New Gun day!

 A guy from the rod and gun club I shoot at died and his collection recently went to auction. I'd never been to a gun auction before and because of COVID this one was 100% online so I figured I'd watch.

Item #850 was listed as a "Fusil de Chasse" or "Gun of the Hunt". Flintlock, 20ga, whats not to love? I tossed a bid on it and waited. The auction started at 9am, the gun came up around 6pm, the auction ended around 7pm. One auctioneer with strong vocal cords and a bladder made of stone...

Along the way I tossed bids at a couple other things, a few Browning Auto 5s including a rare 20ga. A couple Berreta semi-auto shotguns including one in 10ga. I didn't bid on a Remington pump rifle in .35 Remington and immediately regretted it when the gun went cheap.

Then I got caught up and accidentally bought a Smith and Wesson semi-auto shotgun. Oops, auction excitement can get anybody. That one, being a modern gun, has to go through the FFL process so I'm still waiting on it. The flintlock arrived the other day.

I don't think its actually a Fusil de Chasse, the stock on those generally has a huge drop to heel, and only one barrel ring. This has a squared off stock and two barrel rings.

The Lott lock is normally associated with English Trade guns. Combined with the stock and barrel I'm thinking this is an English Trade gun and in fact looks an awful lot like a Track of the Wolf kit gun.

I don't think its ever been shot, there isn't any soot or discoloration like you'd expect on a gun thats seen black powder.

The barrel almost certainly started its life as a piece of thick wall pipe and was machined down. At the muzzle end they left quite a sharp edge around the outside of the barrel. Its octagon at the breech and transitions to round partway down, the flats all have machining marks. I haven't decided yet if I should polish them out or leave it as is.

So anyway I paid significantly less than the price of a Track of the Wolf kit for a gun already assembled. These Lott locks don't have a great reputation but this one throws a nice shower of sparks with just about any flint I put in it. I'm pretty happy overall. I've ordered some .600 round balls (20ga is .62) and some 20ga wads, it'll be fun finding out what it takes to make it shoot.

New Rifle!

I was surprised to find that my last post (Time for a new rifle) was very controversial. Apparently lots of folks thought I just don't know how to load my gun or how to use it. It was interesting to note that none of the "experts" had any experience what so ever with a CVA Buckhorn but thats how it goes.

Anyway last week we attended The Ancient Ones of Maine show in Augusta, Maine, I went with the intention of bringing home a side lock gun, preferably in .54 with a preference for a Thompson Center model.

As you can see in the picture I ended up with a TC Renegade in .54. The bores perfect, the wood is good although if you look just behind the barrel wedge you can see where somebody must have clamped it in a vice and squeezed it. It doesn't detract from the functionality of the gun and theres lots of meat in the stock, I could potentially sand/file the mark out.

So just a quick update for now, I also scored several hundred conical bullets, a couple boxes of the excellent Hornady Great Plains bullets in .50 and a large box of .54 bullets of some unknown manufacture, probably home cast but they look good and the price was very good. I'll let you know more when I get a chance to shoot it.