Re: MtMan-List: Cabelas Flintlock -- Historically Accurate?

[Jim Colburn <jc60714@navix.net>]

Washtahay-

someone  wrote:
>If a Hawken style shines for you, Lyman's Great Plains Rifle is about the
best
>of the inexpensive guns out there.  It is a very close copy of an original
>Hawken and shoots darn well.
	Horse apples!  Show me the Hawken that the Lyman Great Plains Rifle is a
"very close copy of".  It ain't, and saying it is, or wishful thinking,
doesn't make it so.  

and someone else wrote (apparently in reference to "Cabelas flintlock":
>It's actually a copy of one of the originals. 
	One of the original WHAT?  One of those damn cheap misbegotten worthless
copies of the T/C Hawken made in Italy back in the '70s?  An Ultra-HI
"Minuteman Rifle"?  I guess you can say ANYTHING is a copy-but do you want
to buy the "copy" of Ashley's signature I just did on the notepad by my
computer?   Is anyone really going to think that its a particularly GOOD
copy, when if you look you can plainly see I wrote "Willyum Hank Ashly"? 
	I get so damn tired of pussy-footing around to avoid hurting someone's
feelings in Re: their rifles, so I ain't gonna do it any more.  Folks, if I
attack your gun, it ain't personal.  
  
	Frankly, Cabelas gun isn't particularly authentic in appearance.  It isn't
particularly well made, in comparison to a number of other weapons
around-Lyman's GPR and the T/C Hawken to name two.  Neither of those is
particularly authentic in appearance either-and anyone who really thinks so
is demonstrating his or her ignorance-but I don't question the safety of
them.  Their locks don't let go, tumbler notches creeping like both of the
Cabelas flinters I have seen (and those were showroom models AT Cabelas!).
I am particularly fearful of newbies with self-firing rifles!

>IMHO, the frizzen
>spring on the flinters I've seen is too stiff, but that's easily
>corrected. 
	Mebbeso, if you know what you are doing.  How many greenhorns do?  And
after they fix the feather spring, do they know how to re-harden the
frizzen?  Re-cut the tumbler notches?  DO THEY KNOW ENOUGH TO TELL WHEN THE
LOCK IS TOO WORN TO BE SAFE?????

>Haven't priced them via Shotgun News recently, but you
>used to be able (6-12 months ago) to get the flint kit for around $230
>as I recall. 
	Whoopee.  If the potential owner would pick up a part-time job and wait
til he had worked 40 hours at minimum wage, he could have gotten a decent
gun.  
	
>Good shooter, and much more authentic than anything else
>I can think of in their price range.
	How 'bout a rock?  Cheap.  Authentic.  And it'll be functional a long time
after that (&%%&*&$^% is thrown away.
LongWalker c. du B.