Ah guys , are you all hearing me ?
. He isn’t telling me what he will do.
He isn’t questioning why I said I wouldn’t recommend it . Nor is he going to put the left hand lock on .
While I call him a young man he is in his early 30’s and NOT new to shooting muzzleloaders .
The actual question he posed to me. This is in so many words how it went
I told him that the lock needed to be a right hand lock and that what he was looking at was rifle made for a left hand person . If you use this lock and place the lock on the left side . The flame and pressure that is released from the vent will blow very close to your face . Add into that if you shoot with both eyes open , the frizzen and cock may block your line of sight .
He then told me that he shoots both left and right hand flintlock now and doesn’t have an issue with sight obstruction with the left hand rifles because he shoots with one eye and that he has never noticed the flame being any greater from one then the other . But that he could understand what I was getting at .
Later and this is why I said my question was rather odd .
I myself got to thinking about this. I realized that I shoot a lot of SxS several are flints . Add in to that , through the years , more then a few left hand guns .
Again , thinking about it , I don’t recall having any real issues either.
This got me to thinking if possibly we are perpetuating a myth and really only following what was done because someone else had done it that way , without ever knowing the actual reasoning behind it .
Mike .
I hear what your saying .
Now maybe I was taught alittle differently . When I was young , I worked in a gun shop when I wasn’t out in the fields . In the winter when there wasn’t much farm work , I was in the gun shop .
Mostly clean up, de-priming casings and lubing bullets . I could not afford to build a muzzle loading rifle and frankly even if I could have , the information wasn’t anywhere near what we have today …
The owner of the shop , who back then was also the gunsmith did not do muzzle loading rifles . So eventually with the help of the shop teacher at our school , I converted an old O3 A3 to a muzzleloader . after finishing my father would not let me shoot it tell , I took it to the shop and had old John look it over.
He fired it a couple times and gave me the thumbs up .
A few weeks later I tuned 11 . John ask me if I would like to build a real muzzleloader and dad gave him permission . From then on every day after school I went to the shop . When I was done cleaning up , we worked on my gun .
Ironically I had an original to work from which was an old Liege ½ stock ,20 gage fowler with a back action lock . John cut the profile out from a plank of English walnut , handed it to me and said ; there you go , have at it .
I learned a lot that spring . Most of which was what not to do . To make a long story short , did my gun turn out like the one I was working from . No not even close . Mostly because john would decide that I needed to learn something and suddenly my gun would have an skeleton but plate , Ivory nose cap …. .
It also ended up with double set triggers . But not tell after I had spent a few nights filing out a single trigger and inletting it
So myself , I don’t exspect this rifle to turn out much like the one Ron made . But it will have the general lines .
Thus when he gets done , it will be his gun ,, not a copy of someone else’s , be it mine , yours or Rons .
I will give him my influence , teach him to inlet , form , cast, solder , drill ………..
What I wont do is stifle his imagination unless its involves something that IMO is un safe .
So while I understand your concerns about this gun being difficult , I really don’t expect him to come anywhere near the overall presentation . But in his attempt he will learn everything he needs to know to make the next one even better
Anyway , thank you all for your replies . Its been good to discuss this . Ill be sure to post photos of his finished work when he gets done .
Hope everyone has a great day and be safe
