Hungry Horse and I have sparred about this topic before. Recently he said,
My question is what in the world could you use it for. No good for target shooting, worthless for trap, or hunting. But, it is an dingbat magnet, if you get one every dingbat in camp will be in your camp fondling your blunderbuss. Been there, done that, never again.
Hungry HorseI have built several blunderbusses in the past many years. One for myself and all the rest for others. I get what Hungry Horse is saying about one being a "dingbat magnet".....But then, I have seen all sorts of firearms being used by dingbats. And dingbats don't just limit themselves to firearms. I have seem them perform all sorts of stupid stunts with water skis, go carts, chain saws, fireworks, cars, tractors, gasoline & matches (always a perennial favorite), crossbows, etc., etc*....and it goes without saying that the more lubricated the dingbats are with alcohol, the more....how should I put this......"creative" the stunts are......
I wrote an article about this gun for Muzzle Blasts magazine several years ago explaining how and why I built it. For space reasons, the article got hacked way down and the thread of the story line was lost. (I can post my original unedited text, if anyone is that interested). The bottom line was that I had always wanted a blunderbuss, couldn’t afford one, so I built one. I built it just for me and, as a contemporary builder, was not particularly concerned with making it look like any particular original in all details. This was the start of the article........
"Have you ever really been fascinated with owning something for which you had no earthly use?
One day, minding my own business, I was paging through a copy of Muzzle Blasts when I saw something that made me jump. The Vernon C. Davis Company was advertising a blunderbuss barrel, made by Ed Rayl out of brass and in four gauge! I almost fell out of my chair.
Now, my reaction to this simple line in an advertisement might seem a bit over the edge, but for whatever reason, I had always been fascinated by the unique shape of a blunderbuss. If you are reading this magazine, chances are that you understand the aesthetic attraction of the slender, graceful lines of a long rifle. Comparatively, a blunderbuss is about as elegant as a mud fence; yet its stocky lines, the flare of the muzzle, and most impressively, the size of the bore appeal to me.
Thankfully, as with so many other things that have caught my eye over the years, there were initially no blunderbusses to be had. So my fascination had always been limited to picking up a few small books on the subject and cogitating on how I might build one for myself – someday - if I had any free time. At a gun show, I came across a Pedersoli Brown Bess lock. It was beautifully made and I liked the size of it. I had no use for it (notice the familiar recurring theme here) but bought it with the justification that if and when I ever built the blunderbuss (which I also had no use for), it would be perfect. A few years later I bought a huge, three-inch-thick plank of beautifully figured walnut for the same reason. And so the lock and the plank sat collecting dust for over twenty years.
From time to time I would think about making the barrel, but it was a fairly involved undertaking and one of those tasks that I really never quite had the time to start. So there, except for the occasional perusal of the books or playing with the lock, the project stalled. However, building a blunderbuss was not on anyone's required actions list and it had given me many hours of pleasant mental exercise over the years. And that's when I saw the ad. And that's why I jumped and was hurled lock, stock, and now barrel, right out of my blunderbuss building lethargy.
When the barrel came, I was thrilled. It was just the right length and at four gauge, the bore was just over an inch. This certainly was not going to be any sort of a wimpy firearm. After looking at the barrel for a few days, I thought perhaps I should be designing a gun carriage for it rather than a stock. My suspicions were confirmed when a friend who saw the barrel sitting on my work bench asked incredulously, "What are you going to do with that ?" "The article went on to explain how I built the blunderbuss and how I decided what to engrave on it. Referring back to the original question of "What are you going to do with that ?", I will answer with the last paragraphs of my original MB article (which, I believe, were deleted for political correctness reasons):
“We had great fun that day and shot away a considerable amount of powder and lead with the blunderbuss and a half a dozen other guns. As I watched the others shoot, I had to reassess my earlier thoughts about building something I really didn't need. The blunderbuss itself was just so much brass and wood, flint and steel, but what it represented to me now was something I do need, something I cherish. On the side plate I had been inspired to engrave the word "LIBERTY". It was not very original and my engraving of the letters was more than a little shaky. But as I watched the gun roar out again and again, I reflected that we all still enjoy the liberty to build or own or do something we don't need. Like our forefathers, we still don't have to seek permission from some higher authority to do many of the things we want to do whether we have a reason or not. We can follow our hearts and our abilities and our opportunities wherever they may lead us. In the most recent film version of Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye is explaining to Cora why a slain frontier family would have chosen to live so far from civilization. He tells her that to be free and "not livin' by another's leave" was worth everything to them.
But with each exuberant thundering of the blunderbuss, there echoed a distant warning. Much of the freedom our predecessors held dear has already slipped away. Throughout human history, liberty, like glory, has been fleeting. We, as Americans, have enjoyed more of it for a longer period of time than any nation on earth. But, as the saying goes, eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.
For those who enjoy muzzleloading arms, we re-create, we re-enact, we re-live a time long since past, and, in so doing, we remember and honor the lives and courage of those who preceded us. Each time I do something I enjoy - shouldering one of my guns, teaching a young person how to shoot - I give thanks to Providence for being born in this land. And every time I hear a politician, or another of my countrymen, tell me I don't "need" one thing or another and, therefore, have no right to it, I bristle. Thanks for your input, but I can decide for myself if I need an SUV, a semiautomatic .22 rifle, a cigarette, or a greasy fried hamburger….or perhaps, even a blunderbuss. So, I hope that the answer to my friend's rhetorical question, "What are you going to do with that?" always remains, "Whatever I please."
Eternal vigilance, my friends. Eternal vigilance.”
David Crisalli* Just look up "sitting on an air bag" on YouTube.
