lock for Southern pistl

[leviathan]

Can anyone suggest a percussion lock sized right to use on a Southern pistol or a good lock that can be modified to a rounded tail(small Siler)? What about the RE Davis goulcher, would this be a pistol sized lock? Thanks guys for all your help ahead of time. 

[Dennis Glazener]

How about the little L&R John Bailes lock http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/722/1/LOCK-LR-1700

[Glenn]

Dennis ... What would be the most correct lock(s) to use on the Gillespies ?

[Dennis Glazener]

Glen,
If you are talking about a rifle most any of the late English style locks are fine. I personally use the Chambers Late Ketland most of the time. Just please don't use a Germanic style lock.

On the one Gillespie pistol that Mathew made (dated 1842) he used a Jos. Golcher double throated flntlock. He was a bear hunter and a gunsmith. Kind of tells you what he thought of percussion locks when in 1842 he chooses flint for his personal bear hunting pistol
Dennis

[flinchrocket]

I would not recommend rounding off the tail of a siler. I did that on a siler flint and it was alright, but the plate is narrow in that portion. The end result is a plate that is not well rounded like the late english locks. You won't get the look you need.

[Dennis Glazener]

I would not recommend rounding off the tail of a siler. I did that on a siler flint and it was alright, but the plate is narrow in that portion. The end result is a plate that is not well rounded like the late english locks. You won't get the look you need.

Plus to do it right you would need to round the facets off the pan. A lot of work for something that probably would still not look very English.

Dennis

[Kevin Houlihan]

So for those of us not quite up to building a lock from castings we are pretty limited to modifying a small Siler or Becky or using the Manton from L & R, correct? Or am I missing something?
Thanks
Kevin

[flinchrocket]

Nothing wrong with modifying a lock,but you should try to end up with a lock appropriate to the style of rifle or pistol. I failed in that regard. However, no point in buying a lock that is not correct to the period, when for the same money you can buy one that is correct.

[WadePatton]

So for those of us not quite up to building a lock from castings we are pretty limited to modifying a small Siler or Becky or using the Manton from L & R, correct? Or am I missing something?
Thanks
Kevin

I have been led to believe that Germanic locks were quite uncommon on Southern guns, so I'd not have Siler in the list--no matter what you see in "kit gun" offerings (modified or not).  Spend some quality time cleaning up and tweaking a Becky or Manton I reckon.