I had posted pictures before of the rough cast parts as received from The Rifle Shoppe, so I thought I would show everyone how it turned out, thanks to Brian Anderson!
This started as a research effort, then build with Brian Anderson of Bristol, VT, an excellent blacksmith and gunsmith as well as builder of early black powdah arms. I have dreamt about adding a shootable wheellock to the 'collection' for years now. And last Xmas, well there was nothing else I really, really needed ... so I suggested to my wife that she buy me the early Germanic wheellock 'casting' set from The Rifle Shoppe. Now get this ... this was my 3rd order from them, where all items have been not only IN stock, but I got all my orders in a week or so. I hear some wait for years for their TRS parts, but of course this one then sat under the Xmas tree for another 2 weeks more, lol.
I sort of started the lock kit, but quickly stopped, as when in talking to Leonard Day about wheellock mechanisms, he said that the most crucial part, besides the inherent design itself, was in the proper heat-treating of the related parts. I succumbed to the belief that this was way, waaaaay above my pay grade and at last year's Colonial Show in Portsmouth, NH, I had mentioned Mr. Day's comments to Brian Anderson. Brian said ... "If you send that wheellock kit ... send it to me, and I'll build it right for you!"
True to his word he did and we collaborated on the stock design to mimic or borrow from the John Alden 'Mayflower' carbine orginally made by Beretta in Italy (circa 1550), that now resides in the NRA museum. But I guess you would call this the “boar hunting larger cousin” to the original Alden ‘Mayflower’ gun, as that stock would be totally unshootable for a modern-sized person, as only having a really short 10-1/2“ length of pull.
For those who are not aware of the backstory, owner’s of the Alden family home found the original wheellock in the house in 1974, behind a wall in the house when it being remodeled. It came over on the Mayflower with John Alden and had been made by Beretta.
Due to the size of the TRS Germanic lockplate we started with, as well as where the original LOP was totally impractical, we upsized it to be a 12-1/2“ length of pull, with a 28-1/2“ barrel and that bought it up to a bore size of 58-caliber, which began as a swamped Jaeger barrel. The stock is cherry, which fits with early Italian arms.
Well, this completes one check off my muzzleloading ‘bucket list’. The craftsmanship and workmanship of the lock action by Brian is outstanding, the wheelock cycles like a fine jeweled watch! And now I have BP arms representative of each century from 1350 to ~1850, of hand gonne, matchlock, wheellock, snaphaunce, to the last in the flintlock lineage, an inline-breech loading Hall flintlock rifle.
And I will say, with no pun intended, that wheellocks are a ‘blast’ to shoot!
Input from Brian, via SmallPatch:
The TRS parts were marginal as best. Brian had to really make the extra effort to make the lock correct and work, but Brian is a superb metal worker and he constructed a very nice wheellock. I have the same parts set, which is originally from a German musket, but it has so much extra size to it, however one can trim it into a number of smaller styles.
