Well, the French Trade Gun that I ordered well over year ago from Early Rustic Arms has finally arrived. It's not late; Larry Williams told me a year ago that he had a huge backlog of orders, which he was doing one at a time. He's had some hard times; he lost his wife to cancer last year, and has been a bit lonely, I fear, in his shop. His son Terry has recently entered the business, and is actually the one who turned out my trade gun; which I am very happy with. I think the plans are to bring the entire operation out of Kentucky, to his son's place in Camdenten, MO.
It's not advertised as a Tulle fusil de chasse; it actually has the look, I think - but of course I'm no expert - of something that might come out of the St. Etienne works. The furniture is later 'D" type styling. It's a 42 inch barrel, made by the Williams' in .62 caliber/ 20 gauge; walnut stock stained very dark, and steel furniture, all antiqued in a gray finish. It's going to be much easier for me to maintain this gun than my other 20 gauge fusil de chasse, which metal is armory bright.
I did something I shouldn't of with it; I shot it out of the box without sighting it in. And what I shot it in was the local muzzleloading club's smoothbore competition, in which I finished second place! She's already won me 2 pounds of black powder! The balance is extremely sweet, and she holds like a rock.
The next day, I went out with some friends to shoot trap. I haven't shot trap in 20 years. I hit three of every four birds flown; I'm not sure how many we shot, we were there all afternoon. It was an informal family get-together, which I came to as an invited guest. Shooting a smoothbore flintlock successfully against all those people missing their birds with pump shotguns caused a bit of conversation, you can imagine!
I think this one going to become a favorite hunting gun. She needs a name, but I haven't thought of one yet. As you can tell, I'm very happy with her performance so far. Next week, we take her to the range to become more intensely acquainted with each other. I'll probably give you a range report when I have one.
At any rate, here she is (I wish the pictures were better):
Edited Sunday PM: New Pictures!
Topic: New ERA French Trade Gun - new pics (Read 4189 times)