Not Quite Up to Date

[Mortblanc]

The action, or "lock", is a new reproduction copied from a German rifle of the colonial period by a man named Bud Siler. He began producing these high quality investment castings back in the 1970s and they have become one of the favored locks over here. They are all high quality units and they can be bought in "kit" form, which means one can buy the unfinished, unassembled parts and do modifications to make them what one wants.

You can change the shape of the plate, or the cock, of the battery frizzen to reproduce the locks made from 1650-1850.

All that while retaining the "guts" behind the plate so that one has a highly efficient firing mechanism. These locks are almost as fast as a modern gun with little of the hesitation or hang-fire one sees on TN or in the movies. You pull the trigger and before you can blink the gun has gone boom!

The "lock" costs about 75 pounds, your money, in finished form and probably 50 pounds as a kit.

We have several companies that supply reproduction locks; Chambers, L&R, Classic, Dixie Gun Works and The Rifle Shop. You can buy anything from a match-lock to a mid-19th century Manton or Durrs Egg repro.

I cheat when building. Since the lock and barrel are the most expensive parts to purchase I sometimes inlet more than one rifle to use the same lock. I have 8-9 rifles inlet for this Siler style lock but only own 3 locks and change locks from one gun to another. After all, you can only shoot one at a time!

I also have various ML guns with locks from Classic, Dixie Gun Works and L&R. That is besides the commercial rifles I have bought with proprietary locks in place. Thompson Center makes an excellent lock while the old CVA and newer Traditions rifles use the same cheap Spanish made locks that have been available since the 1950s.

These rifles require a very long time and much patience for assembly, if you want them to look nice. You can put a working unit together in a day if you are not worried about appearance.

Not sure how these, or the lock parts, are viewed by your legal system. Over here they are not considered firearms and the parts are therefore not firearms parts.