black powder replicas

tocamoha

May 20, 2011 06:19

Lately there've been many questions about these replicas that some people seem to think are "real" guns.I thought the manufacture of these was a reaction to the Gun Control Act of 1968.I first saw one in 1969.Were they being made and imported before that?

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  MMMarvis

  May 20, 2011 06:25

  My Father bought a pair of 36 cal 1851 navy colts, Love shooting these. I am petty sure we got them in 1967 when we bought a ton of '06 ammo.
  
  I cant be sure but it seemed they were 50-60.00 with all the fixins.
  Later we got Italian #11 caps that were hotter.

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  45er

  May 20, 2011 06:50

  Howdy tocahoma,
  
  Not sure what you're gettin' at as no example given, but it boils down to "legal interpretion" what the referred to gun acts say--- black powder cartridge shooting arms are, yes, still a "firearm" under current law. Muzzleloaders, cap&ball, etc, non-cartridge black blowder shooters are not.
  
  I myself am "some people seem to think", say yes they are very "real" as wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of one, and of course should be handled with same respect.
  
  
  EDIT You know what, let me retract some of that, for maybe laws have changed from what i used to know? As wouldn't want someone to go carrying around a loaded muzzleloader and get in a legal bind?
  Edit-2 Thanks, rufe. I assume then Federal law, (as what I took for the topic), therefore has not changed stance in differating distinction between cartridge as firearm, and non-cartridge as not. Decades ago now when was into blackpowder, yet same as with handling them, always abidied with laws as any other firearm, just common sense to my thinking.
  45er

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  rufe-snow

  May 20, 2011 07:14

  The various Black Powder replicas actually date to the 1950's when Turner Kirkland of DGW and Val Forgett of Navy Arms started selling them, in anticipation of the Civil War Centennial. As far as their legal definition for being firearms that's up to State and municipal laws. Try walking around with a Colt cap & ball in New York city for instance, and tell the cop who knocks you down on the ground how it's legal as far as the feds are concerned.

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  Robin

  May 20, 2011 08:59

  In Florida, ball and cap revolvers are not considered "firearms" unless used in a crime. Other states maybe different. My Ruger Old Army may not meet the definition of a firearm but it is accurate and as potentially lethal as many handguns that meet the definition of a firearm. Certainly it would meet the definition of a "real gun".

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  tocamoha

  May 20, 2011 09:11

  I meant"real"in the Brand Name sense.Thanks Rufe for the history lesson.I remember seeing the Dixie Gun Works catalog back then and witnessed a reenactment of the battle of Bull Run in 1961.

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  Spider7115

  May 20, 2011 11:33

  You might enjoy this article from Guns & Ammo magazine. http://www.gunsandammo.com/content/cap--ball-resurrection
  
  Here's an excerpt:
  
  "The tale of the 2nd Generation Colt black-powder line actually began in the late 1950s with Val Forgett, founder of Navy Arms, and Italian gunmakers Vittorio Gregorelli and Aldo Uberti. They chose the Colt 1851 Navy as the first percussion revolver to be reproduced in Italy in 1958.
  
  After a dozen years and thousands of Colt reproductions, the success of the Italian-made '51 Navy--which Aldo Uberti frequently supplied to filmmaker Sergio Lione and Clint Eastwood for early spaghetti westerns--had finally come to the attention of the company that invented it."

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