Manton - Master Gun Maker 

I am a builder of flintlock weapons, particularly from about 1740-1820. Currently working on a reproduction of a German Jaeger (Hunter) rifle from about 1745. Really enjoy this article about Manton, who really had a lot to do with improvements and fineness. Thanks for preparing and showing it.

I wasn't sure if the video was going to feel too long to watch. Well, it felt like it was only a few minutes long and left me wanting to learn more about this master craftsman and engineer. Well done.

There's a gunsmith in Pr. George, BC, that makes guns of Manton's quality. I had the honour of being taught a lot while I roomed with him one winter. He spoke highly of Manton even in the 70's. His gunlocks were the best one could find and imitations of them are still being made. One of the rifles I have always wanted would be an American long rifle with a Manton lock.

As a horologist and machinist, I found the small section where he created a clock interesting. That same clock in the video was another English clockmaker's creation, the H1, by John Harrison. Another man who desperately tried to help his own country of England, and for nearly 40 years was screwed over and never awarded his recognition for solving the longitude calculation problem. England has a thing for shitting on and impoverishing brilliant people

Used to go shooting in 1980s never realised or heard of this father of the gunworld what a remarkable passionate guy and yet to die as he did a pauper. Terrible.

Great documentary, thanks for posting

As a Manton I approve of this 👍🏻

Lovley and Charming, thank you for sharing this with us..

Hang On!! A gun can cost £50,000, but a 200yr old Manton original is valued at £10,000? Something wrong with this picture. Surely a 200yr old gun by a master Craftsman would cost at least £100,000.

Manton was the Rembrant of gunmakers.

Great video, thanks.

outstanding video, much appreciated,

A well made and informative documentary covering the history of firearms technology and demonstrated by experts.

It nocks a fiver off the value of the gun when he shoots it, but the value of the pleasure of shooting it is immeasurable.

Fascinating!!

Outstanding video

My father and I make flintlock rifles and smoothbores. while growing up, He made a bench copy of one. it includes a smooth barrel and a rifled barrel. He even made the box. the only parts purchased were the barrels. he made the lock 100% from scratch. I'll inherit it as well.

Very good video on the old master of firearms of the past. This was a sad story about how Manton died! Penniless and broken by the government of his country with whom he had given so much! Typical government!

Well done!

At 6:19 Mr. Winks calls a screwdriver a turnscrew in the gunsmithing business. Gotta love it! I noticed that his turnscrew has a very long angle ground on it which, functions similar to the hollow ground screwdrivers I custom make for specific screws.

That's a mighty quick flintlock. I own several and some are fairly quick if loaded properly. I see several things that are slightly different than most flintlocks made today.

He also took command of quite a few pies.

Fascinating! I'd never heard of this before. Smart Chap!

That was a series of very interesting innovations and you were able to find an interesting character to hang the story on. I wonder what problems he thought of but could not find a way round.

A gun making workshop in London? That a modern paradox.

Bloke in red has eaten quite a few pigeons.

Well I never!?!! I always wondered where the phrase "Flash in the pan" came from! We learn something new every day !

So Nice guns

Best Documentary I've seen in a very long time thank you most interesting 😁😁👍👍

Amazing man , by today's standards a " deplorable " in America for his unwillingness to grovel to the King's Military. A true son of liberty , giving safety and enjoyment to his customers and I imagine many a Coachman , traveling through dark whet nights guarding their passengers. Very good history I knew nothing about. My older cousin owned many Damascus 12 Gauge double shot guns. Beautiful weapons.

New gun £50K. Original Manton, still serviceable £10K. I know what I'd have.

This year's (2021) Grand American Trap Shoot will be held in July at Sparta Illinois the firing line at the facility is 3 1/2 miles long.

I bet an apprenticeship under Manton was hard work

he was a marvellous gunsmith used to talk to Arthur Harvey Weston S Mare who was very knowledgeable on guns .

He sued the government what an American thing to do, too bad it was in a country that did not understand justice for all at the time. Too bad Manton did not move to America out of offense.

it's like killing something with a Rembrandt.

very interesting

What a good thing they did telling this story.

It is truly astonishing that I didn't hear about this man until this documentary many hail the likes of John Moses Browning or Samuel Colt as some of the greatest minds in firearms design but none of their work would of got off the ground if it wasn't for the dedicated and highly skilled gunsmiths who could turn their crude designs into beautiful working representations of that idea and whos' masters were inspired by their masters and so forth back to this under rated gentleman. Modern guns are made in the 1000s , masterpieces are crafted, almost each and every one unique to the person who commissioned it.

As an avid muzzleloader shooter there is noticable lock time on a flintlock weapon a percussion gun is lower but still there it isn't till the self contained metallic cartage that it pretty much goes away unless you have bad ammo then you can still get a click bang of the firing pin hitting the primer and the cartage detonation

who knew alan partridge knew so much about guns.

24:15 Brilliant.

What amazes me is that they get the dogs to use earplugs!

Hail to the king baby

👌🏼

My ancestor

Am I the first to make comment? What an HONOR! “Ach du lieber, mein schatz”!! OUTSTANDING EDUCATIONAL VIDEO!!! Wish there would have been many more CLOSE UP SHOTS of Manton’s guns (or “replicas”!) & designs!!! As a retired technical illustrator, wish I could have seen some of his drawings. How did he make his drawings? How many men did he employ to help him make his guns? I enjoy pistols the most, & would have loved to have seen many of his pistols. Are any of his guns in replica made today (Pedersoli?), maybe sold by Dixie Gun Works in U.S.A.? At 81, how I’d love to afford to buy a replica pistol in a large caliber, rifled or smoothbor, before I die!!! “Gesundheit” und pass da “tea & trumpets” poleaze!

Holland was never an apprentice of Manton please correct.

So I was under the impression that it was the Americans who developed the rifles cannon if not then they prefected the weapons with the iron parrot gun as bronze cannons rifling wore out quickly

Holland was apprentice to Manton?

Flawless ? No Englishman has ever pulled that one off.

Manton was uncompromising when it came to the quality of his guns, but this same quality led to his uncompromising legal battles and his poverty.

just because you can't see the priming go off on a modern gun, doesn't mean there isn't a delay... There is always a delay. Once the sear disengages the firing mechanism, it has to move in order to ignite the priming, then the priming has to ignite, and that heat/pressure has to ignite the main charge. Guns haven't really changed in 600 years, we've just made more convenient ones. The Manton Chambered breech, much like Henry Nock's patent breech, have been studied since their inception, and have never been shown to speed up ignition times over standard side-vents and dished breech faces. The only people who claimed that they did usually were people selling and buying of them. Sometimes an "improvement"...isn't, sometimes, it's just... different. By the time J. Manton was born, the Matchlock ignition was long out of common usage, and flintlocks were common (flintlocks and snaphaunces being around since at least the 1640's), so he didn't really have much to do with that. The Mantons' contribution to firearms design was that they helped to refine flintlock and sidelock percussion technology to it's pinnacle, reducing friction, shortening cock throw, balancing springs, ect. They made fine arms, but they were but one family out of many exceptional craftsmen of the age. Whether the barrels were heavily filed after proofing, or never sent out for proofing... in the end, they weren't proofed. Serious modifications to the barrels by filing heavily enough to remove those stampings drastically reduces the wall thickness at the point where it is needed most, voiding it's proofing.

Old Britian: "My gun is far superior than your rabble roust of a walking cane!" Modern Britian: "Oi mate yew got a loicense for that knoife?"

At around 15:10 you describe “white hot metal shards igniting the powder”. So why use a flint? Did the frizzens wear out and need replacing? Can anyone clarify this please

This Documentary was part of series including a ship builder a castle maker and horse breeder from what I remember do anyone know where to see the others. I have been looking for years this is the first one I found

Maybe he died poor but his name will always be remembered. That's worth more than all the money in the world

I go with quality workmanship first then cost comes secondary.

I do hope that these Gentlemen were able to pass their firearms on to family without trouble due to the Draconian Firearms Laws in GB.

Doing a lot of unsafe things at 21:00 , plus over loading the pan....it's a flash pan, not a fuse pan...

1:34. I'll take one in 7.62, regulated by Bisley with the rear aperture sights please.

Can you still legally buy a/o own a black powder gun in GB today?

Us English are eccentric to the point of weird. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Never prime before you load

"Damascus-forged" is misleading.This is a part of a series of misrepresentations used for shotgun barrels (Since the 1880's) that comes from the following history: Patterns in steels from the Middle East, mostly in swords, came not from "pattern welding" as illustrated, rather from the texture and pattern of steel from "wootz" ingots imported from Southern India. Most quality steels early on came from these cottage industry ingots. The irregular impurities, or alloys, game them a characteristic pattern. Japanese steels have historically had similar patterns, but in that case it is from a long history of layered, or pattern welded processes. They now twist their own history in Western language to pander to on-line commercial interests of modern steel makers. To clarify, the word Damascus should only refer to historical solid steels made from founding, not forge welding.

I wonder how many of Manton's aristocratic customers later played a part in his ruin?

49.23 Be careful with that talk, don't want too lose your head over there buddy 😂

10:48 no follow through. bad marksman. nice costume tho.

Who the hell would wear a 3 piece suit and buttoned up shirt but no tie?

10:18 Didn't know Jeremy Corbyn was a hunter

I can totally see me dong this.

I thought that duelling pistols were a French innovation.

Beautiful craftsmanship. But I'll stick with my Winchester... it's not Pretentious.. it's never occurred to me to put on a tie to go hunting, to English style for this yank

42:44 goes on about muskets being inaccurate.....shows Riflemen.....

I need to sell walnut to these people, they are paying way too much.

If the gun has a "lag" between pan fire and main charge a delay you say, then how do you explain the fact that a flintlock will fire UPSIDE down. And the brits would not except a gun that failed that simple test...........

Is this from when the British were allowed to own guns?

That is to a screw driver you monster.

My Dad bought 1 for 250 usd

everybody in clip looks and speaks like a caricature of an Englishman

Need to make one with a 10 inch barrel for close quarters battle. CQB. Steve

more recent conflicts (shows a conflict from 104 years ago...

Sportsmen, indeed!... Sports are practiced by athletes. How fit does one have to be to pull a trigger?

can you even own a rifle in England? I thought that you could not.

J

//Lars

idk Colt and Browning were my favs.

Shooting wildlife - people so lucky scientist tilted the human race from that plane..

John Moses Browning, and Mikhail Kalashnikov, Samuel Colt, and Eugene Stoner have entered the chat The guns look pretty but the best gun designer ever nope

fuckin' murderers, no need to kill birds, rabbits now, we have supermarkets for meat, I had a Cogswell and Harrison .410 hammer when I was 12, then I grew up

So kinda a flintlock era version of John Moses Browning

This is 20 centuries outdated guns

charls manson

Shotguns to kill pigeons? Guns cab be fun but shouldn't be used to kill animals or birds.

Sameul Colt had him beat

Duals were never an honorable thing to do, it was always evil especially for those hypocrites who called themselves Christians while immediately rushing to murder for the slightest insult.

That is what I have believed in for decades. Never ever trust a Politician, and more importantly never under any circumstances trust a Lawyer. Hey Guys, Come on. Lawyers appeared on the scene in proliferation about a decade or two after the Industrial Revolution in Europe, And some even made it over to Boston. Nothing has changed in nearly Two century's. Lawyers are a different animal now, so they tend to stick together, much like Wolves do but in a much more carnivorous manner. There's even Institutions and clubs just for them. Why would they distance themselves from us. I will tell you why. Because they have to be in control. It's in their soul, It's in their DNA, It's how they were brought up and educated. They a going to be the next pain in the ( Nurse, I think I just made a poop. Well we won't bother with that, It's the rest of your crap I have to deal with now).

John Moses Browning was the best there ever was or ever could be and my 1886 Winchester 45-90 bears testament to that.

и что.этот домаскус .дает прочное элостичное свойство стволам.говно это все.стрельни бездымным и пиздец полный домаскусу.фуфло талкаете. а за сказаное отвечаю.

To call Manton the “greatest gun maker of all time “ is a joke! Just another example of the British superiority complex! John M Browning had more knowledge about guns in his big toe! Stone Age production methods an Stone Age designs!! A fool an his money always part ways.