[W. C. Quantrill]

What Hawg is sayin is, if you can document that an original was made before the year 1900, and used black powder, and you have one or an accurate replica of one, then bring it on. Actually, I think that there was an early design of percussion rifle made in the 1840's or 1850's that was in fact, an inline, it had a center hammer with the percussion nipple on the back of the breechplug. There is a patent that was issued for it, however only a dozen or so were made. Colin Stoltzer or Mike Lange built one from the patent drawings and found out why it was not successful. The blow back from the nipple hit the shooter right in the face, so it doesnt take long to discuss that.

Actually there was a great lot of really neat designs in the last half of the 1800's. A lot of them havent had a lot of ink time, so this new forum is to discover as much of that as we can and learn from it, as well as history of the westward expansion of the US. I lived on the Santa Fe Trail for 20 years, that era interests me. Some like the earlier stuff. Its all a part of us.

We particularly enjoy stories and pictures of building projects, so if you are building rifles, or pistols or guns or cannons, that will be very popular threads.

In research, failure is just as important as success. That prevents someone else from making the same expensive mistakes. Starting in the 1960's, there was a flood of replica rifles hit the market. They were almost all called a "Hawken". The funny thing is, that the mother of that tribe was listed in the 1875 Tryon catalog as the Tryon Indian Trade Rifle--half stock, brass trim, single key, and a patch box in the stock. Trivia is good.

If you have something really neat and original, or have a copy of an original, then bring it on. Arguing for the sake of arguing kills threads. There will be some gals in the forum and possibly kids of the forum members, so the only rule that really stands out is that. Keep it family oriented.

So, Bill, I say, build one of those Browning designs, do a tutorial on it, and a You Tube of you firing it, and by golly, we will make you your own forum for that. Hows that?