MVTC Tulle Fusil de Chasse (Pics)

[Dave Markowitz]

I was up at Dixon's today and saw that he had a Middlesex Village Trading Co. Tulle Fusil de Chasse. It handled really nicely and I've been looking for a flintlock ball and shot gun, so I brought it home.

Weight is about 7 or 8 pounds with a good balance. The trigger pull is quite a bit lighter than my MVTC M1717 musket.

I'm thinking I may age the metal a bit to take the shine off.

















The bore mics about .62 caliber/20 gauge at the muzzle. I bought some .600 round balls, along with wads and cards for shooting shot, and a 5# bag of mixed #8 and #7.5 shot. I'm planning to shoot it with round balls tomorrow, probably won't get to pattern it for awhile.

Range report to follow after I shoot it.

 

[NobleSniper]

Thats a real beauty

 

[pohill]

Great looking long gun. It's a smoothbore, correct?
Back in the day, were they used with roundballs and shot?
How do you load shot?

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Thanks, NS.

Pohill, yes, it's a smoothbore. Basically, this is an 18th century style 20 gauge shotgun. Back then they were used with shot for small game or fowl, or roundballs for large game or anti-personnel use.

To shoot it with shot you first put the powder, down, then an over powder card wad, a cushion wad, then the shot, and top it with an over shot wad. Or, you can use modern shot cups.

 

[Ratdog68]

Aww... but she's just so purdy as is !!

 

[Oyeboten]

Sure looks like fun!

 

[arcticap]

The wood, fit and polished steel all look really gorgeous together.
Doesn't the polished steel help make it easier to keep clean and looking like new in the long run?
It can always be aged later but some of us just adore polished steel and would want to enjoy it that way for as long as possible.
Whatever you decide to do, it's a beauty!

 

[BCRider]

With the wood so clean and crisp I think I'd be more inclined to either brown or blue the steel. And of course the option for color case hardening of the action parts is always a grand idea. Otherwise brown or blue those as well.

If you antique it the wood would just plain stand out and point the finger at an unbalanced treatment. Far better to my mind to make it look either overall new or overall old. And for my own part I'd opt for looking new since it IS new. Far better to earn its patina through use and gentle aging.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Range Report

I was able to get out and shoot it today. The lock sparks well and ignition is reliable, no flashes in the pan in 19 rounds (all I had time for).

The .600 balls and pillow ticking patches can be thumb started, which is nice. I also tried some shots with an over powder was, and also and over powder wad + cushion wad. Didn't see a difference in POI at 25 yards vs. just a patch. I was using 80 grains of 2Fg Goex.


For patch lube I used mutton tallow from Dixie Gunworks. I wiped with a spit patch after every 3rd or 4th shot so loading wouldn't be too difficult

It's shooting about a foot low. I need to play around with my sight picture (the piece has only a front sight, nothing in the rear) to see if I can raise it. Groups were about 6", mainly due to the heavy trigger pull. I'm sure my follow through could use some improvement, too.

 

[Olmontanaboy]

Beautiful Dave, I like it. I'm thinking of getting a smoothbore, maybe a colonial flowler. Does Dixon's have many guns on the shelf for sale or do they mostly take orders?

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Dixon's usually has a good variety of guns on the shelf.

 

[goon]

Lovely peice of hardware!
If you can't outsmart the sighting issue with messing with your load or with changing sight picture you might try a few passes with a file on the sight. Should bring POI up pretty easily. I do it all the time with fixed sight revolvers and I've even done with shotguns to adjust where the pattern hits.

 

[StrawHat]

Dave,

Nice fowler, I can not tell from the photos but it appears the pan is a separate piece and screwed in place? Interesting.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Goon, I've used the file myself. Trying to avoid that here, as it is much easier to remove metal than to add it.

StrawHat, keen eye. The pan is a separate piece from the lock plate.

 

[Brett Dixon]

British Dragoon

Here is my MVTC British Dragoon with browning, a front sight soldered on trigger works polished wood darkened and brass darkened, I like it better than the bright. Oh yea a few tacks to match my trade rifle. Your rifle looks great as it is, just throwing my version of a MVTC product.

Brett.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

That looks nice.

 

[Smokin_Gun]

Please don't deshine yer TVLLE(on lock)...it'll break my heart.
It's a beauty and the soldiers had to keep um polished not un like the French Charlieville Military Make,
Congrads real sweet and my Favored of that period.

 

[kwetu]

Dave, when I first started shooting a flintlock pistol I had problems with some of my shots going very low and I found that I was starting to lower the gun after squeezing the trigger but before the gun had finished it's firing sequence. I had to concentrate on following through and would hold my sight picture for at least 5 seconds after having fired the shot. My shooting improved immediately.
kwetu

 

[Dave Markowitz]

S_G,

It's not a Charleville, indeed it's not a military musket at all. It's a civilian piece. OTH, my M1717 is a replica of a miltary arm.

 

[DillHarris]

That is gorgeous, thanks for sharing. I just finished Carl P. Russell's book "Guns on the early frontiers : history of firearms, 1609-1843", so that is really fun to see. What kind of accuracy can you expect to get? There was a chart in the book from some test firing done with military muskets where they only got 75% hits at 85 yards (hell, or was it 85% at 75 yards), on a board the size of a company of men with 1 of 7 hits coming from ricochets off the ground. Again, that is REALLY nice.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

DH, I would hope that with some load development using a patched ball and practice I could expect minute of pie plate at 50 yards. I've read of modern shooters with new production smoothbores getting deer hunting accuracy out to about 75 yards, especially if a rear sight is added.

The lackluster accuracy of muzzleloading smoothbores in the 19th century and earlier is largely due to the use of undersized balls with no patch. E.g., the .72 to .75 caliber Brown Bess would be fired with a .69 caliber ball. This allowed fast loading in battle. Remember, armies fought in close formation back then, which partially made up for inaccuracy. OTH, it's also why the American Army adopted buck and ball loads for muskets, to increase hit probability.

 

[Cosmoline]

Smoothbores can be surprisingly accurate, but they take more experimentation than rifles. Try all sorts of powder and ball combinations and see what works best. Some of them do best with FFG and an unpatched ball, others with a smaller patched ball and 3F. Start with a mild load and work up in 5 grain increments. For flinters real BP is a must.

My old trade gun liked stout loads of musket powder, no patch, a bore-size ball and a little shotgun-style greased pad on top of the charge.

Your fusil seems to be saying increase the pressure a bit, so I'd go with a larger diameter ball and a fit tight enough to reqiure a prod from the short starter. TOTW sells all kinds of ball diameters.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Thanks for the tips Cosmoline.

 

[DillHarris]

Thanks Dave and Cosmoline for the information. Much appreciated. I've read that trade fusils were often cut down when barrels were bulged/split with overcharges and balls not fully seated. Could be another way to "authenticate" it. Just kidding. Thanks again. Fascinating.