Boys Club Butt Fowler

[R.J.Bruce]

I know the anything less than .69/.70 caliber was considered to be "boy" sized, as far as club butt fowlers were concerned.

I have the choice of not shooting long arms at all, or switching to ones with truly minimal recoil.

I think that the club butt fowler is what I need, as well as what I like the looks of.

For a club butt fowler that would weigh in at around 7 pounds with a .50 caliber smoothbore barrel, what dimensions would the barrel have? What would the ratio of octagon-to-round be? How long should the barrel measure?

Would Chris Laubach's new 1740's German flintlock be an appropriate choice for such a fowler?

I would want it to look as traditional as possible.

[rich pierce]

Do you have Grinslade’s Flintlock Fowlers book?  Well worth buying. Most of the club butt fowlers seem to have had French or English locks.

[R.J.Bruce]

I do not own, nor can afford to own the book. That being said,  the Enoch Pratt Free Library is scheduled to reopen with curb-side, and mail-at-home services starting on 5-15-2020. I will try to see if Grinslade's book can be ordered from another library.

[R.J.Bruce]

Clay Smith offers a boys version of the Bumford Type G Trade Gun with a 34" long × .50 caliber barrel (no other specs offered).
It's finished weight is listed at 3.75 pounds.

Muzzleloaders Builders Supply offers a boys/womens, .50 caliber, smoothbore, octagon-round, 32" long, 7/8" breech, barrel that weighs in at 2lbs, 12oz.

[Goo]

For club butt and Dutch fowlers you should probably use a fully round barrel like on a brown bess not Oct to round.   Those type of Fowler's used much longer barrels and what is available as ready made barrels are too short, cumbersome, too heavy with too much wall thickness as they taper toward the muzzle.   If you can get a barrel blank and machine it yourself you could make a nicer Fowler that would suit your needs for a smaller gauge.

[rich pierce]

Not being argumentative but if you’re really interested in building an authentic club butt fowler and you’d consider Laubach’s fabulous and expensive lock costing about double many others, a $60 book would be a wise and eminently affordable investment.

It’s not clear to me whether reducing weight or recoil or both are your goals but light guns kick like the devil and big gauge guns can be loaded lightly with shot. A 3/4 oz square load can be used in a 28 ga or a 10 ga. Of course if shooting round ball a small bore will kick less.

[BJH]

My type G trade tun I built uses a copy of the Bumford barrel made by Ed Rayle. Total gun weight just under 7 lbs. 28 bore. I am a true recoil wuss and find it to be comfortable. If you were to use the same barrel on your club but it would total up to 7 to 8 lbs. due to the fact there’s a bunch more wood in the butstock. 28 is a little more versatile choice. Just some food for thought. BJH