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Traditions Blunderbuss Kit?

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Im thinking about getting a Tradtions’s Blunderbuss kit as just a cheap thing to have fun building.

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https://www.muzzle-loaders.com/traditions-blunderbuss-kit-54-caliber-percussion.html

Cheap enough and while it looks kind of cartoonish compared to a real Blunderbuss, I find it interesting and cool looking. Thoughts?
 
It looks cartoonish but no more so than the drawing of the Pilgrims holding their 5 ½ foot long blunderbuss's drawn on my Bible-school wall back when I was a kid.

Besides, this one can go BOOM!!!! That's got to be fun no matter how you look at it. :D
 
I’ve had my share of fantasy guns, if’n You want it get it and have fun with it. It ain’t a blunderbuss but if your not trying to get in to a juried event have fun.... have too much fun that’s ok.
Just a question, would a ‘real’blunderbuss kit be much more expensive?
 
I’ve had my share of fantasy guns, if’n You want it get it and have fun with it. It ain’t a blunderbuss but if your not trying to get in to a juried event have fun.... have too much fun that’s ok.
Just a question, would a ‘real’blunderbuss kit be much more expensive?

You could probably build one for about $800 to $1000.
 
Well looks like the elitists are out in force tonight.

Anyone have any USEFUL comments?
???? All the post I see encouraging you to get it and have fun with it..... what part was elitist?
You knew when you posted it was a fantasy gun, and most of us have had a lot of fantasy guns. If your not trying to pretend it’s a hc copy where’s the problem.
 
You could probably build one for about $800 to $1000.
Yeah I went shopping on line and that was the price range I found. The traditions is in the $350 range.
So if you just want a neat looking toy it’s a good buy. Would be fun to put together, hard to hunt with, but a ‘blast’ to shoot, and if you got tired of it you could trade it away at a none to strict rendezvous, or sell it at a gun-show for cost, and lose nothing
 
Well looks like the elitists are out in force tonight.

Anyone have any USEFUL comments?

You said yourself that it is "cartoonish," and it is that. I see folks agreeing with you, as well as a couple with thoughts on how to make it less so.
Cut the muzzle back to reduce that trumpet ball being the 1st one.
I'm thinking remove a LOT of wood at the end of the front stock and possibly enough wood off the stock/check piece area to get rid of that odd looking reverse cheek piece.
As a cheap kit, get it, and have fun with it. Both putting it together while trying to reduce caricature aspects, and, shooting it.



Oh, and of course, we want pictures and/or video of it being fired.
 
Well looks like the elitists are out in force tonight.

Anyone have any USEFUL comments?
Many are just being too practical....... worried about how to aim, convert to flint, remove the bell, etc. This isn’t a serious gun purchase that needs to be critiqued. It is not an investment and to think it is one, well, unless you are about 10 years old..... too much fun. Buy it and have both historically and period incorrect entertainment.

I have the ‘budget’ version (picked it up in an estate lot purchase) made by Mendi. 13-1/2” barrel (including the bell), percussion, grade 2 pallet wood, ‘24 Cal’ whatever that means (close to 26 gauge at .56” bore), etc. One thing I noticed in the pictures is the Traditions may be a two piece barrel with a seam near the bell. The only thing I would do to the one I have is shorten the length of pull, and may yet do that.

Ok, the gun is a blast to shoot. The kids, large and small seem to love it. I bring it out on the 4th or anytime there is crowd and need or want an obnoxious noise maker. Put balloons up a few feet in front of the kids, load 30/50 grains or so of whatever is ‘excess inventory’ powder under a cottonball, and enough ‘stuff’ comes out of the muzzle to pop balloons, make smoke and a big boom. The kids think they’re Captain Jack and line up to shoot it. Good chance to teach gun handling safety and introduce young (and old) to ‘traditional’ muzzleloading. Unfortunately, it is as close to it as many will ever get.

Before you try the above load, get clearance from the grounds crew. Brother in-law’s bride had a fit trying to keep up with cottonball fuzz and ballon fragments in her back yard.
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I’ve never shot a blunderbuss, but have seen them shot. The traditions blunderbuss looks too much like a toy to me, I wouldn’t buy it.

You could probably get a better flintlock blunderbuss or canoe gun.
 
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