Here's my latest acquisition! A Leonard Day 62-caliber English matchlock, with a walnut stock, a tapered octagonal to round 42" smoothbore barrel, with no rear sight. While she looks ungainly ... she's light for her size, balances well (at lower forend entry) and hangs well whilst pointing.
My tastes vary from building a match or space gun AR one day to building a flintlock rifle the next. But I get the BIGGEST kick out of taking one of these 'old' guns to the range, setting 1"'dots out at 25-yds and then knocking them off the paper ... all offhand shooting to boot!
Meanwhile, young guys who grew up on video games or other tactikool wanna-bees will be likely on either side bench of me ... shooting pie plate sized groups ... at 50-yards, from the bench. They have NO CLUE what real marksmanship is about ...
If you've never experienced a matchlock, they are a faster form of ignition, alleged as fast if not faster than percussion arms (as zero lock time, the lit match is introduced right to the powder ...)
My tastes vary from building a match or space gun AR one day to building a flintlock rifle the next. But I get the BIGGEST kick out of taking one of these 'old' guns to the range, setting 1"'dots out at 25-yds and then knocking them off the paper ... all offhand shooting to boot!
Meanwhile, young guys who grew up on video games or other tactikool wanna-bees will be likely on either side bench of me ... shooting pie plate sized groups ... at 50-yards, from the bench. They have NO CLUE what real marksmanship is about ...
If you've never experienced a matchlock, they are a faster form of ignition, alleged as fast if not faster than percussion arms (as zero lock time, the lit match is introduced right to the powder ...)