I have a Hershel House .40 cal flintlock that I inherited from my father when he passed. Pop was a buckskinner and used to take us to Friendship when I was a little one. I still shoot BP and strive to keep the traditions alive. It's one of my prized and treasured possessions.
Herschel built the rifle that hangs in the ward room of the USS Kentucky the only flint lock rifle in the submarine fleet and the first sub my nephew ever set foot on!
As someone who lived in Crittenden county, KY and still have family there as well as participated in many reenactments and rendezvous, owning a flintlock from this man has always been and sadly still is on my bucket list. He is a world-class black powder rifle and pistol maker and I live for the day I can be lucky enough to get one.
This guy went poking around his neighbor's barn when he was a kid and she gave him a black powder gun. Sounds like every daydream I had when I was nine years old.
I was inspired by the articles in Foxfire books as well and poured over the techniques Hershel House used. I deeply admire him for his authenticity and use of 'found' materials to make flintlock masterpieces.
i am a old gun nut that loves guns, and own many, and have met with several well known names in the gun building trade. but without doubt my favorite gun related experience ever, was looking up Hershal unanounced at his home in woodbury ky a few years back, to discuss a little left handed squirrel rifle he had built for a family member he was very gracious and welcoming, and i stepped back in time when i entered his residence and gun shop.
I really enjoyed this video. I have read about the House rifles since Foxfire 5 came out when I was a teenager. Thirty years later I still look at them with awe.
+fullstrutn I know what you mean and there is another one, he makes slingshots (dont laugh), I think also in KY. He is on YT and I wanted to trek across the country just to meet and talk to such a talented and humble old fellow. Several things are sad here and among them is that House and others like him are spit on by the Left whereas in my mind Id want, and never be prouder than to have someone like House or the slingshot fellow as president of the united states.
I read about Hershel in the Foxfire books. He makes a rifle, step by step for the book, in the 1970's. Makes a pretty gun. Glad to see he's still as passionate about it today.
Old school!!! Just what America was made from, I wish I lived back in the day. Men were men, and you had to be a man or die. Sad,,,,what we have become. I love my 54 Cal .....Ken Netting. Great video and you are amazing.
Great video and a great guy, Hershel House. Many of the early Texas pioneers brought their Kentucky flint and steel rifles with them, from other Southern States, when they immigrated to Texas. They were put to good use at the Alamo and at San Jacinto and on the wild prairies.
Excellent video ! You can see the hazards involved with shooting a flintlock from the left shoulder, I wonder why Carmen does not make his rifle with a left hand lock. Many thanks for posting this gem !
Love the old guns. Made a couple myself, nothing in the league of the ones made by Hershel. Been a fan of his for a good while. If I could afford one of his guns I'd buy it.
most of the long rifles usualy fell some where between .28 to .54 caliber depending on what area it was made in. But you can get one built in about any caliber you want. A good custom long rifle usualy starts at around $2000 US
I had no idea they had traditional only seasons. This is a fantastic video and I'd love to get into contact with this man for hunting in Illinois, Lost arts like this and bowyer (bow making) are great examples of beautiful cultural history
Don't get me wrong. These guys are A#1 in my book! But I had to kinda chuckle when I saw the "vice grips" in the process. Sometimes you need the modern tools. Cool post.
My dad and his brother were poking around in an abandoned barn up in Arkansas when they were boys an found an old muzzleloading double barreled shotgun up over a rafter. It had one broken hamer. That would have been back about 1916.
Funny I read the same book up in Ont. Canada not in school just reading old fellow next door gave it to me I immediately started playing Hoky and hunting fishing chasing bees and eating wild stuff wonder my Dad didn't kill me but a grew up got and education made a living and still play Hoky fish, hunt with muzzle loaders (real ones) and have a great time. I red that book about 65yrs ago and can still see the cover plain as day must have had a great effect on mme
This is awesome. Reminds me of a series that was on TV a few years back. Guy who forges rifle components, knives, etc and also makes the stocks himself. Youngish guy with blondish hair. Anyone know what the series was called?
Don t worry about that there are several new generation builder s carrying forth the art just get a copy of Muzzle Loader Magazine or Early American Life and you'll see their ads
I'd love to get to Woodbury and watch these guys work their craft. If he went into someone's barn and found a gun these days, they'd call the law, have him arrested and charged with Burglary, convicted and sent to the Dept. of Juvenile Justice. What happened to the good ole days.
we are out here those of us who lived that life of old barns, old wagons, and stories from old men and their old women. tough young, are hard to talk too these days. they gots too much on their minds.
Thìß is a very old book I had one as a young boy 8!!9 yrs old the fellow that gave it to me was at least75 at the time and said he had used it as a "reader during his short time in shool
I built a pennsylvania rifle from Herchel House drawings that I purchased from him .I wish I still had that book.. I wonder if Mel Gibson kept that rifle from the movie.
Cool video. I'd like to have seen the damage a 60 caliber round shot does. Lewis and Clark had to use flintlocks on grizzly bears and, they say, it took repeated shots to bring most of them down.
One question, with the caveat that I know he knows infinitely more than I do and I’m just trying to learn. I have been told that the condition of a muzzle crown is key to the accuracy of the rifle. Doesn’t the use of a patch knife at the muzzle damage that crown? Risk damaging the crown? Where am I going off the rails here please.
How do you make a trigger pull easyer on a flintlock.I have a replica 1777 Charleville Musket and the trigger pull is real hard,and make me pull off bad.Ive never had a musket with a pull this hard.
Never met the gentleman. I learned of him from the Fox fire book I built my first rifle using some of the information from his article! His kind are few and far apart watch your top knot ✌️
I have a Hershel House .40 cal flintlock that I inherited from my father when he passed. Pop was a buckskinner and used to take us to Friendship when I was a little one. I still shoot BP and strive to keep the traditions alive. It's one of my prized and treasured possessions.
Amazing to see the craftsmen at work keeping these skills alive.
A life well lived. RIP brother
Hershel House is a national treasure.
Herschel built the rifle that hangs in the ward room of the USS Kentucky the only flint lock rifle in the submarine fleet and the first sub my nephew ever set foot on!
You aint a Kidding .
Keep this man alive.
When the apocalypse happens, flintlocks would be the only tech we would have left..
Hold my bow and arrows. 😀 But yes,of all those fire arms today,flintlocks (and matchlocks) are the one that could be functional when the ammo is gone.
Every young man should sit around his wood stove and listen to the knowledge and stories he has.
Today
“Everytime an old man dies, a library burns...”
boy this was a pleasure to watch.
As someone who lived in Crittenden county, KY and still have family there as well as participated in many reenactments and rendezvous, owning a flintlock from this man has always been and sadly still is on my bucket list. He is a world-class black powder rifle and pistol maker and I live for the day I can be lucky enough to get one.
Rest in peace Hershel!
This guy went poking around his neighbor's barn when he was a kid and she gave him a black powder gun. Sounds like every daydream I had when I was nine years old.
My great grandpa taught me how to to shoot a caplock gun he made when I was 13, when he passed away I restored it, recalls me good memories.
I took his and John's extended class in Jackson Ohio in 2012. Great experience. Great men.
What a man, and what a history!
Thanks for posting this!!!
Mulebrain!
Great to see real craftsmanship being practiced in this country. Thank you very much for this video.
He would be a national treasure! I hope he is keeping well and still building those ver fine rifles and guns
Thanks for this video, it's like going back in time. Outstanding craftsmanship from an modest down to earth man.
Very good black powder, without delays, excellent manufacturing of both the rifle and its components .. congratulations.
I was inspired by the articles in Foxfire books as well and poured over the
techniques Hershel House used. I deeply admire him for his authenticity
and use of 'found' materials to make flintlock masterpieces.
Thank you so much, it's so nice to see any thing from the House family.
Awesome video. Hershel House is a true master. Thanks.
i am a old gun nut that loves guns, and own many, and have met with several well known names in the gun building trade.
but without doubt my favorite gun related experience ever, was looking up Hershal unanounced at his home in woodbury ky a few years back, to discuss a little left handed squirrel rifle he had built for a family member
he was very gracious and welcoming, and i stepped back in time when i entered his residence and gun shop.
I really enjoyed this video. I have read about the House rifles since Foxfire 5 came out when I was a teenager.
Thirty years later I still look at them with awe.
never met a more talented but yet humble man
+fullstrutn
I know what you mean and there is another one, he makes slingshots (dont laugh), I think also in KY. He is on YT and I wanted to trek across the country just to meet and talk to such a talented and humble old fellow. Several things are sad here and among them is that House and others like him are spit on by the Left whereas in my mind Id want, and never be prouder than to have someone like House or the slingshot fellow as president of the united states.
Really amazing. Its great to see how they're made.
I read about Hershel in the Foxfire books. He makes a rifle, step by step for the book, in the 1970's. Makes a pretty gun. Glad to see he's still as passionate about it today.
Old school!!! Just what America was made from, I wish I lived back in the day. Men were men, and you had to be a man or die. Sad,,,,what we have become. I love my 54 Cal .....Ken Netting. Great video and you are amazing.
Seems like the coolest dude! Such a character!
Great video and a great guy, Hershel House. Many of the early Texas pioneers brought their Kentucky flint and steel rifles with them, from other Southern States, when they immigrated to Texas. They were put to good use at the Alamo and at San Jacinto and on the wild prairies.
I am lucky enough to own one of his rifles met him many years ago what a wonderful man he was
I got to see some of his wonderful guns about 12 years ago just incredible work.
Love these videos...Great artwork...American Greatness
Excellent video ! You can see the hazards involved with shooting a flintlock from the left shoulder, I wonder why Carmen does not make his rifle with a left hand lock. Many thanks for posting this gem !
Tim,
Thanks for the great video! Mr. House is a true artist!
Please feel free to post any other video that you have on this gentleman
Thoroughly enjoyed the video,
Thank God for Mr. Hershel and his family!
Beautiful guns! 👍👍😃🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Enjoyed the video,it was nice to finally put a face to a name i see often.Right down home type of shop.Griz
Love the old guns. Made a couple myself, nothing in the league of the ones made by Hershel. Been a fan of his for a good while. If I could afford one of his guns I'd buy it.
Hershel is a true gentleman and an amazing artist.
I am proud to call him, and his brothers John and Frank, my friends.
where do you go to buy one of his flintlock's?
Things of beauty made by a gentleman.
Yes Hershel,
I had Singing Wheels in school also. Beautiful work.
I still have a Sing Wheels book
KENTUCKY PROUD.
Not just fast horses & BEAUTIFUL WOMEN.
But FUN pioneers like u that leaves behind more than gun powder. But legends as well. ♡♡♡
Hershel House is a inspirational gun builder and all around great guy!
really enjoyed, thank you !!!
Hershel House got me into black powder, and I enjoyed any story about Hacker Martin and his engraver friend, Lester Smith who died way too young
I am also in love with them!
HH. What a legend. What a kraftsman. 👍
Great story, well told, shot, and edited. Good job! Jack
Wow -- absolutely amazing. My hat's off to Herschel and John, both.
Don t forget Frank he was one of the first friends I made when I started out in the hobby!
Absolute master at what he does..Looking at someone like Hershel or Frank's work makes craftsman want to be better,,
A True American Craftsman !
most of the long rifles usualy fell some where between .28 to .54 caliber depending on what area it was made in. But you can get one built in about any caliber you want. A good custom long rifle usualy starts at around $2000 US
I had no idea they had traditional only seasons. This is a fantastic video and I'd love to get into contact with this man for hunting in Illinois, Lost arts like this and bowyer (bow making) are great examples of beautiful cultural history
Don't get me wrong. These guys are A#1 in my book! But I had to kinda chuckle when I saw the "vice grips" in the process. Sometimes you need the modern tools. Cool post.
Pretty obvious that he doesn't....
You missed the point Spicoli.
Those vice grips save you the trouble of squeezing two handles together all day while youre pounding the steel
Back in the day some sorry child with grips would hold it
I'd love to watch mechanics of The Craft and Hershel house is certainly one of them
He sure has a gift on making those Flintlocks.
those guns are beautiful
It's just so much nicer to have something that is made by hand .
Loved this
My dad and his brother were poking around in an abandoned barn up in Arkansas when they were boys an found an old muzzleloading double barreled shotgun up over a rafter. It had one broken hamer. That would have been back about 1916.
He was my dads best friend growing up.
Wow, what an American treasure.
Funny I read the same book up in Ont. Canada not in school just reading old fellow next door gave it to me I immediately started playing Hoky and hunting fishing chasing bees and eating wild stuff wonder my Dad didn't kill me but a grew up got and education made a living and still play Hoky fish, hunt with muzzle loaders (real ones) and have a great time. I red that book about 65yrs ago and can still see the cover plain as day must have had a great effect on mme
This is awesome. Reminds me of a series that was on TV a few years back. Guy who forges rifle components, knives, etc and also makes the stocks himself. Youngish guy with blondish hair. Anyone know what the series was called?
Very cool guys get er done all day long
I doubt I could ever afford one of these fine guns. I worry the craft isnt being handed down and will be lost forever.
Well you ought to try getting into one of The WOODBURY schools gunsmithing class. One goes home with a gun made during the school
Don t worry about that there are several new generation builder s carrying forth the art just get a copy of Muzzle Loader Magazine or Early American Life and you'll see their ads
I'd love to get to Woodbury and watch these guys work their craft. If he went into someone's barn and found a gun these days, they'd call the law, have him arrested and charged with Burglary, convicted and sent to the Dept. of Juvenile Justice. What happened to the good ole days.
Ky afraid is awesome
we are out here
those of us who lived that life of old barns, old wagons, and stories from old men and their old women.
tough young, are hard to talk too these days.
they gots too much on their minds.
Thìß is a very old book I had one as a young boy 8!!9 yrs old the fellow that gave it to me was at least75 at the time and said he had used it as a "reader during his short time in shool
I built a pennsylvania rifle from Herchel House drawings that I purchased from him .I wish I still had that book.. I wonder if Mel Gibson kept that rifle from the movie.
Nice Work
Nice video thanks
Beautiful!
Outstanding. Would love to get a rifle made by those men
Too COOL !!!!! So Awesome.
Beautiful.
love this video
Everything is better when there is a dawg involved.
now i really want one of these
Why do all Flintlock gunsmithing videos obtain the same style of music for the soundtrack? How about some Swedish Black Metal or some K-Pop?
Fantastic 😀
I love this
You will be missed. Rest in peace. And gods speed.
Cool video. I'd like to have seen the damage a 60 caliber round shot does. Lewis and Clark had to use flintlocks on grizzly bears and, they say, it took repeated shots to bring most of them down.
It never dawned on me that the wet patch will clean the musket when loading.
are those squirrel rifles accurate?wat caliber ball do they shoot,and how much would one cost?
I want one of his guns he made
This guy has been plucked right out of time and placed there in those Kentucky woods.
One question, with the caveat that I know he knows infinitely more than I do and I’m just trying to learn. I have been told that the condition of a muzzle crown is key to the accuracy of the rifle. Doesn’t the use of a patch knife at the muzzle damage that crown? Risk damaging the crown? Where am I going off the rails here please.
Do you know somthing about «box barrels» It is deskribed in Alex Bealers book, The art of blacksmithing.
Everyone should learn how to shot flintlocks & caplocks with real black powder. It's a learning experience.
How do you make a trigger pull easyer on a flintlock.I have a replica 1777 Charleville Musket and the trigger pull is real hard,and make me pull off bad.Ive never had a musket with a pull this hard.
I would love to own one of theses rifles
hi, thanks for the video. can you tell us camera you used to make the video ?
you would think Mr, House would have a left handed guy laying around he could shoot
Very nice
I see Hershel house every day
I love antique gun vids. This is a good one. But, uh, no eye protection when shooting?
he is used to the flash pan igniting in his face plus eye protection would ruin the video :P
that was great.
quel travail magnifique.....bravo , toutes mes felicitations.
Never met the gentleman. I learned of him from the Fox fire book I built my first rifle using some of the information from his article! His kind are few and far apart watch your top knot ✌️