Beginning a Match Lock Project

[Polar_Hunter]

First, the slow match,,,,,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYgKSk4bdyU

[salty dog]

It would be scary to me to load a gun with a burning ember near the touch hole, but it sounds like an interesting project. I'll keep watching for updates.

[Polar_Hunter]

It would be scary to me to load a gun with a burning ember near the touch hole, but it sounds like an interesting project. I'll keep watching for updates.

Oh yes, I have thought about that for sure!!! I have my own design that allows for the quick removal of the match for loading and a means to hold the match in the butt stock.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

That is what was done when the matchlock was state of the art. They had a forked rest with a clip for the end of the match - or both ends, giving you a second source of ignition if one went out. The order "handle your match" meant detach it from the gun and fix it on the rest. The risk, before paper cartridges came into use, was also reduced by the "twelve apostles", little wooden containers on a bandolier to keep ready-use powder in small portions.

This probably kept the musket a large and heavy weapon. If you needed the rest for this reason, the weight didn't matter so much.

[bedbugbilly]

I haven't looked at photos of original match locks for years but IIRC, I think that some had the "cock" (or whatever they called it that held the match) so that when the gun was being loaded, it was rotated all the way back (in the "cocked" position for want of a better word) - so that the match ember would be as far away from the pan as possible. And I also believe that some had a "pan cover" - think of it like a frizzen on a flintlock - that when loading wold e rotated down to cover the pan and the vent while loading. Priming the pan would be the last part of the loading process and would then remain covered until ready to shoot - at which time the cover would be rotated off the pan and the "cock" brought forward with the match? I'm guessing there were a number of designs.

That should be a fun and interesting project! I hope you'll post photos along the way! Is there a particular design or time period you are going after or an original you are "modeling" it after? Good luck and have fun! Sounds like a great project!

[LAGS]

This thread is goind to bring back memories for me.
I made a Match Lock rifle, or should I cay Hand Cannon back when I was 13 years old.
It was made out of a 1/4" wall piece of steel pipe for the barrel with a 5/8" bolt tapped in for a breech plug.
The stock was a Wood Baseball Bat with a groove carved in it to hold the barrel, and the barrel was held in with two hose clamps.
The hammer spring was a spring from a Cloths Pin. ( remember those, they were used with the Solar clothes dryers your mother had strung across the back yard ).
I cant wait to see what you build in your thread.
And I am glad I am still alive , after my Youthful Endevors, that I managed not to blow myself up.

[LAGS]

I dont mean to get off track with your wonderful project, but I would like to give you a little Back Story on my first Matchlock project.
Back in the 1960's my Grandfather showed me a OLD rifle he had.
He said Years before, he would go to Mexico to hunt Doves.
On one of his many trips, he asked a farmer if he could hunt on his land that was a lot of Grain Fields.
The farmer was amaized how many Doves my grandfather and his friends could get in one day.
He asked my grandfather if he could teach him to shoot like that.
So, my grandfather took him out with an old side by side that the farmer had, and taught him how to Wing Shoot and not miss.
When they got back to the house, the farmer to show his appreciation Gave my grandfather an old rifle that had been in his family forever.
It was an old beat up Matchlock, that was probably brought over by the Spanish in days of Cortez.
My grandfather being a gunsmith also, repaired the matchlock and got it firing again.
He explained to me what it was, and how it worked, and told me that was the way guns use to shoot.
I was thrilled, at how basic it was, so I decided to build something like it myself.
With scrap steel pipe, parts from my old roller skates, a spring from a cloths pin a couple hose clamps and a beat up baseball bat, I had a firing Hand Cannon.
The powder was heads off matches, and the primer powder was powder from fireworks.
The projectiles were Glass Marbles, Fishing sinkers, or lead shot I salvaged from shotgun shells that had misfired.
Now you wonder why I am suprized that I am still alive , or dont go by the Nick Name " Lefty "
Story is, when my Grandfather passed away in 1967, my Grandmother Donated the gun along with almost all his other guns to a Gun Club or hunting club my grandfather belonged to, and they auctioned them off for money to support the Club.
They say that it sold for $15,000 even way back then.
I wonder what it would be worth today.
Or better yet, I would have loved for That Rifle to be left to me.
Not because of the Value, but the History, and what it actually was. Plus being something from my grandfather.

[abunaitoo]

I've always wanted a Matchlock.
Maybe some day I'll get around to making one.
I'd like to make it with a rifled barrel.

[LIMPINGJ]

PM missionary5155 or search for his post on the one he built.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I haven't looked at photos of original match locks for years but IIRC, I think that some had the "cock" (or whatever they called it that held the match) so that when the gun was being loaded, it was rotated all the way back (in the "cocked" position for want of a better word) - so that the match ember would be as far away from the pan as possible. And I also believe that some had a "pan cover" - think of it like a frizzen on a flintlock - that when loading wold e rotated down to cover the pan and the vent while loading. Priming the pan would be the last part of the loading process and would then remain covered until ready to shoot - at which time the cover would be rotated off the pan and the "cock" brought forward with the match? I'm guessing there were a number of designs.

That should be a fun and interesting project! I hope you'll post photos along the way! Is there a particular design or time period you are going after or an original you are "modeling" it after? Good luck and have fun! Sounds like a great project!

That might be good enough protection for a solitary hunter, but not for a line of infantry in close proximity. I think corned gunpowder was available within the period of the matchlock, but not well corned, and fine dust probably got everywhere. That could include trickling out of the touchhole into what was a theoretically empty pan. Even in the days of the flintlock and good quality powder, blowing away someone's priming was a way of disarming him which would most likely work, but not always.

Most matchlocks had pan covers, and by late in their period I think it could open automatically as you pulled the trigger. An important development was the snap matchlock, in which a conventional trigger pull would allow the match to be driven home by a spring.

You have to remember that it was supplanted not by the wheel-lock, but by the flintlock. The wheel-lock was an excellent system, faster in ignition than all but the very best quality late flintlocks, but very expensive to make. Most matchlocks were made down to a price, for the military or low-budget hunters, while those with money went for wheel-locks, often ornamented to a very high standard. But there were probably a few traditionalists, or people who would risk a rain-extinguished match in exchange for near-impossibility of mechanical failure. Few of those have survived, and it is possible some were converted. They could have included rifling, set triggers etc. For military use the smell of a unit of burning matches could be a disadvantage, but if a deer is going to smell that, it is going to smell you anyway.

[LAGS]

Yes, I remember when my grandfather fired the Matchlock, the Lock time and Ignition time was really slow.
It would be like Click, Fizz, Bang , Boom.
Plus he had a pole with a Yoke on top to hold it when firing.
It was super heavy even for him.
I dont know if it was the original shooting pole that came with the rifle, or it was something he made out of an old
Boat oar yoke.
But he could hit the target at 50 yards