Matchlocks!

M

MatthewVanitas

New member
Greetings all,
Does anyone here have any experience with matchlock black powder firearms? I've been fascinated by one of these ever since I saw one at a historical reenactment. If anyone has any experience shooting these, it'd be good to hear about it. I've only found one place that sells these, besides one or two expensive pieces in Dixie Gunworks' catalogue, so this sight bears some looking into, once I get far too much cash and free time...

http://www.albion-small-arms.freeserve.co.uk/home.htm

Pretty slick, no?

Take care all,
-LCpl Matthew Boris
 
The Rifle Shoppe (18420 East Hefner Road, Jones, OK, 73049, 405-396-2583 or fax 405-396-8450) supplies parts for those who would build their own. They feature an Early Matchlock Caliver, Right Hand Early Matchlock (and a left hand one), Late English Matchlock and a Dutch Matchlock. Write them for info as they are hard to reach on the phone.

Dale Shinn of Davis, CA also makes them entirely by hand (except for the barrel). He does good work (inlays, engraving) and the English Civil War Reenactors use his matchlocks. They even use them to parry blows from the (dulled) swords of their mounted opponents.

Suggest you try to find an English Civil War reenactor group and examine their matchlocks (and perhaps shoot one). We had a few show up at our last rendezvous in Livermore, CA.
 
Yeah, I fired one some years ago that a guy made. He used a commercial BP barrel and made the lock and other stuff himself.

Pretty nice recreation. He made a springlock matchlock, in that it had a very simple lock mechanism powered by a spring that snapped the cord down into the pan.

Otherwise, pretty much like any other blackpowder gun, except that you had to be really careful as you had a piece of burning cord around blackpowder.

------------------
Smith & Wesson is dead to me.

If you want a Smith & Wesson, buy USED!
 
Hi Corporal,

For fun, I tried "English Civil War" and got quite a few hits. As I am not an reeanctor (I'm a shooter), I can't recommmend one group over another. Suggest you try the same and then see if you can find one in your area. If you decide to buy a matchlock, it would be good to find a group that is 501(c)3 I.R.C. Any expenditure made towards that group (membership, gun) should be tax deductible. Yep, write off that matchlock!

Oh, the Rifle Shoppe will assemble it for you, but if you're handy with tools (chisels, rasps, shapers) you can build it yourself. My next project will be a black powder grenade launcher. Now I know why folks make tennis balls.
 
I personally have always been much more enthralled with flintlock rifles. I'm sure this has something to do with growing up around my Uncle, who is into 18th century
re-enactment.
 
I am a little puzzled by a reference to "snapping the match into the pan". On the matchlocks I have fired, the cock is connected to the trigger and the match is brought down as the trigger is pulled. When the match touches the powder (the pan cover usually has to be moved out of the way manually), the gun goes off. It seems to me that snapping the match down could put it out before the powder ignited or at least flatten it.

Jim
 
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