Now days I use flintlocks and recurves for everything I hunt. Thanks fot my senile old brain I forgot to put in early for the Illinois turkey hunts and won't get to go till the 4th season...Thursday, but here's some pictures of my flintlocks.
This is the first one I built. It's a .62cal. smoothbore....20ga. with open cylinder..no choke. 25yds. is about max distance with this gun. It's an Old Virginia with 36" Getz barrel and Jim Chamber's Large Siler Flintlock with his White Light'n vent liner for faster ignition.
A few Osceloa's I killed with it on public land.
Since I only hunt public land and opportunities can be scarce sometimes, I got tired of having the birds hang up right at 30yds and a little over so decided to build a flintlock to deal with them.
I built it lightweight and with a short barrel..I'm not into PC..period correct or traditional..just like to hunt with flintlocks and recurves. So I don't use the real long barrels. They are harder to swing and get on game without being detected. I ordered a Colerain Turkey Choke Barrel and had it cut down to 34" and used a Jim Chambers Round Faced English Lock and put a White Light'n Liner in it. It's a .62cal. (20ga.) and made it lightweight 7lbs.
I wanted to build it as a companion to my
[Berke's County .58cal. Rifle but ran into a crack in the stock as I was shaping and had to alter the profile.
Only hunted with it a couple of times last yr. But got this Eastern in Southern Illinois Shawnee National Forest.