My sister and I lost our dad over the holidays. Today we started the process of going through his things, pulling aside the most meaningful to us before turning over the rest to our stepmom and his other relatives. As was agreed between us, among them I took home his guns. Dad was a Colonial-era re-enactor with a local group here in Missouri. I first got interested in black powder through him, although my own interests mostly turned to the Dark Ages and Medieval period. I still have the CVA carbine we put together when I was growing up, and the San Marco 1851 Navy Colt he got me because I was so fascinated in his.
Dad's Kentucky. There's no tiger-striping or silver-work, his is the sort of gun that would have actually worked for a living, not the fancy inlaid museum pieces most people think about. The rear sight is an adjustable type, and if I remember from what he told me correctly, it IS of a period style and not a modern invention.
He also had a smoothbore trade gun. This is the type of gun that the colonists used to barter with each other and Natives. There's no rear sight, and I have to admit I think I like the finish of the trade gun even more than his Kentucky. It's a very rich, reddish color nearer the stock, fading to a brownish-red near the muzzle.
Dad made leather covers for the frizzen for both his flint guns, and the tool attached is a spike for clearing the vent.
But this last one was the prize:
I almost broke up into tears when I saw this in the closet. When I was growing up my dad put this Thompson-Center Hawken together from a kit, almost 20 years ago now (hard to believe the 90s are 20 years ago). This is the gun that led to us putting together the CVA carbine, and was one of the ones I used to learn to shoot black powder. I thought dad sold it when he started to get more interest in the Colonial period, I didn't think I'd ever see this gun again, until I found it when I was getting his other guns together.
