Anybody been watching this new reality show? It stars a guy named Daniel Casey who builds custom flint locks and knives. It seems interesting but I wonder about a couple of things. He says he makes all his own parts for the guns but you never see him making a lock or barrel. Also when they shoot they never wear eye protection. This seems like a bad idea when shooting a flint lock. Has any body ever heard of this guy? Just wondering if he is the real deal.

I think he's the real deal, minus the lock and barrel thing. I tuned in expecting him to hammer weld a barrel from scratch and whittle a lock from a bar of steel but such was not the case. Bear in mind though that throughout the Golden Age of gun building, most of those guys bought their locks (from "warranted" makers in Britain, Europe, and Philadelphia), and by the end of that period a lot of them were buying barrels or barrel blanks which they reamed/rifled themselves. I get the impression he strives to replicate arms produced on the frontier that weren't as finely made as those made by master gunsmiths in the "big cities". That's ok.

As for shooting without eye/ear protection, well, that's a matter of choice. Having survived 20 years of living history/re-ennacting while firing an ungodly number of shots without protection, I say it's not a big deal. I never sustained an injury (except the time I laid the palm of my hand open via the sharp flint in the lock of my Brown Bess- but glasses and muffs wouldn't have mattered much then). Don't get me wrong- protection is always a good idea, and I do so in all my shooting, but an occasional shot without it won't kill you (and it makes for good TV).

Thanks.

I wear ear/eye pro when shooting flintlocks at the range, but not while hunting with them. Knock on wood, no issues at this point.

It did mess up the back of my left hand when I leaned over a straw bale with my flintlock and put my arm under it like a I would with a modern rifle to get it up high enough to get on target, and didn't stop to think about the pan discharge. Wow did that sting, and I had a visual reminder of that stupidity for about 10 years every time I saw the faint grey spots in my skin from the flecks of powder (they have faded since, but it was an interesting thing to have when I was in college, let me tell you...)

If that is the show that I am thinking of, He is not far from me, but I had never heard of him until I stumbled across part of the show on TV. I have not seen a whole episode. miles

I have always used percussion locks when it comes to muzzle loaders.
For some reason I've always expected to get a face full of sparks if I were to fire a flint lock. That's what made me wonder about the lack of eye protection.
The show is enjoyable and I will continue to watch it.

I've had a stray bit of flint catch my check now and then (depending on what chips off the flint on impact). Nothing more than that.

My brother is a left-handed shooter and just always shoot right handed firearms because that's what my father had for us to use. He did likewise with flintlocks, which put his face on the same side of the rifle as the lock. SxS flintlock shotguns do that to the shooter regardless of which way the hold the gun.

Anyway, my brother doesn't hunt anymore, but he killed several deer with right handed flintlocks just fine, and to my knowledge he never had any problems shooting that way, and he had his face awful close to that lock.

The flintlocks look like there's a lot of fuss and bother going on there, but it's a fairly small flash overall.

I had someone at the range tell me my flintlock was making a "huge fireball" at the pan each time I fired it. My rifle is a custom long rifle using a Davis Colonial (i.e. BIG) lock. So, having never really seen the thing discharge from any perspective other than as the shooter, I set up my iphone and took some slo-mo video of the rifle going off.

The flash is NOT what that guy described to me. In slo-mo I can see the flint hit the steel, see the sparks fall, the pan light, and the ignition of both the pan and main charge. Not near what he made it out to be, and not near what folks think it is.

The hard thing for people with a flintlock is "tuning out" all that commotion and realizing that it's not gonna hurt you, so just ignore it. Took me YEARS to do that well.

The biggest hazzard I discovered while shooting a flinter is to the guy at the bench immediately to the right of you. That touchhole flame goes pretty far!

He made a spring on one show, and he can shoot! Sposed to have app. under Hershel House, Hes the real deal. I do like the show, not much on TV I care for anymore tho!

Cut the cord!

Even paying for Netflix and Starz for online watching, I'm saving over $80 a month and don't miss anything. I still get regular tv on an antenna, but probably don't look once a week, unless there's a storm brewing.

I get all the hunting and shooting stuff I want on YouTube, which I can watch on the big tv through my PS3.

I agree but the wife likes her channels.

Trust me; if you can get her hooked on YouTube, she'll fold.

Tons of free legal stuff to watch on Crackle and Hulu also.

http://www.crackle.com/

http://www.hulu.com/free

Although I do watch some of them, youtube is not my favorite way to watch things. miles

I've been seeing knives, rifles and pistols that he's made for several years now. He's legit for sure. Excellent craftsman. As for not making the barrel, it is common for most contemporary makers to just buy a barrel. The House Brothers made a rifle completely from scratch, lock, stock and barrel a few years ago, and it was a very big deal.

the last pistol had a lot of error on the lock inletting. I'd expect to see that on home built rifles by rookies IMO.

Interesting to know.