My blunderbuss options

So I got bitten by blunderbuss bug and shopping around for one. I don't know why but Pedersoli doesn't make any, Traditions blunderbuss kit looks like some sort of musical instrument and I really hate the way it looks. Rifle Shoppe got kit but it requires time and skill to put together. Indian made guns are not an option as well. What would you recommend?

TMV offers a kit. You could get someone to assemble it, or do it yourself!

Spend your money on something more worthwhile.
Here’s my take. It would be a fun project, then you shoot it once or twice, and voila! It becomes just a conversation piece, never to be used again.
Unless you spend most of your spare time protecting your carriage from highway men that is.
Sorry, just not a practical piece. IMHO!

Tho' there were some beautiful originals created back-in-the-day, that genre just never caught on with shooters I have known, Several repos have been attempted, but the mass-produced ones I've looked at were bloody awful. Better suited to 3rd grade "Thanksgiving Play" types than repelling boarders. European gunmakers turned out some beauties, but I've only seen them in museums and books. Good Luck!!

What's your flavor?

I briefly owned a doglock blunderbuss from India bought from Veterans Arms, but confess that just handling the thing and letting my imagination run with it was enough to get the virus under control.
To this day, I struggle to conceive how these were associated with the Plimoth Pilgrims. I would not be surprised if it was the work of one of the evil revisionists at Hallmark Cards.

A blunderbuss is pretty much useless. Sure, it might be fun to see the effective range of shot on tin cans. But then what are you going to do with it? Shoot more cans at close range?

Flintandsteel said:

Spend your money on something more worthwhile.
Here’s my take. It would be a fun project, then you shoot it once or twice, and voila! It becomes just a conversation piece, never to be used again.
Unless you spend most of your spare time protecting your carriage from highway men that is.
Sorry, just not a practical piece. IMHO!

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I already spend money on something worthwhile and did it few hundred times. Not buying my 1st, 10th or 100th long gun here ......
Just want something unusual and don't care if it's pointless. Think about residents of Manhattan buying Jeep Wrangler

IMHO I agree with the above post that once you get it the allure will leave. Unpractical to the nth degree (unless one frequents inner city bars, one would clear an inner city bar pretty effectively?). To each is own though, I just never wanted one. My wife always after me about my muzzleloaders and the one shot thing, yet she refuses to learn how to reload for me? Who can figure em?

My wife will reload for herself but not for me. Maybe if I refuse to clean her guns she might change her mind, I don't think so she's German.

If you want one, get one. If nothing else, they are great for firing 4th of July and new year’s salutes!

Look closely. The length of pull of the TVM blunderbuss kit is 13". If you want to shoulder fire it, make sure 13" is enough LOP for you. It was not for me.

ADK Bigfoot

Mgbruch said:

A blunderbuss is pretty much useless. Sure, it might be fun to see the effective range of shot on tin cans. But then what are you going to do with it? Shoot more cans at close range?

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I can hit at 10-12 yards in the kill zone on turkey targets with my blunderbuss.
Would work just fine as an up close and personal bird gun, just need to get over the lack of sights and shoot intuitively

I would look for an original, there are plenty out there that are affordable and great quality.

They’re often at auction in great condition

Better quality than the current replica junk that’s put out there or the trash builders here that claim to be experts on the subject matter.

https://www.proxibid.com/Guns-Milit...FLINTLOCK-BLUNDERBUSS/lotInformation/82980561

cynthialee said:

I can hit at 10-12 yards in the kill zone on turkey targets with my blunderbuss.
Would work just fine as an up close and personal bird gun, just need to get over the lack of sights and shoot intuitively

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Sam squanch said:

If you want one, get one. If nothing else, they are great for firing 4th of July and new year’s salutes!

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I would get on Bolek Maciaszczyk’s list, he’s in Poland, i would put him up there as the best builder alive for early snaphaunces, wheellocks and bludnerbuss’s. He does amazing work, you’ll find him on facebook.

Years back he built an early dog lock blunderbuss, all by scratch, no castings, no junk parts.


https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/wheel-lock-by-bolek-maciaszczyk.145051/

bornintheussr said:

Traditions blunderbuss kit looks like some sort of musical instrument and I really hate the way it looks.

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Hahaha! I see what you mean. Definitely a bit clarinet - ish. I actually quite like it.

Bigfoot, I had forgotten about the TVM kit. Long ago Jack Garner offered that sweet 14-inch .75 barrel and the barrel alone tempted me.
That kit looks like a real value if still available at those prices.

BillinOregon said:

I briefly owned a doglock blunderbuss from India bought from Veterans Arms, but confess that just handling the thing and letting my imagination run with it was enough to get the virus under control.
To this day, I struggle to conceive how these were associated with the Plimoth Pilgrims. I would not be surprised if it was the work of one of the evil revisionists at Hallmark Cards.

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It was Hollywood, Warner Brothers, Cartoon Division, in 1938. Seems the majority of pilgrim and blunderbuss images followed this cartoon.... so might not be the first image but was likely the one that spread the notion....

LD