Good day everyone.
Wall of text ahead!
As some of you know I was looking a while back for an affordable fowler to enter the world of flintlock shooting and get into rev war reenactment. After asking around, a few members suggested I contact Jackie Brown as he makes a decent product at an affordable price.
Well I shot him an email on May 18th and he got back to me the same evening.
I basically explained that I was in the market for a 28 gauge fowler that wouldn't break the bank. I showed him a couple of images of things I liked from Track of the Wolf and he said he would be happy to make what I wanted and would do it for $800 shipped to my door and it would be done in about 3 weeks.
"Hmmmmm." :hmm: methinks to myself. "Three weeks is an AWFUL short time for a build..."
Knowing from many accounts of other people who have done business with Jackie that this was likely a gross understatement of the time it will take I figured what the heck. I sent a $250 down payment along with a few bits of double-checking that he knows exactly what I want and Jackie got to work.
A few weeks go by and I patiently wait. June 9th rolls around and, knowing full well that there is a 90% chance that my fowler is not done, I send Jackie an email just to check up on things and reaffirm that he had my shipping address (as I wasn't sure I had sent it to him the first time.)
Jackie very pleasantly informs he he got the address and that all is going well. A few delays but he has my barrel ordered and is picking it up that day. He expects to be finished by the weekend.
Great! I continue to wait patiently.
June 30th rolls around (two weekends later) and I shoot Jackie another very short quick email, if he had the time, for any news of the build and apologizing for asking so frequently.
Jackie responds a few days later apologizing for the delay in responding. He said there was a death in his sister's family and he was running behind. Should be out early next week.
I reply my condolences and thank him for again taking the time to reply.
July 16th rolls around (two weeks later) and I again send a brief email.
I'm feeling bad at this point because I'm feeling like I'm very impatient and every time I send him an email is time I'm taking away from his building of mine and potentially other guns. I knew from the get-go the time to build would be longer than his quote so I'm trying very hard to be as polite as possible lol.
Jackie responds promptly that he had to rebuild a broken gun that came back to him. Mine is almost done and wont be long.
A giddy feeling wells up inside of me :grin:
The next day Jackie emails me again:
Jackie provides three pictures:
OoOoOoH! I was so giddy and excited at this poi.... wait a minute.... whats that on the stock.... and why is the trigger guard like that.... and why is the fittings all iron in stead of brass...
That is a smooth rifle.... This is nothing like what I requested!
Franticly I type an email up and send it to Jackie explaining that this was not at all what I had requested and re-sending the details and pictures of what I originally sent and wanted.
I'm sweating bullets in this point thinking this is going to add tons of time to my build with him having to essentially redo everything.
A few emails back and forth of him apologizing and me finding more stuff wrong that I hadn't picked up on in my haste to get an email to him as quick as possibly with the errors and Jackie basically says he made a mistake and will fix everything. He "fell asleep mid stream" as he put it.
No problem here - he will fix it up as I requested and no harm no foul.
July 21st rolls around and Jackie sends me another email with the proper fowler and says he will have it done in a day or two.
Come July 27th and Jackie sends me another email saying that everything is done but he had an unexpected trip come up and he would have the gun shipped out by the following tuesday.
Unfortunately that same evening that I read that email I had the pleasure of driving by a construction zone that someone had so generously decided to pour nails and assorted other debris across the road. It was pitch black (no street lights at this part) and I didn't stand a chance of seeing the minefield letalone avoid it. I lost all four tires that night.
I promptly emailed Jackie of my woes and told him to hold of shipping as I had to dip into my saved money for the fowler to get new tires. No tires, no work, no money. Tires had to come first regardless of how excited I was and there was no way I could expect him to ship without being paid.
Jackie had no issue with that and come August 4th I had sent off the rest of the money to Jackie.
August 7th Jackie shipped my fowler and August 9th it arrived (I was away in Gettysburg with my girlfriend though so I had to wait to enjoy it. The excitement was palpable. :shocked2: )
Yesterday I had the joy of unboxing it and despite his packing method of billions of tiny shredded paper I still managed to not make a TOTAL mess of my house in my excitement to tear it out of there and fondle it.
Here is what I got!
I couldn't be more happy with it.
Despite the extended wait time (which I knew going into it that his "quote" was *ahem* a bit of a stretch) I am happy as can be with the final product. Jackie was friendly and prompt with his responses and when he did make a mistake it was no issue for him to make it right immediately and without fuss.
42 inch barrel length and it is nice a light with just enough heft at the end of the barrel to make follow-through smooth and natural without even trying.
The only thing that was not as I requested was the caliber.
I requested 28 gauge and when I just measured it today the bore measures about 5/8ths of an inch with my calipers.
So now, being that I am a complete neophyte at this - I would like to request of anyone their loading recommendations and any other bits of knowledge that you feel may be handy for new-comers to the hobby.
Wall of text ahead!
As some of you know I was looking a while back for an affordable fowler to enter the world of flintlock shooting and get into rev war reenactment. After asking around, a few members suggested I contact Jackie Brown as he makes a decent product at an affordable price.
Well I shot him an email on May 18th and he got back to me the same evening.
I basically explained that I was in the market for a 28 gauge fowler that wouldn't break the bank. I showed him a couple of images of things I liked from Track of the Wolf and he said he would be happy to make what I wanted and would do it for $800 shipped to my door and it would be done in about 3 weeks.
"Hmmmmm." :hmm: methinks to myself. "Three weeks is an AWFUL short time for a build..."
Knowing from many accounts of other people who have done business with Jackie that this was likely a gross understatement of the time it will take I figured what the heck. I sent a $250 down payment along with a few bits of double-checking that he knows exactly what I want and Jackie got to work.
A few weeks go by and I patiently wait. June 9th rolls around and, knowing full well that there is a 90% chance that my fowler is not done, I send Jackie an email just to check up on things and reaffirm that he had my shipping address (as I wasn't sure I had sent it to him the first time.)
Jackie very pleasantly informs he he got the address and that all is going well. A few delays but he has my barrel ordered and is picking it up that day. He expects to be finished by the weekend.
Great! I continue to wait patiently.
June 30th rolls around (two weekends later) and I shoot Jackie another very short quick email, if he had the time, for any news of the build and apologizing for asking so frequently.
Jackie responds a few days later apologizing for the delay in responding. He said there was a death in his sister's family and he was running behind. Should be out early next week.
I reply my condolences and thank him for again taking the time to reply.
July 16th rolls around (two weeks later) and I again send a brief email.
I'm feeling bad at this point because I'm feeling like I'm very impatient and every time I send him an email is time I'm taking away from his building of mine and potentially other guns. I knew from the get-go the time to build would be longer than his quote so I'm trying very hard to be as polite as possible lol.
Jackie responds promptly that he had to rebuild a broken gun that came back to him. Mine is almost done and wont be long.
A giddy feeling wells up inside of me :grin:
The next day Jackie emails me again:
Jackie provides three pictures:
OoOoOoH! I was so giddy and excited at this poi.... wait a minute.... whats that on the stock.... and why is the trigger guard like that.... and why is the fittings all iron in stead of brass...
That is a smooth rifle.... This is nothing like what I requested!
Franticly I type an email up and send it to Jackie explaining that this was not at all what I had requested and re-sending the details and pictures of what I originally sent and wanted.
I'm sweating bullets in this point thinking this is going to add tons of time to my build with him having to essentially redo everything.
A few emails back and forth of him apologizing and me finding more stuff wrong that I hadn't picked up on in my haste to get an email to him as quick as possibly with the errors and Jackie basically says he made a mistake and will fix everything. He "fell asleep mid stream" as he put it.
No problem here - he will fix it up as I requested and no harm no foul.
July 21st rolls around and Jackie sends me another email with the proper fowler and says he will have it done in a day or two.
Come July 27th and Jackie sends me another email saying that everything is done but he had an unexpected trip come up and he would have the gun shipped out by the following tuesday.
Unfortunately that same evening that I read that email I had the pleasure of driving by a construction zone that someone had so generously decided to pour nails and assorted other debris across the road. It was pitch black (no street lights at this part) and I didn't stand a chance of seeing the minefield letalone avoid it. I lost all four tires that night.
I promptly emailed Jackie of my woes and told him to hold of shipping as I had to dip into my saved money for the fowler to get new tires. No tires, no work, no money. Tires had to come first regardless of how excited I was and there was no way I could expect him to ship without being paid.
Jackie had no issue with that and come August 4th I had sent off the rest of the money to Jackie.
August 7th Jackie shipped my fowler and August 9th it arrived (I was away in Gettysburg with my girlfriend though so I had to wait to enjoy it. The excitement was palpable. :shocked2: )
Yesterday I had the joy of unboxing it and despite his packing method of billions of tiny shredded paper I still managed to not make a TOTAL mess of my house in my excitement to tear it out of there and fondle it.
Here is what I got!
I couldn't be more happy with it.
Despite the extended wait time (which I knew going into it that his "quote" was *ahem* a bit of a stretch) I am happy as can be with the final product. Jackie was friendly and prompt with his responses and when he did make a mistake it was no issue for him to make it right immediately and without fuss.
42 inch barrel length and it is nice a light with just enough heft at the end of the barrel to make follow-through smooth and natural without even trying.
The only thing that was not as I requested was the caliber.
I requested 28 gauge and when I just measured it today the bore measures about 5/8ths of an inch with my calipers.
So now, being that I am a complete neophyte at this - I would like to request of anyone their loading recommendations and any other bits of knowledge that you feel may be handy for new-comers to the hobby.
