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Old Fouler in good condition

Dave Hawksford

Dave Hawksford

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Outside the beltway
This is a 40 cal Bethlehem County fouler circa; 1765. I made a trad for it for the painting I restored with my friend. I was very surprised when he offered the gun. Besides having to convert the lock back to Flint-Lock it is in excellent firing condition. I hope to get to the firing range to see how it shoots before the opener this Friday. With a 40" barrel it should have a great shot pattern.
 

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I can't tell from the pics...where do you mount the laser sight and the flash suppressor? :p Pump or semi-auto? :rofl:

Sweet ol' smoke stick, Dave. :thumb:
 
That half moon inlay is sure doing it's job and shining good fortune down on ye. :thumb:
You know my story about a fowler. :(
I'm still very proud you got that one. Very neat.
The small guage fowlers usually were special purpose guns. I forgit the term 'collectors'?, or sumptin' like that. Guys like Audubon used them to collect birds for study and painting. Small gun didn't blast them apart.
Wat kinda rock lock you going to put on it? I favor the L&Rs but hear Chambers are super fine also.
 
I'll take it up to Keath Casteel in W Va to make the altercations. He's the Man who knows these guns. Hopefully he will also know the maker. I am very honored to have this gun. My friend Grov handed it to me and said well; What will this do to my bill? I looked at him and said: Paid in full ! He just smiled. He got a great deal and I did too. :)
 
Dave Hawksford said:
I'll take it up to Keath Casteel in W Va to make the altercations. He's the Man who knows these guns. Hopefully he will also know the maker. I am very honored to have this gun. My friend Grov handed it to me and said well; What will this do to my bill? I looked at him and said: Paid in full ! He just smiled. He got a great deal and I did too. :)
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Wonderful deal.
If'n Keath can't identify the maker, you can send pics and info to the curator of the G. M. Davis gun museum at Claremore, Oklahoma. He is super-expert at identifications and very generous with his time answering such questions.
 
Dave Hawksford said:
You know Frank, it's good he made fun of a small caliber rifle because when it get inserted up him back side it will not be a painful:rofl:.
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Ouch! That brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. :eek: :p

I had a laser sight for a while on my Sig 226. All it did was show me how much my hand moved, and it distracted me when I was aiming. I'm much better without it, so I took it off the gun.
 
Vaughn , kind of make your cheeks pucker a bit A :rofl::rofl:

Vaughn most of us easterners learned on a single shot rifle open sites. It was the best way our dad's could teach us to hit what we were aiming at.
 
I went to visit my friend Keith today in W Va and we went over a couple of rare books he has on the old gun makers that show the signatures the make inscribed on the top of the barrel. Mine was made by a gun maker named Joseph Sell. It is a later ere gun and is a original Percussion. The gun has a sweat value also. So I came away with a good understanding I got a very good deal from my friend Grov.
 
Dave Hawksford said:
I went to visit my friend Keith today in W Va and we went over a couple of rare books he has on the old gun makers that show the signatures the make inscribed on the top of the barrel. Mine was made by a gun maker named Joseph Sell. It is a later ere gun and is a original Percussion. The gun has a sweat value also. So I came away with a good understanding I got a very good deal from my friend Grov.
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I've heard the name Joseph Sell.
Are you keeping it original pre-cussin' ?
 
Dave Hawksford said:
I think so, although Keith and I spoke about putting a Flint Lock on it. But I am leaning to keeping it original. But I like the Flinters :D
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Be kind of a shame to make even a 'retro' modification to a gun that old...

I'd keep it original - possibly have a new nipple made for it out of modern steel, and save the original to reinstall later. That way the original won't get battered over like they sometimes do.
 
Just a question about names. I always thought those guns were known as "fowler guns" and not "fouler guns". Can you tell me which is correct? Or is "fouler" some special name? Maybe the name of a person?

Mike

[added note: I found this on Wikipedia - "Flintlock muskets were the mainstay of European armies between 1660 and 1840. A musket was a muzzle-loading smoothbore long gun that was loaded with a round lead ball, but it could also be loaded with shot for hunting. For military purposes, the weapon was loaded with ball, or a mixture of ball with several large shot (called buck and ball), and had an effective range of about 75 to 100 meters. Smoothbore weapons that were designed for hunting birds were called "fowlers." Flintlock muskets tended to be of large caliber and usually had no choke, so they could also be used to fire a ball."
Here's another reference to "Fowler"
And one more here.]
 
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Mike Henderson said:
Just a question about names. I always thought those guns were known as "fowler guns" and not "fouler guns". Can you tell me which is correct? Or is "fouler" some special name? Maybe the name of a person?

Mike

[added note: I found this on Wikipedia - "Flintlock muskets were the mainstay of European armies between 1660 and 1840. A musket was a muzzle-loading smoothbore long gun that was loaded with a round lead ball, but it could also be loaded with shot for hunting. For military purposes, the weapon was loaded with ball, or a mixture of ball with several large shot (called buck and ball), and had an effective range of about 75 to 100 meters. Smoothbore weapons that were designed for hunting birds were called "fowlers." Flintlock muskets tended to be of large caliber and usually had no choke, so they could also be used to fire a ball."
Here's another reference to "Fowler"
And one more here.]
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Mike, the use of the term 'musket' can get confusing. What you found is accurate. But, in usage, it is all over the place. Personally, I keep musket in the military realm, even with the Civil War arms which are rifles, really, but often referred to as 'rifled muskets'. Makes no sense but that is the way it is.
 
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