Check out the August edition of Smithsonian.
There's an article on the Long rifle, its history and present day makers. It includes interviews with some of today's best makers including William Gusler (Master Gunsmith of Colonial Williamsburg), David Price, Frank House (who built the gun carried by Mel Gibson in Patriot) and Judson Brennan. Great photography accompanies this article including some shots of Smithsonian Curator Sarah Rittgers priming a flintlock (how do I get her job?).
There is one mistake in the captioning though. On Page 98, lower photograph, the two men who are "rifling grooves in a finished barrel" are actually reaming a barrel in anticipation of rifling it. A glimpse of the rifling machine is in the foreground of the same photograph.
Check it out.
There's an article on the Long rifle, its history and present day makers. It includes interviews with some of today's best makers including William Gusler (Master Gunsmith of Colonial Williamsburg), David Price, Frank House (who built the gun carried by Mel Gibson in Patriot) and Judson Brennan. Great photography accompanies this article including some shots of Smithsonian Curator Sarah Rittgers priming a flintlock (how do I get her job?).
There is one mistake in the captioning though. On Page 98, lower photograph, the two men who are "rifling grooves in a finished barrel" are actually reaming a barrel in anticipation of rifling it. A glimpse of the rifling machine is in the foreground of the same photograph.
Check it out.