Guns 2012-08.pdf - Jeffersonian

HOLT
BODINSON
The First Surplus
American Arm?
The National Guard’s first
firearm was a matchlock.
Stepping just inside the permanent exhibit on American
Military History in the National Museum of American
History, you will immediately come face-to-face with a
maple-stocked matchlock musket. Standing a bit over 5' tall
and sporting a .75-caliber bore, it’s an imposing firearm.
What catches your eye though is the name “Newtowne”
burned three times into the stock. The “Newtowne” branding
establishes both the origin of this matchlock as coming from
an early fortified outpost of Boston, established in 1631, and
tasked with maintaining and issuing muskets as well as the
matchlock’s ownership, to the local militia circa 1636.
The Enlisted Association of the
National Guard is selling a stunning,
limited edition reproduction of the
Newtowne militia matchlock as a
fundraiser for their “National Guard
Soldier and Airmen Emergency
Relief Fund.” The fund, part of the
We Care For America Foundation,
was established to provide emergency
grants to National Guard members
who have experienced catastrophic
financial hardship or personal
property losses, ranging from sudden
and long-term mobilizations to house
fires.
Al Garver, Executive Director
of the Enlisted Association and
the person responsible for creating
the Newtowne program, said only
375 Newtowne matchlocks would
be produced, celebrating the 375th
anniversary of the National Guard.
Each gun will be numbered.
We’ve all seen hundreds of
variations of fund-raising appeals, but
in my experience, nothing comes close
to the imaginative and the artistic
quality of the Newtowne matchlock
appeal.
Exacting Reproduction
Built by The Rifle Shoppe of Jones,
Oklahoma, the world’s unparalleled
source of classic and historic
reproduction parts for building
muzzleloading arms of all national
patterns, the Newtowne matchlocks
they’ve crafted are historically
correct and beautifully executed. The
reproduction is so exact you could
swap out their Newtowne for the
original Newtowne in the National
Museum, and no one would know
the better.
Actually, The Rifle Shoppe catalog
begins with parts for assembling
hand “gonnes,” matchlocks and
wheellocks, covers extensively the
250-year reign of the flintlock and
ends with the 40-year pop of the
percussion lock. If you’re interested
at all in historic arms and/or the parts
to make them, The Rifle Shoppe’s
catalog is a must have reference. Nice
folks, too.
In use from the late 1400s to
the early 1700s (except in Japan,
where its employment continued
into the 1800s), the matchlock was
the primary weapon of the early
American settlers. One step up
from the hand cannon, it is a simple
gun, but it could be quite elegant.
Like the .75-caliber Newtowne, the
colonial matchlock was typically a
The Matchlock really has no trigger in the
conventional sense, but has a lever that pivots
the “serpentine” holding the match down into a
pan of powder.
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WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • AUGUST 2012