When did a LOT of the community switch to Flintlocks?

[Cruzatte]

Fess Parker, Walt Disney.....yeah I'm the right age. I even had a toy flintlock rifle for a little while. It wasn't until Foxfire V came out in the mid '70s that I realized there were people actually building and shooting flintlocks. In the early '80s I bought my first BP rifle, a Dixie Tennessee Mountain Rifle in .50 caliber. I had to have it because it was a flint lock. I figured if Simon Kenton and the real Daniel Boone learned to shoot behind the butt plate of a flint lock rifle, by golly, I could too.

So a few years later, a job change and a move to another town saw me joining a black powder club in the mid '80s. I think I may have been one of two members who shot flint. Here it is 30 and more years later, and percussion locks still outnumber flint locks. But flint locks aren't as scarce as they once were. And sometimes, some one who's a relatively new shooter will ask me (of all people!) for some shooting tips, because (I guess) I'm now one of the Old Graybeards who's always shot flint lock. "Gun won't go off? Ask Cruzatte. Maybe he can help you. His gun always seems to fire."

 

[Stumpkiller]

For me it was 1979 with a Dixie Gun Works .32 Tennessee Mountain Rifle. Though I never got very good ignition with it.

Pre-internet and info was scarce. Later I subscribed to Muzzleloader Magazine and that got me reinterested. I think that made a HUGE difference for getting people and producers together for flintlocks.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Just to put things in perspective....The majority still shoots percussion.

 

[AZbpBurner]

In the late 60's I began shooting original flintlocks an old gent would bring to the range. He had an extensive collection & he taught me how to load, prime & fire.

At the same time, my Dad was building a rifle with barrel, lock & parts from Golden Age Arms, in Worthington, Ohio. I wanted him to build a flintlock, since I already had a lot of experience with flint, but Dad opted for caplock, even though Golden Age had several different flint locks available & all Golden Age's showpiece rifles were flinters.

I satisfied myself with a Gallagher Carbine and also with a cap pistol, built to match Dad's Rifle.

Along the intervening years, I had opportunity to shoot flinters belonging to friends or other shooters at my range. My 2 muzzleloaders were caplocks, due to "good bargains" found at gunshows. I still would have preferred flint & finally a little over a dozen years ago I got my first flinter. It had plain beech or ash wood stock, some surface rust/pitting around the breech & touch hole, and the barrel was stamped "Made in Spain". Accuracy wasn't all that great & I found myself going back to the more accurate cap guns. I stripped the barrel, then browned it, polished up the brass, and tuned up the lock. It was flint, it was MY flint, but I couldn't match the superb accuracy of my other cap rifles. A guy at the range wouldn't leave me alone & wanted to buy it, so I finally gave him a really high price - over 4X what I paid for it & he couldn't get his wallet out fast enough - I think the shiney brass is what caught his eye. A few years later, I decided to get another flint & ordered a .50 cal flint GPR. It was lefthanded, which seems now odd to me, having had decades of experience with right hand models.

So, it took me about 40+ years to get my own flint rifle, after accumulating several decades of practical experience.

 

[B.Habermehl]

Back in 1978 I "built"my first muzzloading rifle a TC kit gun. In flintlock. Here in Pa we have a flintlock only deer season so we probably have more flintlock shooters here than anywhere else in the country. It started a long addiction to black powder that hasn't lost its hold yet. BJH

 

[simonbeans]

1970, day 1. Always thought those "P" guns would never catch on.