Hatfield rifle

I have a Hatfield Pennsylvania style flintlock rifle in .50 caliber. It has a three digit serial number. Hatfield has been out of business for a few years and I can find nothing about this rifle. Does anyone know anything about Hatfield rifles, especially the early ones? Mine appears to be well made of quality parts and it seems to shoot well, at leat as well as I can shoot. Early Hatfield....good or bad? What can anyone tell me about them? :hmm: :thumbsup:

The Pedersoli made "Frontier rifle" and Blue Ridge rifles look exactly like the Hatfield and I've heard that all parts, locks and barrels will interchange but I don't know if there is any connection.

I think you should find the Hatfield story in the archives
as it's been discussed several times previously.

From what I've read from previous posts:

Early Hatfield = Good
Late Hatfield = BAD

I have never actually seen one, though.

I bought/owned/shot a used .45 caplock Hatfield, back in the late 1970's, and thought it well-made & accurate, too.

I only gave it up, when I decided to move up to a larger bore.

I've never ran across a "bad" Hatfield, however - (and FWIW) there'e one F/S in a local funshop at some pretty steep money IMHO ($1200)

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I have a 45 cal hatfield.I spoke to the owner of Deer Creek products in Waldron Ind.He said some were made in his shop in Ind.the rest in Italy by pedersoli.Depends on what was written on the sidelock as to where.Griz

Also the one's made at his shop were around 1970.His ph.# is 765-525-6181 if you want more info.Griz

From the examples that have come through my shop the Hatfield appears to be a good reliable arm. The main difficiency I have found with them is that the cock is usually slightly misaligned with the frizzen and the gooseneck needs to be reshaped.
I am currently using a Hatfield barrel and lock in making my wife a new .50 longrifle.

Toomuch
..........
Shoot Flint

"
I have a 45 cal hatfield.I spoke to the owner of Deer Creek products in Waldron Ind.He said some were made in his shop in Ind'

I had one of these guns when the company went by Wilderness Rifle Works in the early 90's they had Douglas barrels as I recall,they got to the place that they cost more than they were worth to most people.

The orignal Hatfield was made in St Joseph Mo.
google hatfield rifles and you will find lots of info

Hatfield rifles were made in by the Missouri Rifle Works in St.Joseph MO, these had Douglas barrels, L&R locks. :thumbsup:

There are many imitations out there made in Italy.
:idunno: I had bought one, one that was supposedly made in the USA, :bull: untill I found the Italian proof marks on the barrel then I got my money refunded. Some of these supposedly Hatfield rifles had Hatfield on the lock. The finish on the stock was very shiny, it looked like fake wood. :dead:

You can look on the barrel for the proof marks to see if it's Italian made.

sixbull

Below is a site dedicated to these guns the bottom one is the last American version from WRW (Deer Creek) that I had owned,they were not called Hatfields, but Cumberlands.... I think
http://www.100megspop3.com/oldvalkyry/hatfield.html

In 1989 I ordered a hatfield flintlock from cabelas. This was my first flintlock. It was a beautiful rifle, I had a lot of problems with hangfires and this could have been operator error because I could not find much written on the subject and didn't know anyone who used one to show me. I did manage to kill a nice doe with it that year. Sone time after that it got to where it would not cock. I examined the lock and noticed the sear had chipped away at the contact point. I contacted Cabelas for information on where I could purchase a new sear. The told me to ship the rifle back and they would replace it.I explained that it was out of warranty. They checked the records and it was 2 months out of warranty but they told me they would replace it anyway.I shipped it back and they contacted me and explained that the flintlocks were out of stock and asked if percussion would be ok. I said yes.

I still have that rifle but a couple of years ago I converted it to flint. I used a Pedersoli Blueridge lock.

As for the rifle itself It is accurate and shoots really well. There are a few things that I dont like. It has a hard trigger pull when unset. Also the trggerguard was too small for double set triggers. This cost me two deer when my finger touched the trigger setting the rifle off pre-maturley. I have since replaced the triggerguard with one with more room.

With these modifications I now enjoy shooting and hunting with this rifle.

One other thing, Cabelas made a friend when they honored the warranty even though they did not have to.