Hey, Nathan! Do you/did you own the matchlock caliver or musket shown on the homepage? I don't remember ever seeing it in your collection photos, but I wonder if you'd share some photos here if you have some. I have a cheap Kentucky rifle barrel, and I think I'm up to the task of restocking it and converting it to match (for display only). I'd love to see details of a nice modern repro, and I suspect some of the other 17th c. afficionados around here might appreciate it, too. Thanks!

I wish I had more info for you. It was made by a man named Guy Charlebois in Quebec.

here is the only photo of it I have:

[ Linked Image ]

That helps a lot! Now I can see that beautiful stock. A very, very nice piece. Many thanks for that.

Nathan;

That matchlock looks great, and being also from Quebec it would make getting one "easy": No Canada Customs to worry about! By the way matchlocks, flintlock, and wheelocks are exempt from our gun laws and are "officially not considered to NOT be firearms. (I have no idea if U.S. weapons export laws also exempt these? importing through a gun dealer would take care of any import/export problems. Ordering directly from a custom maker in the U.S. might be easy or hard, haven't done any research about it.)

To get to the point : Does he take custom or regular orders or is he just a very talented hobbiest?

Can you give me/us contact information and an idea of how much such a piece would cost?

If you don't have any of this info I guess I will try a search on Google or something: Might find Guy Chalevois or some other local suppliers.

In any case thanks in advance.

Sorry Jean, like I said, I really have no other information. I'd be eager for you to give me any if you find anything out. Guy seems like a really excellent contact to have. His shop also makes cannons, other firearms, crossbows, and many other historic items.

I found only one ref to this guy, and it was just mentioning that he would be firing a cannon at some event. No site or contact info., as far as I can tell. However, I did find the following, unrelated page, and there are some nice pieces here:

http://sykesutler.home.att.net/musket1.htm

Not really related, but I saw an explosion involving one of these.

Years ago my wife and I were attending a Ren Faire in northern California. A party of Musketeers were shooting throughout the afternoon which was very hot. One gunner was priming his matchlock when the combined heat of the weapon and the weather turned his flask into a handgrenade. Thank goodness the flask was made from wood instead of metal. As it was he suffered some pretty serious burns as well as having half of his beard burned off. It was quite dramatic.

Considering how much blackpowder I used to shoot I'm surprised that I've never had anything like that happen to me.

Patrick;

Yeah, that was one of my compadres...we now make folks use the smaller priming flask that comes on the bandoliers. Less powder, plus it "pops" open when it goes, rather than explodes the entire flask. I have to say I also witnessed the same thing in Maryland once though, and it was drizzling at the time. Sparks is sparks, and they are devils.

There are a number of great suppliers out there for matchlock parts, though only a few actual makers. Here's a guy who offers parts kits: http://www.therifleshoppe.com/

As noted above, Sykes offers some decent built ones, as does G Gedney Godwin: http://www.gggodwin.com/mlock.htm

Here's a supplier for the bandoliers, too: http://www.bandoliers.co.uk/

The BEST maker of matchlocks (and wheellocks, snaphaunces, you name it) around though is Dale Shinn of Sacramento. If anyone wants to PM me, I'll be happy to send out his contact information. I have one of his matchlock Bastard Muskets, a Wheellock Pistol, and he's in the process of making me a pair of Snaphaunce pistols, so I'm pretty happy with his work!

BTW Nathan, that is a NICE Matchlock you have there! VERY nice! What's the barrel length and bore size?

Cheers,

Gordon

Anyway, cool thread.

Hi Gordon,

It's a small world!

Patrick;

Hi! You bet it's a small world. A friend of mine who now lives in Glorietta NM used to live in Liberal...you probably know him, too if you've been in Liberal for a while, since he's into the whole Mountain Man thing. If you're into Black Powder and are from Liberal, you probably know Max. I also have some family down in Clayton NM and in the OK panhandle, and friends down in OK too. Small world it is!

Cheers!

Gordon

Gordon, that's an excellent example. I'd love to own a piece like that some day and have the opportunity to fire it. You and I have some similar history, knowing and playing with many of the same people. it's good to hear Steve Moffat's name again. I hope he's well. I've given up on the hobby and have been away for 5+ years now. By the way, now that I see your photo, I can say I remember playing at faire on a numbe of occasions with you at one point or another. There's photos of you in the albums here at home, in fact.

Nathan;

Way cool! I somehow figured that you had a connection in there, and looking at your photo's here I always though that I probably had met you at some point here and there. Here's a picture of my daughter shooting her Shinn Caliver, with me shooting my Shinn Bastard Musket at the RMS Schutzenfest this past September too. Like Father, like Daughter!

I'll PM you about some stuff that we're getting ready to do this Spring which, who knows, you might be interested in trying. Thanks for the great website, BTW!

Cheers!

Gordon

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Another Canadian supplier: http://www.gosea.com/loyalistarms/index.html.

Also, concerning The Rifle Shoppe, be advised they can be a bear to deal with. You might or might not ever receive your parts. A well-known gunmaker gave up on a commission for me when he was unable to obtain necessary parts from TRS after four years.

I currently have two complete sets of matchlock parts on order. My credit card was charged for the full amount in May and June and I have received barely half the parts. My emails go mostly unanswered and I have yet to hear them answer their telephone. Some months ago I did receive a phone call with the unqualified assertion that all parts would be shipped "Monday." To be fair, she didn't say "Monday" of what month, year, or planet.

Since they have an effective monopoly on many of the parts they offer, one is faced with the choice of wait and hope or go to the trouble of securing a refund while returning the now useless partial order.

JSA

I was introduced to Dale a couple of events back and he showed me some amazing examples of his work - an excellent artisan, to be sure! Those are great pieces, Gordon!

My brother, Dennis, belongs to Dale Shin's group...and he helped my brother make his own matchlock. here are a few pictures.

Here are two of Dale .

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. . . but a good piece. Workmanship almost too good for verisimilitude.

http://www.historicenterprises.com/cart.php?m...3&c=24

Sean,

Here are some pictures comparing the inner workings of a Yorkshire Armes, Dale Shinn, and a Sykes Suttlery matchlock. I shoot a Yorkshire Arms, and I would be happy to provide some better picures of it or its details if you like. I'm out for most of the rest of the day, but I can get to it pretty soon.

Dale's stuff is really tops, but I like the Yorkshire ones better than the Sykes. Since most of the cheaper ones have pipe barrels, they are heavy and don't balance very well, but that works out fine if you need it to be club as well as a gun :-)