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Licespray

32 Cal
Joined
Mar 11, 2020
Messages
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Post em up! Would love to see some “mule ear” guns, both new and old.
I see you can buy a modern lock.
 
Always been a fan of the obscure, the mule ear muzzle loader is at the top of the list.
I don't have one, my friend has several, mostly single barrel shotguns, but a couple rifles. All modern.
He has the mule ear lock molds that belonged to Bill Mowrey.
He says there's a flaw in the design; I've begged him to let me buy/ borrow the molds to cast up a bunch of locks... no dice.
I guess I'll have to buy a lock and get it started.
 
I have a Pioneer Arms mule ear lock that I substitute on my Lyman Great Plains flintlock. The lock is very fast, and has helped me to win quite a few BP matches back when my eyes were sharper. I bought it as a back up lock for the GP in case real black powder became unavailable.
 
Muley.jpg
My Muley.jpg
MM4.jpg


There Ya go!! Two of my locks and my "Miss Muley"

Respect Always
Metalshaper/Jonathan
 
Howard,

the left handed lock was made by my friend Marlow Westerbeck. he's a member here. His posts are MRW.
I've never made a lefty, but they shouldn't be that much different ?? the problem is fitting it to your lock mortise.
I have no measurements or such relating to a Lyman.. all of my side slappers are homemade and then the gun built
around them..

Respect Always
Jonathan
 
Dag,
Marlow needs an adjudication to post his own pictures. When the virus clears, we need to get together. Friend Wade has been scraping together some underhammers. Be good to see some comparisons. Simple locks, work well.
Justplaindick
 
JPD,

his interwebs is working very slow these days.. He tried and finally emailed them to my phone, that way I could show his locks.
Yeah underhammers can be very simple,, or hard ( if I make them :doh: )

It'd be fun to get together, once the world starts rotating again!!!

Respect Always
Dag
 
Thanks guys! I really like the look of mule ears, didn’t realise they had a following :) glad to see it though. I’d like to make one in .40 as a hare/fox gun. One day!
 
Howard,

the left handed lock was made by my friend Marlow Westerbeck. he's a member here. His posts are MRW.
I've never made a lefty, but they shouldn't be that much different ?? the problem is fitting it to your lock mortise.
I have no measurements or such relating to a Lyman.. all of my side slappers are homemade and then the gun built
around them..

Respect Always
Jonathan
Thanks Metalshaper. I'm kind of a roughneck metalworker myself, didn't generally do such fine work as this. Most of the time I did things like rebuild grapple Forks for stock people to feed their critters, or mount truck box hoists. I will contact him.
Squint
 
I met up with an older gentleman at the Red River Renegades monthly shoot. He invited me to come look at some guns he no longer used.

He had bought a 12 bore mule ear trap gun at Friendship several years ago. It has screw in chokes a vent rib and a recoil pad.
He didn't recall who he got it from, but i ended up taking it home.

I don't the mods to suffer heart failure so i'll just post pics of the mule ear lock.

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I have posted a few threads about recent mule ear builds here lately and will be posting another in a few days. I am finishing up a 32 caliber, walnut stocked rifle using the L&R mule ear lock. My next build is a left handed mule ear using a one of a kind mule ear lock that I recently found.
 
Im not sure if I have the skills to build one, but this one is pretty straight forward. Based on the number stamped on a few parts there are at least 13 other locks built by the maker.
Anyone have a clue as to the lock maker who built this?

I got invited back to break a few clays with it, but the high today is 108... gonna have to wait for a cool front.
 
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