My Left Hand Flintlock rifle

[Earlwb]

Many years ago I got this left hand flintlock Tennessee Rifle. It was sold under the Dixie Gun Works brand and it was made in Japan. It is .45 caliber and I use .445 or .440 balls depending on the patch material. The Japanese company that made these did a really good job too. At the time these rifles were not cheap either. DGW sold them for a high price too. I tend to be semi-ambidextrous, so although I usually do right handed stuff, I can still do many things left handed. Thus it wasn't a big deal for me to shoot it left handed.

I had made a leather frontiersman carry case for it. At the time leather wasn't that badly priced. I think that today, it would be really expensive to get that much leather to make a carry case for one. I also made the leather accouterments bag for it too. I had to have the extras to go with the rifle of course.

Years ago, I had met up with a muzzle loading club out here. But I had lost contact with them as they moved around to different places for target shooting. That was before the internet came into being though. I think I still have some of my late 1700's clothing still. I know I still have my tricorner hat though. I need to check around and see if there are any muzzle loading clubs around again. I haven't shot the rifle too much recently. The range master tended to get annoyed with people shooting muzzle loaders at the last range I took it out to. So I didn't take it out for shooting after that.

The rifle actually shoots really well. I haven't measured its accuracy. The bore is a bit tight so I need to swab the bore every few shots or it gets to where you can't ram the ball down the bore easily.

[Sharpsman]

Grapevine, Texas

Home of Audie Leon Murphy

My favorite HERO!!

[Earlwb]

Yes, he is one of my heroes too. But there may be some issues with his birth location. According to the falsified birth certificate, he was born in Kingston, Hunt County, Texas. So I am not sure he was really born.

[Mathew Quickly]

Howdy Earlwb. My first flintlock was the same model you have, and I agree with your comments on it's accuracy and quality. Mine is in .45 Cal, but right handed. Many years ago I developed
a blind spot dead center in my right eye, so I had to switch over and shoot left handed too. Like you, I found it easier than I expected to switch over. I've looked for this same rifle in the
left hand version, but so far haven't located one for the right price. And yes, Audie Murphy was a hero of mine as well. I have a couple of single action six shooters his company manufactured, and
they're a very well made and faithful copy of the Colt.

[mazo kid]

I agree, they were well made rifles. Mine was a left hand .50 caliber. I had it for over 25 years before I sold it. I still have twinges of remorse.

[DaveM]

Huh, never knew that Dixie imported .45 caliber TMRs. I thought they were only available in .32 and .50. I built a .50 from a kit back in the 90s but eventually traded it off.

Eight years ago I ran across this one at Dixon's Muzzleloading Shop in .50 that has been turned into a Lancaster-style rifle. The barrel was left full length but turned half-round. It was restocked in curly maple. The work was done by G.L. Dech, a 'smith from the Allentown, PA area. Oddly enough, it has the original ramrod.

http://flintlock.org/pics/var/resizes/Flintlocks/GL_Dech_Longrifle.jpg?m=1415063427

http://flintlock.org/pics/var/resizes/Flintlocks/longrifle_l_closeup.jpg?m=1314053870

As you can see, mine is also a lefty.

[Earlwb]

Thanks guys. Yeah I like that custom stock on your rifle DavidM. The patchbox adds a lot to it too.
If I remember right DGM had these rifles made in a number of calibers, from .32, .36, .40?, .44, .45, and .50, maybe even a .52 as well.
The small bore .32 and .36 imitated the actual guns made in the old days as back east they didn't need bigger bore rifles. So the .32 and .36 caliber ones were popular.

I have the original wood ramrod for mine, but I turned a fiberglass rod into a ram rod to use with mine. I dremeled in a small slot on one end for using with patches, etc. I wanted a stronger ram rod for shoving the bullet down the barrel better, especially after a couple of shots. You can see the fiberglass ramrod in a couple of pics. I still have a couple of 50 caliber machine gun cleaning rods too, and those work well. One of the small annoying things with a long barrel muzzle loader, is you can't use regular ramrods as they are all too short.

When I was little, I was writing left hand and right hand both. But the school teacher forced me to write right handed. So by the end of the year I was writing right handed. I don't know if it was right or wrong though. I suspect the teacher wanted conformity at the time. But then maybe she saw something in me that I didn't know at the time. I was sort of messed up brainwise for left or right handedness. My dominant eye is my right one, I can close my right eyelid but I can't close my left eyelid (I have to use a eye patch if I go for accurate shooting right handed). I bat left handed, but I throw the ball right handed. I use a ball glove on my left hand. So my brain is a bit messed up in that respect. Anyway it is fun to shoot left handed from time to time.

[dondiego]

Be careful with a fiberglass rod, I wore a muzzle out and had to cut it off using one.

[Earlwb]

Yes that is a good point. The rod I am using has a thick outer resin layer so it doesn't have the glass fibers exposed like on some rods.