I have heard different things about The Rifle Shoppe, but have had positive experiences so far. But I have heard lots of negatives as well. Caveat emptor.

Arthur, great pics! I understand that he's making a snaphaunce for himself under Dale's tuteledge, correct? Dale makes absolutely WONDERFUL stuff, and those are great pictures of him. He's a real hoot, and a fine gentleman besides. Here's the website to his English Civil War unit, BTW. He made a Swedish Leather Gun to play with, and it's about as cool an artillery piece as you can find. Light and portable but packs a punch and a serious boom too:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dgshinn/montrose.html

Thanks James, I'd forgotten about Jeff Hedgecock's matchlocks! The stuff he sells is ALL top notch stuff too... EVERYONE I have talked to has had nothing but praise for the quality of his work and products, and his armour is as good as it gets. He's also the only person I have come across, on this continent at least, who has made a period Arming Saddle from scratch. He has some info on the site posted above on how he went about building it. Anyway, total attention to detail from Historic Enterprises, and as I understand, excellent customer service too. I haven't personally bought from them, but know lots of folks who have. (A tad early for what I spend my money on).

Cheers!

Gordon

I know this is not sword related, but, It's cool just the same.
This is the leather cannon, Dale's group uses.

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Eric: Thanks for the excellent internal shots! Thanks to everybody else, too. There's much more early firearms knowledge, interest and experience here than I suspected!

Hi all...

Great photos... Brings back fond memories. I was a buckskinner for a few years. I still love the smell of black powder smoke. I have a custom Hawkin's Plains Rifle (50 ca), and a custom Pre-revolutionary war Kentucky Rifle (54 ca) and a Northwest Trade Musket I built from parts.

ks