DREAM- Rifle

[mtnmike]

I reckon I would choose a Lancaster

[Watauga]

I am thinking about a Mongrel Jeager!

[Dogshirt]

As I've said before, OUR history out here starts in 1804 when L&C leave St. Louis. That being said, I ONLY have eyes for half stock plains/mountain rifles.
I do not like the looks of "long rifles", they are awkward, ungainly, and a travesty in the brush. I have NO use for flintlocks, if I'm going to rely on a ROCK for my food, I have a sling! A .54 -.58 Hawken PERCUSSION is THE rifle as far as I'm concerned! Flintlocks should ALL be made into pole lamps!

[William]

Tell us how you really feel about flintlocks Dogshirt, don't hold anything back! LOL!

[Dogshirt]

I would, but I am occasionally reminded this is a Family board. #$^%^$@@!

[pilgrim]

            I have to agree with Hanshi.  CAPS are only a passing FAD.  When you run out of caps, then you will need that sling.       But for us Rock shooters, we can always find something to make a spark     

[mongrel]

I think the rock versus cap issue has been done to death, lately, and whether the participants realize it or not, the tone is edging right up to the point of being intolerant and insulting.

Intolerance has no place on this forum and, frankly, isn't a quality I welcome in anyone thinking of doing business with me -- just in case anyone is in the least bit concerned with my personal take on that particular character defect.

Caplocks are quite traditional enough and flintlocks are fully reliable if they're good ones. These are facts. If either fact is a problem for someone, odds are the rest of us have taken note, and get the point (BELIEVE me we get it), so there's no need to   what is by now a quite-dead and decomposing horse.

Resume play....

[Hanshi]

Well, I DO have and use both.  Nuff said.

[mtnmike]

Dream Rifle reckon Hanshi would give me his .45 Lancaster?

[beowulf]

personally I like flinchlocks and cap guns  would like to own a wheel lock , and have built one rather primitive matchlock when I was a young pup instead of the tired old dog I am now . all shootable , all dependable ( even the matchlock) and one would have to admit they are all a lot better than sticking a hot wire in the touch hole !

[huntinguy]

Oddly, I don't have a "dream gun" in the same sense that everyone else means. I work off and on on a Christian's Spring flinter that will be my deer gun if I can ever get it finished, but the thought of it doesn't get my imagination all fired up. If I had time to work up something around one of my Mauser actions I'd probably be just as fired-up about that. I guess I love guns in general too much to ever have dreams of just one, and plus the fact I've had to discipline my thinking to stay focused on what I'm working on at the moment, or I end up with a lot of half-done projects and having to hustle and hurry to make the delivery dates I've promised people on THEIR dream rifles.

Ya, I think you said my position pretty well. I love anything with steel and wood, and I am beginning to like things with steel and plastic. Oh, and I also swoon over good quality wood with a Flemish twist string too. 

So dream rifle... that would be a 36 cal that can shoot a 54 cal ball out of a 30 inch long 44 inch barrel with gain twist. It would weigh in at 4.5 lbs for easy swinging on grouse in close cover (and easy packing across the hills) when used with 1oz of shot from the 36 inch smooth bore barrel, and settle in around 9.5 lbs for 300 yard elk shots. It would be a full stock half stock with a flint lock and detachable 30 round stick under it for quick follow up shots and only be 2.4 inches deep through the action so I can lay down behind a low log waiting for mister bunny to sneak into  range. Oh, and it would only be 13 inches long so I can carry it in my shoulder holster to keep it dry in the rain.

I have strange dreams 

[Greybear Jr.]

I am very lucky to own several custom rifles and shotguns.  My taste now is for an original Frederick Sell rifle. My wife is a Sell and I have searched for decades to find one I can afford.  Unfortunately most of the known ones would cause me to mortgage my house....

GBJ

[forrest]

I have not been on for a while, but as an update on my dream rifle. It is in the works. 42in EdRayle barrel Forsthe riflling 1 in56 talked to Steve yesterday and said it is going well, the wood looks grate. Ordered balls TOW in .610,  100, .600 100 , .595, 50 ,2tins of mink oil. So all I need to to get is more OE black powder.

[Papa]

I am fortunate to own a number of rifles in both cap and flint. As to the one I like the best, it would have to be the one that is shooting the best on a day that I am behind the butt. Like women, I like them all, the short the long and the tall.
Mark

[William]

I'm going to have to revise my vision for a "dream" rifle after this topic has matured in my mind through the years.  Right now I have a beautiful cherry stocked plains rifle that is accurate to a fault.  With it's Lyman/Investarms .54 barrel it's short and light enough to weave in and out of the south Texas brush that I'm most likely to be hunting in.  It's a simple, time tested design with enough "thump" for me to take it elk hunting, my dream hunt.  That's different than my dream rifle but maybe in the future my dream rifle will go with me on my dream hunt.  I've also now gotten one of Mike Lange's last official plains rifle in .50 that I haven't been able to even drop a cap on yet.  Longer barrel, different wood (maple) with a different finish and it's a LH Chamber's lock.  It's one of my dreams to reeneact or do living history portraying an early Texas pioneer and settler.  For that, this is my dream rifle.  Lastly, I am going to try my hand at experimental archeology in the time period of 1780-90 ish.  For that, neither caplock will do but my TVM early Virginia flintlock, also left hand, is my time machine.  That kind of mindset and those goals are probably not representative of 99% of the membership here on TMC but they're mine and I like to share.  At the same time, I like to see what everyone else's dream rifle is and why.  That is what makes this forum rise above the others.

And just for the record, I'd still love to have a Carolina rifle, carved and inlayed with silver and gold wire, maybe some ivory here and there, hanging on my wall.  For now, my dreams change.