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As far as my wife is concerned, this one fell off the Postal Service truck and onto the porch.
The bottom line is that I now have my squirrel and small game black powder gun.
This .36 caliber lefty flintlock was built by Tip Curtis in Cross Plains, TN:
- 44" Green Mountain barrel (swamped)
- Left handed Siler lock
- Fancy curly maple stock (dark brown stain)
- Iron furniture (still "in the white" - will probably rust brown finish it)
- Davis double set trigger
The wood on this thing looks fantastic and the trigger breaks beautifully, both set and un-set. As you can see by the picture of his signature, Tip ships his guns "in the white", so it will need some steel wool cleanup to knock off light surface rust and ready it for final finishing. Alternatively, I can keep it in the white and just clean up the existing look. A good oil coat after cleaning it up will keep it rust-free, but I will probably just go ahead and brown it to keep the long term maintenance minimal. This Siler lock is FAST, *way* faster than my Lyman factory lock, and the beefy mainspring on it gives a good clue as to why that is.
Tip is an old guy now, into his mid-80s, but he still does great work out of his shop in Cross Plains, TN. I got to shoot it briefly today, and was extremely pleased. The first two shots overlapped at 25 yard and the 3rd shot was just slightly outside of that group. Lock time is excellent as you can see in this brief video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sA1AxfZoqg
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