Flintlock on "Swamp people"

[Topknot]

 My wife informed me last night after I got home fron work that they were using a flintlock to kill gators on the TV show swamp people.
  She said the charactor named Tommy was using one and liked it better than the other guns used. I dont know the caliber or what school the gun was styled from , but I think its way cool. Any publicity in a good light is good for our cause, Black powder shooting as it should be. Like I said ,I was at work and didnt see the show which I dont watch even when Im at home. Anybody see it? I do truly hope they routinely use that flintlock from now own because maybe it will get young people interested in the real black powder weapons
and they will give it a try themselves. You never know,stranger things have happened. My hope is it does!!!

                                                                                  topknot

[T*O*F]

Unless it's a different episode, it's not a flintlock.  It's an Investarms or TC Hawken.  The guy is a wingnut.  He doesn't do the ML crowd any favors with that gun.

[Bible Totin Gun Slinger]

I thought I saw the preview,,,? But I never knew they used a snout loader..

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

He loaded it with Pydorex pellets I think, and he had trouble getting it to go off, and when it did there was a hangfire you wouldn't believe.  And the commentator called it an antique musket.  Lord have mercy!

[rhbrink]

I saw that show not only do they not do any muzzleloader any justice "wingnut had a gigantic flinch before he pulled the trigger.

RB

[EC121]

The commentator called it a 200 yr. old musket.  Last year they also showed Troy L. walking through the woods turkey hunting like they were rabbits.  Just walk out and shoot one when you walk up on it.   Also goes right along with some of the weights they give for those gators.  One evening the commentator called it a 400lb. gator, and the fellow lifted it out of the water with one hand.  They must think people are idiots.

[Daryl]

Some of the actors appear to quite closely fit that bill.

[doug]

   two things I have noticed about the show;
1.  what strikes me as strange is that the ones that use 22s always seem to reload the gun after killing the gator and appear to store the gun loaded and cocked ready for the next gator. 

2.  In the first season, only 22 rifles were used, mostly rusty bolt actions.   Over the past couple of years there seems to be a proliferation of different guns ; pistols, lever action 22s and several others that I forget.

     I somewhat wonder about where the big gators are coming from; the largest ones must be 30 or 40 years old or more and given that there seems to be a lot of commercial hunting of them, it surprises me that there are many / any large gators left

cheers Doug

[PPatch]

Doug;

The Okefenokee swamp in south Georgia is full of large gators, they are quite prolific breeders. They won't bother you if you don't bother them and stay out of the water unless you have a good reason to go in (like getting the boat off a Cyprus knee). That doesn't hold during breeding season however, the bulls are aggressive then as are the females who are sitting a nest.

dp

[Mike R]

  two things I have noticed about the show;
1.  what strikes me as strange is that the ones that use 22s always seem to reload the gun after killing the gator and appear to store the gun loaded and cocked ready for the next gator.  

2.  In the first season, only 22 rifles were used, mostly rusty bolt actions.   Over the past couple of years there seems to be a proliferation of different guns ; pistols, lever action 22s and several others that I forget.

     I somewhat wonder about where the big gators are coming from; the largest ones must be 30 or 40 years old or more and given that there seems to be a lot of commercial hunting of them, it surprises me that there are many / any large gators left

cheers Doug

They do not show all that many really large ones per year.  A gator under 8 feet is mostly tail and doesn't look all that big in person.  On the Louisiana lake where I live there were 450 gators counted when we first moved there 25 yrs ago...after a few years of hunting now we see very darn few...used to have several 8-9 footers sunning in the back yard, now never see one.  Before we got there they killed an 18 footer--the largest in the state.  Biggest I saw here was ~14 ft, but several longer than my 11 ft pirogue were around once...you can hunt them out.  Funny how success has elevated the guns of the swampers from rusty old .22s to nice modern guns....that salt water down there will ruin a good rifle.   I had to laugh when they said that TC Hawken was 200 years old!  Those boys are not gun nuts, but they are good hunters who know their craft and live a life mostly lost elsewhere in the USA.  One reason I have stayed in Lousyanna [not my home state]is that it is still primitive in many ways and in many areas--and I like that.