Made in India?

I keep seeing flintlocks for sale that are made in India, at prices that are great - - less than half other manufacturers. Naturally it has me skeptical, and wondering about quality. Anyone have experiences - good, bad or ugly - with reproductions manufactured in India?

Here we go :surrender:

While I have never owned or fired a made-in-India flintlock, I have handled a few. IMHO "you get what you pay for".

There have been a lot of discussions about made in India muskets on the Forum. A search for past topics will give you hours of reading with plenty of pro & con posts. In short, they are adequate for some users and beneath consideration of others. As I recall, pros frequently cited are price & availability, often mentioned cons have included very heavy trigger pull, excess stock wood, fit & finish issues. Pull up some past topics on "made in India" & "enjoy" the debate.

Jethro224 said:

While I have never owned or fired a made-in-India flintlock, I have handled a few. IMHO "you get what you pay for".

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What Jethro said. I never felt the desire to own one.

Coot....you are very kind....

The pros and cons of India-made guns have been discussed on this forum MANY, MANY times. I sugest you use the search feature and you can get a look at all of the discussions. It is a topic that can get rather contentious so don't be put off by what you'll see, both bad and good, until you are satisfied with the answers that you seek.

Just a little sidenote: None of the India-made guns as originally built are rifles but rather are smoothbores.

Sorry, post directed towards the original question.

There are makers from India that make a muzzle loader that will be satisfactory for a beginners gun to see if they would like to really get into the sport, or if they cannot afford to spend the farm on a higher priced gun. There are also makers from India that are to be avoided at all costs! Generally, the two sellers that have the best reputations , and stand behind what they sell are Loyalist arms, and Middlesex Village trading company.

With the modifications I made to it , my India fowler works great!



Just pull the chain and the light comes on!

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

SC45-70

:thumbsup:

The biterness of poor quality, remains long after the sweet taste of low price.

See http://veteranarms.com/ReproductionMuzzleloadersandFlintlocks/Proofing.html

Interesting Jerry.

Did you notice the remark at the bottom of the page in your link?

"Note:

As of June 2011, Veteran Arms, LLC will discontinue the practice of proofing each individual barrel prior to sale. We will still offer proofing to customers on a special order basis. Requests for proofing will result in a delay in anticipated delivery time."

While this in itself doesn't say the arms failed their testing, it does indicate that the guns they currently are selling are not proof tested unless the buyer is willing to pay a higher price. :hmm:

Finally! a good use for those things.

IMHO - if all one can afford is Indian made arms, maybe one should consider just going fishing instead.

Just a clarification...

There is no additional cost to have your Veteran Arms, LLC musket or pistol proofed. Having us proof the piece will, however, delay delivery. This delay can be up to several weeks. Most folks prefer not to wait, but to do their own proofing.

There has never been a barrel failure of a Veteran Arms piece either in proofing or actual use. We have a spotless safety record.

Thank you.
Charles Misulia
Veteran Arms, LLC

Shine said:

Here we go :surrender:

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This topic and anything titled "Thread counting" are guaranteed to be contentious. Anyone who's been here awhile can probably predict who'll make a comment and what they'll say.

In their own way, these threads can be quite amusing if you don't have a dog in the fight yourself. :grin: :surrender:

Persoanly I would lok for a used domestic made gun before buying one of the imports often they can be had for nearly the same price, I suspect the imports do not retain a very good resale value,I have never handled one but the photos of them was enough to put me off.

sc45-70 said:

With the modifications I made to it , my India fowler works great!

Just pull the chain and the light comes on!

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

SC45-70

Click to expand...

I bet you really have to pull hard on the chain to turn the light on too.

I don't own an Indian made weapon, but as a favor to a friend, I recently tried to sell one online. I received tons of e-mails from potential bidders, asking where the musket was made. Once I told them of the origin their interest immediately ended. After several weeks of the same, my disheartened buddy pulled the plug on the auction and decided to keep it. Maybe he read this forum and decided to turn it into a lamp.