What is the trend of 'cap' after 'flint'...

[roundball]

Need some thoughts about keeping caplocks after switching to Flintlocks.

I got well into caplocks all through the 90's. Then I switched to Flintlocks around 2000 and have expanded with them into different calibers and gauges as well.
During the past 10 years I gradually began selling off caplocks as I came to realize I just wasn't using them and didn't feel like I would so I've let them go, paring all the way down to a single .45cal caplock.

But in checking history logs on the PC just now I see that I've only taken that .45cal to the range twice is 10 years...once in 2004, again in 2006...and haven't hunted it at all. I kept hanging on to it all these years 'just because', but am now really questioning the point of doing so any longer...its just laying in its case to get lost in a house fire or stolen, etc.

And now moving in the direction of early Virginia Flintlocks I've sold off many T/C Flintlocks I accumulated during the past 10 years...but I still have this one lone caplock hanging around...so my question for die hard Flintlock shooters/hunters is this:

Is it time to finalize the separation, and go ahead and get a divorce...or is there some yet to be experienced reason why I might regret it?

 

[BrownBear]

I'm fence riding between the two, but haven't even begun to think I prefer one over the other.

I gotta ask this: Do you have any particular attachment to it? Doesn't sound like it. Might be interesting to see if there was such a thing as "just the right caplock" in your mind, and replace it with that.

I'm only saying that because of the safes full of guns I own that do have some kind of special meaning for me. I haven't shot some of them in 40 years, but I might decide to shoot them again tomorrow. Either way they'll live in the safes as long as I'm around, then it's up to someone else to keep or dump.

 

[tnlonghunter]

My personal philosophy on keeping guns is that if I don't shoot it, I don't really need it. For instance, I sold a centerfire Ruger # 1, my very favorite cartridge hunting rifle, after I moved to southeast Michigan because I just never used it (shotgun only zone in this part of the state), and I used that money to buy a bow that I shoot and hunt with all the time. Between my bow, my flintlock, and my shotgun for turkeys, I almost never find myself needing another gun (this, of course, is no the same as wanting many other guns!). So, as long as I've got a limited bank account, there's not much point in hanging onto unused guns that will serve me better by being sold or traded for others.

Having said that, I really miss that rifle. I don't regret selling it, because it was collecting dust and I use my bow A LOT. But I still wish I had that rifle, even if just for the random trip to the range or once-a-year deer hunt in Tennessee with my dad.

However, if I ever wind up with a whole pile of flintlocks besides the one I've got now, and I somehow never shoot that one again, I'll still never sell it. It was a gift from my dad and means too much to me. Same thing with a 16 gauge that I've got - I haven't shot it in probably 15 years, but it was my grandfather's and will never leave my family.

So my thoughts are this - if you need the money that you would get my selling that rifle to buy one you'll use a lot more, AND you won't regret it being gone, then sell it. However, if it's very sentimental or you will regret it, then hang onto it.

 

[necchi]

awwh heck, hang on to it,,we might wanna show yer great-grankids,
,"an this here is what I stared with, when I was young an foolish, sorta sowin my oats",,,

Besides,,ya just wouldn't be Bill/NC if ya didn't have a T/C layin aroun'. Who knows, ya could always make another lamp :haha:

 

[mckutzy]

u can always switch IT to a flintlock and u havent lost anything, in fact have gained another gun to shoot, in flint.

 

[PreglerD]

Reading your post it sounds to me as if you are a real hardcore flinter shooter/hunter. I can understand that quite well. I'm in the process of becoming such a guy too. I sold all my cappers except the GPR and have bought or on order several flinters. On my opinion I would hold the capper although.

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[redwing]

Bill how are you doing? I sold off 14 Cap locks years ago. I some how have a John Browning .50 and a .50 pistol out in the garage. They will all so be sold off in time. I don't have any caps and don't want any.
As for myself I would never want to shoot a cap lock so why keep the things.? :shake:

 

[2172]

Bill, do as you want, but I have to say, I've never sold a gun I didn't regret selling. In fact, I went on mission a few years ago to replace my original 3 guns: a mossberg .22, a Remington .22 and a H&R 12 ga. I cheated and got the H&R in 20 ga, but I'm happier having them in the rack...do I shoot either .22? No.
Hank

 

[tg]

That is something each has to search for their own answer,I ended up selling all but two guns because I did not shoot enough to use them all and I felt that they should be used and not hanging on the wall, I am actually teetering on where going to only one gun, I rcall many years ago I had one gun for quite a while and got along fine, the Fusil I have fills most any need I would have except fowl or Turkey hunting which I will likely not do anyway.Selling guns is always a hard thing to make choices about to do or not to do.

 

[roundball]

"Just the right caplock"
Not really any interest in getting a better caplock...was only hanging on to this one 'just in case'...not knowing what the 'in case' might be...have just been hedging against letting go of it as the last caplock, and then for some unknown reason regretting it.

"Sentimental attachment"
No, everything muzzleloading that I've done, I've initiated it, no hand-me-downs, no gifts, etc...it's all started with me so there's no family or sentimental attachment to any of them. I appreciate good quality functional things...like a good air compressor & air tools...but after getting into a particular new area of something and growing through that learning curve, when that chapter is closed I can sell whatever it is and go in another direction no problem at all.

"If I don’t shoot it, I don’t need it"
That's kind of where I’m at...2 times in 10 years and after the first dozen shots was ready to pack it in and go back to the house.

"Convert it to Flint"
Actually, I tried that years ago and unfortunately, due to the variations in T/C stock dimensions over the years, it turns out that the vent in a T/C Flint barrel sits all the way back at the fence which is behind the back edge of the pan on a T/C lock...either the tang and/or the lock mortise on this particular stock is out of position just enough that I can't easily convert it.

"Never sold a gun I didn’t regret"
That hasn't really been the case...yes, on the one hand it might be nice to just keep everything I ever bought...but on the other hand...for me at least...it just doesn't seem practical.
==========================================================================
This has all been a good summary of the main points I’ve been struggling with and having to 'answer' each possibility has helped make it clear:

It's a gorgeous rifle but I don’t shoot it and can't imagine circumstances when I ever will;

It makes no sense to sell the stock and salvage the rare .45cal T/C 1:66" RB barrel for the future because it’s a caplock and I won't use it;

It makes no sense to sell the barrel and just keep the pretty stock for future flint use because T/C's flint components won't line up...and I’m moving on to different style Flintlocks now anyway;

I actually do want a muzzleloader floorlamp but as a flintlock, not a caplock...the cord will come out through the vent opening. On that note by the way, in recent years I found...cut off...and have had curing a very nice 1' high by 2' diameter hardwood stump with a lot of contour variations all around its circumference, nice taper and flare out down to the ground level where I flat-topped it, to serve as the base for the day if I retire a T/C Hawken Flintlock into it as a floor lamp.


So...given all the above considerations, I think I’ll be filing divorce papers...thanks a lot!

:thumbsup:

 

[necchi]

So...given all the above considerations, I think I’ll be filing divorce papers...thanks a lot!

:thumbsup:

:shocked2: DIBB'S!!

 

[trent/OH]

If you want to have a "loaner" rifle for a new shooter to use, that would be a good rifle to have available. But if you don't foresee taking any new ML shooters out for an introduction, then by all means send it to me, and I'll have it available at my club shoots, and even take it to Friendship for just such use. My address will be available by PM.

 

[cowpoke1955]

Do you have any kids or grandchildren you could pass it on to? That's what I'm going to be doing with mine when the time comes and the wife is in full agreement. Of course, she bought half of them for me :rotf:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Where does it say, on Granite, that its wrong to hang onto a gun just to have it in case you decide you want to shoot it again??? I have lots of guns I haven't shot in many years, but I might take one of them out tomorrow, or find a friend who tells me he is interested in shooting such a gun, so I have an excuse to let him shoot mine!

Guns, like Gold, don't lose their value, so I don't see the NEED to sell any gun, unless a greater need is presented. All my guns are " Shooters". I did buy a gun as an investment once, but made very little money on it when I sold it. I never had any interest in shooting it, so it stayed " NIB". I thought it might come in handy as a trade piece if I found a gun I really wanted badly enough. Instead, someone came along that wanted it and would pay me more than I paid for it, so I sold it.

If I were you, I would keep the rifle. :hatsoff:

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

I'm basically a flintlock shooter. I find them to be more interesting and more fun. And the more I've used them, the more I've realised that they will do everything I need a gun to do.

That said, I have a few percussion guns left. My old English Parker-Hale Enfield three band is a keeper for those days when I feel like scaring tin cans at 400 yards. My .54 caliber Sam Hawken custom holds too many memories and is an accurate paper puncher, so it stays. And my Seneca because it is light as a feather, has served me well since I bought it in the first year they were made and reminds me of the first original muzzleloader I ever fired. The rest will be going as soon as the market improves a little.

If it was me, given all your experience with T/Cs, I'd hold onto the rifle. You can sell it anytime you want, but once it's gone that's it.

 

[mykeal]

Good Lord.

You aren't married to it. It's a tool, for Pete's sake. If you have no use for it, get rid of it and get one that you can or will use.

That's not to say that one can't have an emotional attachment to a gun (or a car or a piece of furniture or a wrench or an old sweater). If you do, by all means feel free to justify keeping it.

But you don't. So sell it. The sooner the better.

And no, I don't want it.

 

[tg]

Sounds like a bit of unsolicited attitude dude, if ya don't like his questions, no body is twisting your arm to follow the thread. most found it interesting and different from all the "what do you use to clean a ML?" type threads.
and who the Hell is Pete? I didn't see him post anything, he probably liked the topic but is a lurker and hasn't posted yet, maybe he will now.

 

[necchi]

It makes no sense to sell the stock and salvage the rare .45cal T/C 1:66" RB barrel for the future because it’s a caplock and I won't use it;

DIBB'S! I Got 1st DIBB's!! :blah: Just look up there (^) I got first DIBB'S!

Besides, Do you guy's have any Idea how long I had to hold down the backspace key just to get all the,
"mushy emotional stuff", out of his last post just to get the "good part" to read right?

 

[roundball]

You should have just used 'highlight & delete'
:wink:

 

[texcl]

I've sold all my caplocks but 2 my old hawken that my Dad bought for me when I was a kid, that hawken started it all, and my old NSSA enfield that is so accurate and has so many memories I can't bring myself to sell it. I do let friends borrow them. They are alot easier for them to get used to, being caplocks and all.