Most of you are probably familiar with the book I published in 1980, Contemporary Makers of Muzzle-Loading Firearms. In the preface I mentioned my interest in flintlocks began while watching the original 1955 t.v. version of Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.
It was the shooting match that did it. The scene where Fess Parker out-shoots Big-Foot Mason by putting two balls in the same hole. Man, what a gun! That rifle with its click-ka-boom, the Disney “fantasy sound” of a flintlock, followed by the words, “Lookie here!.”
Fast forward to 2000. Low and behold, a good California friend who collects, among other things, frontier movie memorabilia, uncovers THE rifle at auction. I mean THE flintlock that Davey used to out-shoot Big-Foot – that gun!
The same gun that helped to ruin my concentration in school and left me roaming the country for more flintlocks.
Well, who would have thought this piece would ever surface? I mean where does all this stuff go? A garage in Buffalo maybe?
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve been waiting forty-five years for the chance to get a good, long, STILL look at this one.
Robert Weil
This article originally appeared in Flintlock, a publication of the CLA.
Hello,
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The clapper board is a tool which used in the production of videotape and motion picture for assisting to synchronize the sound and picture and also for designating and marking particular takes and scenes recorded throughout the production procedure.
Your book is still my go to for inspiration in the craft. I was lucky be freinds with John Bivins. Met Hershal at Freindship and saw Walis Gulcher at Williamsburg 1972 bit hard by the Longrifle bug.
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