Seeking opinions on muzzleloaders "made in Japan"?

[snake eyes]

Russ,
       Great information! Thanks for posting it.

[Gordon H.Kemp]

I would hope that the information gleaned thus far would encourage new members of the black powder addiction to consider these guns for an entry level gun. For the mose part chances are they may need some tweaking and adjusting, but they won,t put you in any more danger from severe failure then those made in Italy or Spain and ,yes the USA . I have two of them and outside of the tuning and adjustments do as well as my TCs ,Traditions ,Pedosolis and other over the counter guns.
       I would like to thank all who have coome forward with their evaluations , and those who may yet step up To the plate.
       A great big Gold Star to Russ for His contribution. I knew if I didn,t reply to his e-mail he couldn,t stand to sit on his thumbs.
        Heh Heh old age and tretchery gets em every time .

[Ironhand]

I did have a 69 cal flint pistol that was made in Japan. Can't remember the maker. The thing that bothered me was when I pulled the barrel, The "tang" was actually a milled extension of the the barrel. The breach "plug" was literally a plug. A stamped metal cup press fit into the breach, no weld and no threads, just a press fit metal cup. I kinda wondered how safe that was.

[Gordon H.Kemp]

Ironhand, thanks for the input. I,ve seen these pistols on auction sites , but didn,t have the cash on hand to purchase one and study it. Did you fire this pistol much? and if so, what kind of loads did they suggest for it? Was there any indication of possible failure developing , bulging ,leakage etc.  Did you know any others who used "made in Japan" guns?

[Ironhand]

I did fire it a bit, even took a tree rat with it. I had a friend TIG weld the "plug" in place before I shot it.
 I used a light load from the Lyman manual for the 16 gauge. It was a lot of fun to shoot. I always thought I should have a proper one made, one that was safe.
The sear was so soft that it wore out pretty quick and I didn't think it was worth fixing.

Ironhand

[Three Hawks]

Some of the "early" Japanese muzzleloaders are suitable for wall hangers or stage props only.  I have one, a vestigially accurate copy of a Tower type pistol in .69 cal.  It is so overbuilt that it is safe to shoot as as the bore diameter and length don't allow pressures to build very far.  The lock is crude and is a real rock crusher, but generates enough fire to cook over, lock time is measured in minutes.  I have taken several blue grouse, what we (I) in W. Wash. call Fool Hens, with it over the years, using it like a short barreled shotgun with 25 gr. FFF under 5/8 oz of #4 shot, but other than that it hangs on my fireplace as a curio.  It was a birthday gift from my Mom many years ago. To the best of my knowledge she paid less than $20 for it as a kit at the Western Auto store in Hot Springs SD.  About what it was and is worth.  I've seen two Ultra-Hi long guns that had two piece barrels, apparently sil-brazed together at about mid length.  One was a Brown Bess replica and the other was a "Kentucky" type interpretation that  had the rifling mismatched about halfway  down the bore as though the barrel had been assembled from salvaged bits.  It also had a chrome plated brass trigger and sear.  If I encountered another, I think I'd plug the touch hole or have a slug welded into the muzzle, both if I could.

If memory serves Ultra-Hi evaporated into the ether many years ago.

Three Hawks