HELP! What would YOU buy? (and why)

Well, Claven2, ulness you've got lots of money for buying flintlocks, I suppose that this is really too late ... but maybe you do have lots of excess cash, or will decide you want a left-hand flintlock after all ... or else there might be someone else out there looking for a good left-hand flint rifle.

Anyway, I was checking on Dixie Gun Worls' website, and see that they have a second-hand "lefty" .50 cal. Tennessee Mountain Rifle. That is a rifle they used to carry (but have apparently discontinued). My flinter is one of these (although a right-hand version) and it has an excellent lock and barrel - it shot right up with the best flinters, including custom-made rifles, that I came up against when i shot BP competitively. Very plain rifle with browned barrel and browned steel furniture (intentionally, since it was made to duplicate the very basic "poor boy" or working rifles of the southern back country.)

The other great thing about this design is that you can also get a percussion lock, with a drum and nipple arrangement which installs in the threaded touch-hole liner hole, to convert it to a percussion rifle in much the same fashion as original flintlocks were upgraded to flintlocks back in the early 1800's. (Just as easily converts back to flint whenever you want, of course. two rifles for not much more than the price of one.

The second-hand one Dixie has right now is offered at US$495 - described as in very good shape - and as a flintlock fits within the the US and Canadian definitions of "antique", so it should be exportable from the US and importable into Canada without a lot of hassle. (If you wanted to also get the percussion conversion set - which Dixie still carry, along with spare parts - then I presume that, as gun parts, that could also be acquired.

Here is the link to that particular rifle:
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=12734&osCsid=389d276944744b574ae378fdae1eeca8

Dixie also offer the kit form of this rifle - in flintlock, left-hand version only, so I assume that those are old stock ... mind you, the kit is US$575.00. so I'm not sure why one wouldn't just get the used rifle, if they still have it ... :rolleyes:
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=11597

Here is a composite image I happen to have kicking around, showing my rifle together with a picture of both the flint lock and the percussion lock in place .... (The cap box is an after-market ass-on by me ...)
tennmr06.jpg
 
You're too late! I have the AS flinter in-hand now ;) First impressions are it's not bad for the money, but not up to Pedersoli levels either. The backs of the brasses are not polished, for example. That being said, I have to look at it much closer - probably tomorrow when I have time and do a more thorough review. And then I still won;t know much till its test fired. More to follow.
 
OK, had a better look at the gun today. Some things to note if you plan to buy one of these. First off - not unlike the Pedersoli Kentucky rifle, this Armi Sport's hammer to frizzen distance is less than on a nice Siler or L&R lock.

In order for a flintlock to best fire, the flint needs to be positioned so that the chisel edge of the flint is between a paper's thickness and 1/16" from touching the frizzen when at half-####. Using Armi-Sport brand hand-knapped flints from Marstar, I could NOT achieve the desired placement. All flints were much too long, though correct width. With these flints the hammer at half-#### would leave the frizzen half-open with full contact. This is NOT good. For starters, sparking won't be optimum upon firing and if hunting, you would need the carry the rifle at full-#### else your pan charge would dribble out the side of the frizzen.

I corrected this by knapping the backs of all my flints until they were about 19mm in length. This is the perfect flint length for the Armi Sport Kentuky rifle. It leaves about 1/32" space bewteen the chisel edge and the closed frizzen at half ####. The flint now also gives an optimum shower of sparks upon firing. Perfect.

If you don't want to knap the backs of your flints, however, find a place that sells shorter flints or buy another rifle.

Also, I had to slightly file the inside of the top hammer jaw hole as it was burred and was binding on the hammer flint retainer screw. An easy fix.

The only other complaints are that the rear lock screw and the tang screw are seized. I suspect dried oil or (I hope not!) locktite? Anyhow, I don't want to bugger the heads, so off to the gunsmith tomorrow as he has proper screwdrivers... lol...

For the money, so far I'm happy with the purchase and I'm a hard guy to please...
 
Well the gun came apart once my smith applied proper screwdrivers... The lock is of reasonable quality, but some cost-saving measures have been implemented as well. For example, the sear spring is just a straight leaf, not a better more expensive folded leaf. Also, the sear toggle assembly is a cast three-tooth afair, not a better toggle-link system, but it should still work OK. Many less expensive locks were made this way in antiquity and it should work fine. In other words, don't expect an L&R lock, it's more on a par with a Lyman lock I'd say.

In my case, however, there was a problem. The sear screw was cross-threaded and stripped. Obviously a factory QA/QC problem and as a reselt the sear is too lose and periodically the hammer falls the half-#### when the trigger is pulled. Not good.

Marstar, however, has been good about it - a new part is en-route to my gunsmith to be fixed free of charge. I could have got a new rifle out of it, but this one's grown on me, so I decided to opt for repair.

Here's the kicker - John S. came in person from Vankleek Hill to look at it! lol... (about a 45 minute drive to Ottawa for him) He promised to remedy the situation quickly and I believe him :)

Will advise on how it turns out.
 
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