A Couple Interesting Flintlocks

[Spikebuck]

Last summer I visited the Cody Firearms Museum. Well worth the visit, especially considering this is just one of five attached museums in the complex. We spent an entire day and I could have easily spent that much time in the firearms museum alone!

Here are a couple of the more interesting flintlocks I found.

I don't know anything more about these than what the cards said, but if anyone else has more info on the mechanisms behind these, it would be interesting to learn more.

Mike

 

[bigburk]

The Cody Museum is awesome. Did you happen to visit the Dug Up Gun Museum there also? It was fun.

 

[Grumpa]

Can't say enough about the Cody Museum. Wife and I spent two days there, and felt like we were just scratching the surface. I spoke with a guard, who told me that they keep rotating items from storage, and that "you wouldn't have time enough to see it all."

We spent one night at the Irma Hotel, and ate all week in the old saloon with the amazing hand carved bar presented to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria. Pretty much had the bar to ourselves, everyone else was in the new room next door.

Also, nearby Old Trail Town is well worth a visit, actual historic sites that have been transplanted from all over Wyoming...the "Old West", and displayed without any hullabaloo.

Richard/Grumpa

PS: That Tirolean Flintlock would have been something to have around here during the French and Indian War! Thank you, for sharing.

 

[Grumpa]

Not clear from the info card, I wonder if the lock was self priming?

Presumably, the mechanical advantage of the rotating trigger guard seated the ball into the rifling.

Fascinating. Thanks again.

Richard/Grumpa

 

[Spikebuck]

Not clear from the info card, I wonder if the lock was self priming?

Presumably, the mechanical advantage of the rotating trigger guard seated the ball into the rifling.

Fascinating. Thanks again.

Richard/Grumpa

On the Triolean I am assuming that rotating the trigger guard would first open the breech, then it would force a ball to a certain location forward in the barrel, then it would load the powder without having a gap between it and the ball, then close the breech at the end of the rotation. Then the shooter would have to prime and fire. So the huge advantage is that instead of taking the time to load from the muzzle, in one turn of the trigger guard, it's loaded and ready to prime and fire. And it held 20 shots worth of ball and powder.

The thing I'm really interested in is on the Belton how the pan is connected to the front of the paper cartridge that contains the 8 balls and charges. One lights a roman candle from the front, not the back. I'm assuming somehow the fire is moving up to the front charge so that it shoots the front ball out first and it's somehow a chain reaction going down the load. I wish they would have had some cross section diagram of the rifle's inner workings as well as what the pre-loaded paper cartridge looked like.

When shotgun deer season starts around here, it sounds like everyone is lighting off a Belton! :shocked2: :rotf:

 

[Spiridonov12]

Last summer I visited the Cody Firearms Museum. Well worth the visit, especially considering this is just one of five attached museums in the complex. We spent an entire day and I could have easily spent that much time in the firearms museum alone!

Here are a couple of the more interesting flintlocks I found.

I don't know anything more about these than what the cards said, but if anyone else has more info on the mechanisms behind these, it would be interesting to learn more.

Mike

Hello, Dear Spikebuck! Do You have another phtos of Dorttloff rifle?

 

[toot]

never been to it but it is on my BUCKET LIST!!.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
The Austrian gun probably uses the auto loading mechanism invented by the Kalthoff family of gunsmiths. Their flintlock repeaters actually armed some Danish guardsmen. The problem with it, like all such mechanisms during the pre-metal cartridge and black powder days is that fouling jammed it and wear made it unsafe. The Belton gun was one of his earlier inventions although he did not invent superimposed charges. Later, he invented a similar gun but with a sliding lock so that each charge could be fired separately having separate vent holes. He actually sold a carbine model of that gun to the EIC. Unfortunately, none of these superimposed charge guns were safe, they were slow to load, and they were expensive to make. All of those features ruled them out as military guns.

dave

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Not clear from the info card, I wonder if the lock was self priming?

That's an interesting question.
Since we're looking at odd flinters, I wonder if the first one would be excluded from a muzzle loading hunting season because it's loaded from the breech.
I also wonder if the hand-crank on the trigger guard was the inspiration for the Ferguson Rifle?

LD

 

[stubshaft]

That's an interesting question.
Since we're looking at odd flinters, I wonder if the first one would be excluded from a muzzle loading hunting season because it's loaded from the breech.
I also wonder if the hand-crank on the trigger guard was the inspiration for the Ferguson Rifle?

LD

There are single shot breech loaders that use modified shells to convert them to "muzzleloaders" and they are legal in most states.

 

[Cowboy]

When I was in high school I worked there as an evening janitor. That’s how I earned my money so we could then chase tourist chick’s in Yellowstone back in the day!

Of course it wasn’t then like it is now. My father owned a Plumbing and Heating company and had put all the plumbing and heating/air in that museum. Back then, nothing was displayed in glass cases. Everything was roped off so ya couldn’t touch or handle the artifacts on display. Totally a different story now!

I had access to the main vault room in the basement area of the museum where they stored artifacts that were not on display. They would rotate items periodically so there would be somethings new for tourists who liked to visit each time they came to Cody. I had handled my share of Hawken Rifle’s back in the day. The unfortunate thing at the time in my young life was that I really didn’t appreciate or know what was in my hands?

Respectfully, Cowboy

 

[Loyalist Dave]

There are single shot breech loaders that use modified shells to convert them to "muzzleloaders" and they are legal in most states.

Yes, thank you, I know, but I'm not talking about modern, converted guns, right?

LD

 

[nuttbush]

Beautiful museum and town. So many guns and not enough time. All parts of the museum were fascinating to me. I spent a lot of time looking at the display of Hawken rifles and guns of the cowboy, or Western era. Any American history, and or, firearms fanatic should visit there. I want to go the the Cowboy museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma also.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Here is a Kalthoff (oddly similar) repeating firelock rifle.

http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-kalthoff-repeater.html