock because he had helped him hand cut the rifling in some barrels, which his said was a horrible process. .

Some of those guys were nuts. I still see Roger Dillard regularly. He told me recently that he went to the White House to perform for one of the presidents. He said he had moonshine, knives, and two loaded flintlock pistols on him when he met the president. He said it never occurred to him that it was a bad idea cause he was drunk! Haha. He's a Christian now and no longer puts you in mind of Delque, but he would still catch an arrow for anyone with 20k that wanted to see him do it. Nut job. 

Thats cool looking Brock.

Very nice Brock

Beautiful gun