Main Discussion Area > Muzzleloaders

Tulle Fusil de Chasse, albeit Left-Handed

<< < (2/2)

mullet:
Very nice! That's a pretty piece of walnut.

Parnell:
That is beautiful.  Ray's winter residence is just up the road from me.  The trade gun I did last year was from him.
That is very exciting regarding your hunt on Anticosti Island.  Please, take pictures and post.  That is a trip on my life's list for someday.  Seems like a heck of an adventure.  Good luck with it.

Lefty38-55:
Thank you for the kind comments gentlemen! I decided to post it here as I see Erik posting on a few other MZL sites I frequent. But the truth is, I am an archer too! Unlike you guys, I have not yet attempted a selfbow, lol!

I believe I executed the build very well, however I have since learned that since I started the build ... that some of the information from Bouchard’s book on the French Tulles has changed. It is now even believed that one of the FdC’s in the Parks Canada collection is actually a ‘restock’ and that one owned by Simon Gilbert might be .... uhhh, a well done fake or forgery (I am NOT implying that he did it, whatsoever.)

If I were to do it again, the teardrops after the lock panel would be more ‘arrow’ or fleur de lis shaped, plus the tip of the arrow would need to follow the lock tail down the ballister rail. And there would be a sharper, more defined ballister rail, with a full round rail carried halfway down the buttstock.

For the walnut, it really wasn’t a fancy piece at all. I used the trick by Mike Brooks, where I stained the stock and put on 1 thin wiping varnish coat, then spray-painted the stock with flat black paint. And then I rubbed it off with a gray (fine or ultra-fine) scotchbrite pad, not to leave it ‘aged’ like some people do, but to leave it in the pores.

This allows any figure or grain inherent in the stock to be ‘highlighted’ and to me - gives it some character. Note I used no sandpaper on this build, as everything was done with hand tools and furniture scrapers.

Lefty38-55:
Anticosti Island recap

Let's just say that the hunt we experienced was a LONG RANGE endeavor, where even hunters using modern rifles with scopes declined to attempt or failed to connect on shots up to and exceeding 300-yards! For our group of 5 hunters we got 3 does and 5 bucks, the 2 largest being a 5 and 9-point bucks. We also heard that someone on the island that week took a 178-pound 8-pt buck, which indeed is a LARGE deer for Anticosti.

The woods is incredibly THICK and is all but impossible to step off a trail or game trail and still hunt the woods, which is my favorite way of hunting. ‘Black growth’ woods I call it, all thick/tangled evergreens - no hardwoods, no open areas. The roads and trails were cut so they would dog-leg, each section being anywhere from 50 to 60-yards long to 100 or more. So the hunting style was still hunting or walking the trails, then 'stealthaly' (sp?) stalking to the next corner and peering through or under the brush to see if a deer was standing in the open trail feeding or walking. Or sitting on the main roads in established wooden blinds, waiting for a deer to appear, where we logged distances of 266 & 341-yards for big deer seen.

My bro is a superior game shot and he bagged one at 140-yards, an offhand shot at that. But for the hunt we experienced it clearly was no place for a black powder musket, albeit a smoothbore one at that ...

But, I can say that I have hunted Anticosti Island and sure gave it my all with my homemade flintlock smoothbore fowler. Me? I'll take the hardwoods of NH, VT or ME (all more local to me) any day of the week!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page