Loyalist Arms VS Military Heritage

Just wondering your opinions and experinces with the two different distributors. In particluar the flint firearms they both sell ie., Brown Bess.

They make good guns, and I would hate to spark the India-made musket discussion for the three hundredth time. Overall, I think they are great, and many people agree with me. The lines on some of their wood to metal fittings can be crude, but nothing you can't fix with some time and handwork. They are VERY HEAVY muskets, be warned. They are not made with PC wood, but rather from Indian fruit woods. I like the fact that they make a large variety of muskets as well. If you are interested in these, try[url] www.middlesexvillagetrading.com[/url] ... they have an enormous selection (more than LA or MH) of cheaper, Indian made guns as well as provide you with a stall, flashguard, bayonet, and sling. Personally, with the rising costs of Pedersolis, if I were to buy a musket, I would go with one from India. They fire well, and spark REAL WELL, but be ready to carry a very heavy gun around. I'd go for it. :thumbsup:

:grin:
Well I have dealt with both companys..
EVERYTHING I have purchased from mil heritage has to have work done to locks / timing / frizzen polishing / fit of fixtures to stock, trying to get some one on the phone can be madening and returns.....lets not even talk about it.

But have faith...Loyalist arms so far has not only fixed the lock that broke on my mil/heritage piece they then sold me a wonderful 1 st model bess kit from there "specials" section..it has more then 300 rounds through it! its not heavy but !!STOUT!!, it is something wonderful, if she was a woman!..

I guesss it all depends on you ...

But in my experience , loyalist arms has my vote so far with product and customer service.

But if military heritage has something you like and you dont mind paying full price for something just to have to service it after 5 shots, I did it 3 times, The pieces now "save for 1" function flawlessly. after far more work then what should have to be done to finished pieces. :snore: :yakyak:

"I mean no disrespect and please Pardon me but this is the truth according to my experiences so far"


Cheers!

Y2K,

I only ordered one gun from Military Heritage and the whole thing was a nightmare. To make a long story short: I never received the gun and they never returned my check when I asked for a refund. That was months ago. The check was never cashed. At least it never showed up on my statement.

If it were me I would take Hangfeyer's advice and check out Middlesex Village; that's where my next order is going.

Good luck to ya'!

Dryball

To make a long story short: I never received the gun and they never returned my check when I asked for a refund. That was months ago. The check was never cashed. At least it never showed up on my statement.

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did ya stop payment on that check if ya are having trouble getting a refund back from them and never received the gun :v .........bob

Would recommend either Loyalist Armes or Middlesex village Trading Co. Both seem to sell a good product that they stand behind. MH is a good place to go and look at color pictures!

The main "plus" with Loyalist Arms is that they buy the components from India, and assemble the guns in their own shop, resulting in better testing and quality control on the finished product. The other outfits purchase built guns from India....

i have bought a few arms from mvt and have been pleased with all of them ,and there service is great if you have a problem pete can and will take care of it .all the locks are garunteed for life so this is a big plus to me. i just received my last purchase on friday a little brass,bbl blunderbuss and it fantastic i would rate mvt at the top of the list . :bow: just my opinion :winking:

I have the 1756 Long Land Pattern from Middlesex Village and I'm very happy with it. It sparks very well and I haven't any misfires yet. The springs are a bit on the heavy side, but not something you can't get used to pretty quickly. The service from MVTC was good, they kept in touch with me by email and called when the current shipment of muskets had arrived. They also told me about a local distributor who had one and I could get a few bucks knocked off and save shipping charges if I picked it up. Seems like a good company to me. They also include a bayonet, hammer stall, flash guard, and sling with the musket.

Don R

I dont have one but what my shooting bud said his M S V rifle had been very well tuned, I know it always throws sparks and goes Ka Boom :rotf: and thats what Id get not seeing the others, I did call about the Baker a year backand knife :rotf: on the end they didnt have them made at the time and some nice lady told me it took a few weks extra for him to go thru each one sold so I woulnt have any mess up's if that helps. Fred :hatsoff:

i have one from MH, and am not impressed with it. it has low spots in the bbl, like the fellow running the lathe building the bbl fell asleep or something. i have not shot it yet, and am not sure if i will

MaxPower said:

i have one from MH, and am not impressed with it. it has low spots in the bbl, like the fellow running the lathe building the bbl fell asleep or something. i have not shot it yet, and am not sure if i will

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I seen this Bess from MH and that is why I`m concerned . I hope Loyalist has better standards.

So far I`ve heard nothing good about MH, and not one word against Loyalist :thumbsup:

I have no personal experience with Military Heritage muskets. I do know they sell them without the touch hole drilled. You have to drill it once you receive the musket and, to me, that would raise some warranty questions. Would they honor any warranty after the musket has been modified. Loyalist and Middlesex sell their muskets ready to fire. No modifications are required.

Don R

Y2K said:

So far I`ve heard nothing good about MH, and not one word against Loyalist :thumbsup:

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Not a dealbreaker, but a pain. Have a look at what happened to me:
--------->Click here

fOR MORE YA MIGHT WANT TO CK "SEA SERVICE" ON THIS SAME SITE END OF PAGE 2 RIGHT NOW. fRED :hatsoff:

OK, I'll be the lone dissenter here. I bought my musket from MH, and am very pleased with it. It looks (and for the most part fires) better than most muskets on the field at events, and has been a great gun. The service was good and the musket arrived in a timely manner. Yes, I had to drill the touchhole, but that didn't void any warranty claim.

I redid the stock finish to make it more personal, and it was a piece of cake. When I buy another musket, it'll be from them.

I've seen and fired the muskets from the other companies, and they are generally clunky feeling and heavy. I'll stick with this one, and you simply cannot beat that price. Does it have any problems? Sure, as I've posted before, the lock mainspring and frizzen spring are bears, but show me a mass produced musket that is problem-free for that price and I'll recant.

Sorry, but I like the MH musket.

KrasnayaZnamya said:

OK, I'll be the lone dissenter here. I bought my musket from MH, and am very pleased with it. ...

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Your experience is probably the norm, and mine likely unusual. Both MH & LA have a steady customer base. My experience probably won't prevent me from buying from LA again.

Interesting pseudonym: Red Banner (Krasnaya Znamya). I bet there's a story behind that.

I bought a MH 1777 Charleville and was amazed at the roughness of the piece, still had issues like saw marks at the muzzle. I sent it back.

I am on my 6th MVT musket and several from Loyalist- both of those companies stand by their muskets. I would not hesitate to buy from Loyalist or MVT.

Jim

Thought I’d add to this thread ”“ I remembered reading the thoughts and experiences of others with various providers of muskets.

My wife and I decided to buy a Brown Bess musket to give to our son. He’s a reenactor in a Rogers' Rangers group and up to now he has been using a Third Model Brown Bess - about as period correct as an M1 Garand. But he had just graduated from college and was getting married when he started reenacting, and his disposable income was pretty well disposed of. It was what he could afford. Fortunately, the fellows in his unit are very understanding and were okay with that Third Model. We browned it and he has used it for about three years. But it’s time for a change.

I ordered a 1742 version of a First Model Bess from Military Heritage, and thought I’d share my impressions of that musket with all of you. Over all, I’m satisfied with it, after some minor modifications. The musket weighs 10 pounds 6 ounces, and has a nice trigger pull, at 5 pounds 10 ounces. The wood is typical India “fruitwood” (teak?) but is a nice deep brown color, well laid out through the lock and wrist areas. The inletting is really pretty good ”“ not quite as good as a Pedersoli but close. Whether or not you’re a Pedersoli fan you have to admit that their wood to metal work is good. And this one is in the ballpark of that quality. And they even removed a small amount of wood behind the tang, leaving a gap about the thickness of a dime. There shouldn’t be any chipping out on top of the wrist as the barrel seats itself as it’s fired. The metal is the typical highly polished steel and brass. The lock is well made; very nicely finished inside.

The downside was the frizzen. Although hardened, the face was rough, causing a flint to really break up when the lock was sparked. And there was a lot of frizzen spring pressure, which didn’t help with flint life. So I took off the frizzen and changed it somewhat.

First, I ground the face smooth. Figured that I’d removed the casehardening because I was able to do the final smoothing by hand, with emery paper. And to correct the excess spring tension, I ground off part of the frizzen foot (removed quite a bit ”“ maybe the thickness of a nickel) and reshaped it more to my liking. And when I had the frizzen heated up to re-caseharden it I also bent it to more of a curve, to improve the flint striking action. Then I Kasenitted it, and re-installed it. Now it’s just fine. And don’t get me wrong, the lock worked and sparked just as it was shipped. But flints are expensive.

The only other thing that I changed was the stock finish. It had a lot of shine to it. I rubbed it with a paste of boiled linseed oil and pumice stone and now it’s good, at least in my opinion.

The bore measures .740 at the muzzle. I haven’t slugged it and probably won’t but an extremely tight-fitting patch goes down the barrel with very even pressure. Not scientific but I’m satisfied.

As you probably know, the barrel does not come vented. But they had punched it to mark the spot just right ”“ even with the top of the pan. I’ve yet to fire a proof load in it. The Dixie catalog lists 191 grains of powder and 765 grains of lead as a definitive proof for this size bore. I’ll fire it with cannon fuse. And I’m fortunate to have access to a welding shop that will scope it for me after I fire it.

It’s pretty dry right now here in Michigan, so we’ll wait until April or so then brown it. Sorry that I can’t post pictures ”“it’s really a handsome musket. But my computer skills are limited to two-fingered typing. Oh well.

It took 14 days from the time that I snail-mailed the order until delivery. There was a paperwork problem in Customs ”“ probably not that uncommon in our post-9/11 world ”“ but a man named Robert from Military Heritage advised me of it and took care of it.

Overall, I’m pleased with the quality and workmanship of this musket. And I’m pretty sure that our son will be pleased also.

sneezy

What a great father! Is he in the Jaeger battalion of Roger's Rangers? I saw them at Ft. Michilimackinac in August.
[url] http://www.elyfamily.com/michilimackinac[/url]/