The book shown in the video is available at Track of the Wolf and photo are used with permission of the publisher. There are a lot of other amazing guns in there and we recommend picking up a copy. www.trackofthe...
My 16ga walnut fowler arrived 4 days ago. It is not finished, but I have never shouldered a more beautifully balanced, light weight, slender fowler. It is just incredible . It will be a joy to carry and use. Jim created true art with the English fowler. It is perfection! .
I appreciate you making these guns to closely mirror what characteristics an original piece may have. My five siblings are coming from all corners of the country to Minnesota in August for our mother's 89th birthday - my two Kibler's are going to be there to ring in the occasion. Thank you for the effort you put into making these videos and addressing some of the misconceptions that are out there.
Thank you for another great video, Mr. Kibler. It deepened my appreciation for the historic aspects of the flintlock rifles you make. Your information inspired me to build my first Kibler rifle during Covid. Your efforts to educate are truly valuable. I just received your latest kit-my third Kibler Flintlock-and I’m very impressed. Thank you!
Definitely your most lefty friendly kit to date, will be ordering one when I have the money, hope you do videos on fitting and finishing one since that helps tremendously especially with people who've never done a kit before
Dear Kibler team, I'm in love with this kit. I hope we'll get to see you put one together soon so I can hear your views on appropriate wood and metal finish options. Thanks so much for taking the time to discuss the inspirations behind this fowler and what it is meant to represent. That multiplies the enjoyment and interest of the object for me tenfold. I have subscribed to the newsletter in case English Walnut stocks become a reality.
Thank you for showing us these historical examples! Is that John Shaw the 8-bore water fowling gun you showed us in an earlier video? It's just beautiful. Good book, too -- I've spend some hours poring over the photos in my own copy. I'm looking forward to my fowler kit, which I've ordered in walnut, 16 gauge. I'll probably use the yellow dye method, which worked out well on my walnut Woodsrunner.
@jimkibler786 I have your fowler kit in walnut, 16ga. My question is,would the inked vining on the stock of your kit be accurate? I feel it would be since the Bumford was 1 of the influencing designs for your kits?
There aren't many channels that explain what original guns looked like so most of us don't know what we don't know. I own two original guns and it has been a bit of a mystery for me to determine what I even have since I don't know if they were converted guns, from flintlock to percussion. I do know that they both have blacksmith made barrels and a iron furnature. They both have a octagon profile on the outside and the inside, at least at the muzzle. I think it is rare for the interior to have a octagon profile and I suspect this was done as a way to flare the muzzle to aid in loading. If you have any interest in this I could send you some pictures.
Somewhere back in my memory are lyrics to a folk song something like," id load up my shotgun with rock salt and nails". Im sure just about anything available was shot out of these guns.
One of the reasons gun of this type were so popular is because of something called is the spiritual belief known as "orenda". Simply put, Native Americans, especially the Eastern tribes (my ancestors are Mohawk) is that there is an invisible power in all objects animate and inanimate and it's transferrable to those who possess the object. A black powder gun made a noise like thunder, and to the Iroquois, that sound didn't come from the weather but from He-no, the thunder god or in some cases the thunderbird, and to hold that power in your hands was very important. The brass serpent on the side of the gun held great meaning and it wasn't uncommon to see some Native American wearing just one of those sideplate pieces as a decoration. In various tribes it represented the rival to the thunderbird and various thunder gods. To the Iroquois, it was the Djodi-kwado' the horned underwater serpent with scales and horns made from copper. The serpent to the various tribes represented death and darkness but also success in hunting, so that's why for well over a century, even in the late 1800's (there was a flintlock trade gun made as late as 1874 that looked almost identical to a gun from a century before for trade to the Natives) the guns with that design or similar was so popular.
You know what? I don't hate the sheet metal pieces compared to cast, the butt plate is actually kind of nice like this. A combination of nicer trigger guard and sheet other would not bother me at all.
Tumbling is a bad idea as it is indiscriminate in what material it removes. Corners and other features are rounded etc. fine filing and hand polishing with abrasives is the only option. This may seem intimidating at first, but it really isn’t much. I can probably polish everything in no more than two hours.
Hello. As we all should know most of those fancy guns spent most of their lives hanging on a wall in a drier environment .Where the poor mans gun got used very hard so did not survive so that is why most people think all american long rifles and fowlers were fancy. But that was not the case. So if you want a peice of history simpler is more accurate.
