[Gordon Frye]

I wanted to share a couple of nice little early-17th Century-style carbines that I have, made by Dale Shinn. They were made a good 30 years apart, but both show his wonderful workmanship and attention to detail. I though you folks might enjoy seeing them, even though the resolution of the photo's isn't very good, unfortunately.

The top one is a paddle-butt Dutch-style wheellock carbine that Dale made WAY back when for himself (I have a photo my sister-in-law took of him at a rendezvous carrying it in 1975...). I bought it from him some 20 years ago, but foolishly allowed a friend to beg me out of it. Finally got it back last year!

It's a .50" caliber, with a rifled barrel. The lock isn't exactly right, as Dale was experimenting with his "1630 Pistol" lock then, and it has a weird stirrup-bar inside the lock rather then the much more proper (and much more efficient) bicycle-style chain. But it works, so I'm not complaining! It's got a healthy barrel, and so ought to be able to take a pretty good sized charge with no problems. I've yet to fire it for a real accuracy test, but it shoots pretty well from my just messing around with it.

The lower carbine is more French-style (though both butt-types could be found in the Netherlands or in France), but fitted with a French-lock, rather than the wheellock of the upper carbine. But as you can tell, stylistically it's still shaped like a wheellock, with the belly in both the lockplate and the stock itself. It's an archaic-style French-lock, an early form of the "true" Flintlock, modeled after several in the Visser Collection in the Netherlands.

I commissioned Dale to make this little carbine for my wife, so that she would have a nice little carbine to carry while we rode and did reenactments together. It's VERY light, with a .62" caliber barrel (20-gauge). She can hold it up and fire it with one hand if need be, though it is designed to be fired from the shoulder. It takes a .600" round ball, with a light charge of about 50 grains (pretty much a heavy pistol load). Nice, serviceable little carbine!

Here are the particulars:

Wheellock Carbine:
Over-all length: 44&1/2"
Barrel length: 28"
Caliber: .50"
Weight: 7&1/2 pounds

Flintlock Carbine:
Over-all length: 40&3/4"
Barrel lengh: 26&1/8th"
Weight: 5 pounds

Sorry for the poor quality of the photo's, but I'll try to get some better pictues up one of these days, Hopefully these will suffice for now..

Cheers!

Gordon

[Martin Wilkinson]

Very pretty.

Rifled barrel?

I didn't think rifling was invented til the late 18th century?

But i may be wrong...

[Gordon Frye]

Actually, Rifling goes back quite a ways in firearms. There is extant an arquebus which is supposed to have belonged to the Kaiser Maximillian, from around 1500, which is rifled. And there are fully developed hunting rifles from the 1540's still existing, as well. However, such rifled pieces were definitely in the minority.

The main reason though that the wheellock carbine has a rifled barrel is that it was what Dale had at hand when he was making up the piece. And "Carabine", btw, in French generally means a rifle.

Cheers!

Gordon

Below is a pic of the Maximillian rifle.

[Jean Thibodeau]

If I remember correctly some very early rifling was actually strait and was meant firstly as a place for fouling to accumulate in the barrel and permit a few more shots before cleaning.

At some point someone started making these spiral and the increased accuracy was noticed ?

It may also be that some spiral rifling was done from the very beginning and the trait rifling happened through a lack of understanding of why it was a good things for the projectile to spin.

Could be a bit of both theories being true ? A lot of later concepts like revolving chambers and breachloading were experimented with, with varying degrees of success.

Nice carbines by the way.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Great carbines, both of them. I like the upper one better, though, since a worn and weathered look tends to have a strange appeal to me when it comes to weapons.

Is the second carbine rifled too, BTW?

[Gordon Frye]

Jean;

As I recall, there were "rifled" arrows and bolts, too (the fletchings were set to put a spin on the shafts as they flew through the air), so the concept was known for a long time. But there is the whole thing about some early "rifles" having straight rifling, which is kind of odd, and probably as you suggest, to collect fouling.

Lafayette;

Thanks, and sorry, I forgot to mention that the lower carbine is a smooth-bore. It also has a VERY thin barrel, thus accounting for the very light weight.

I have to admit that I like the old wheellock carbine better myself, but that's a good thing, since I had the little flinlock made for my wife, after all. Or at least that's what I told her...

Cheers!

Gordon

[Chris Last]

Very nice pieces Gordon! I've always loved the Dutch style paddlebutt. Its not something you see very often in reproductions.

[Gordon Frye]

[Hugh Fuller]

Very nice, Gordon, very nice, indeed.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Paddlebutts certainly make great makeshift clubs when they've been discharged. Or makeshift paddles for punishing errant soldiers!

[Gordon Frye]

[Lin Robinson]

Gordon...

Very nice guns. I remember seeing some examples of Dale Shinn's work some time ago and being very impressed. I am glad to see that he is still active.

I think he is one of the few folks who can make a wheellock that will work more than a couple of times!

You are fortunate to have such nice firearms.

I have recently acquired a well-built replica of a 17th c. Scottish rifle. When I can find the time I am going to post more information about it. The maker is turning out some very attractive guns, including Scottish National pieces. He is very talented and dedicated to the work.

[Gordon Frye]

Thanks, Lin. Dale has made items for Jamestown (the state park, I'm not sure about the National Monument) and St. Marie's Citty, as well as for the Champlain Monument as well. Probably a bunch of others, too that I'm not aware of. Wheellocks, matchlocks, snaphaunces, English-locks, you name it, he's probably made it (or made a part for it). He's quite an artist indeed. I think the wildest thing I remember him doing though was re-converting a German rife, made probably around 1720, from percussion back to the original wheellock configuration. ( ) Somewhere down the like, someone decided that percussion was the way to go, converted their ancient wheellock over in a fairly workmanlike manner, and left the lockplate intact, more-or-less. Dale got to re-convert it back to wheellock by making a wheel, spindle, bridle, chain, etc. Pretty much all the internal parts. I wish that the owner had just wanted it with a new "original" lock, as it was a VERY interesting piece as is, but no, he had to have it back to "original", which is unfortunate. Still, very fun piece to check out.

I'd love to see photo's of your Scottish rifle, BTW! I know Dale has made a few of those, and they're pretty nifty, if a bit strange.

Cheers!

Gordon

[Lin Robinson]

Gordon...

I am working on a little piece for this site on the subject of 17th century Scottish long guns. That is a very limited subject as there are only 27 in existence. I may include some photos of my rifle in that piece or do a separate review. I think reviewing something like that, which is custom-made and quite unique, may not be of much use to anyone who comes here, given the scarcity of the guns. I am hopeful that the builder will continue his work(he says he will and is very talented). But right now it will be difficult for someone who wants one of these guns to get one in a reasonable amount of time. And I doubt that he is going to do this on a ful-time basis any time soon.

[Gordon Frye]

Lin;

I look forward to your article! Hopefully you'll have a number of photo's of both the original and your custom reproduction illustrating the article. It's a nifty subject, and deserves more acknowledgement.

Cheers!

Gordon

[Peter Bosman]

[Lin Robinson]

[Gordon Frye]

Lin;

Thanks. Yup, if I go to into town to the ferry in the summer time, I can see the cruise ships going by. My wife and I did that cruise about three years ago, too! I really enjoyed it, but luckily didn't gain too much weight on the trip...

Cheers!

Gordon