Martin Fry’s Failed Flintlock Pistols ~ VIDEO

By Logan Metesh

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- While our country has had official arsenals for almost as long as we’ve been around (Springfield and Harpers Ferry were founded when George Washington was president), they didn’t always make all of the guns in-house. Often, the government contracted manufacture of the guns out to smaller, independent gunsmiths.

Such was the case with the Model 1807/8 flintlock martial pistol. For this particular order, seven different contractors produced a total of 1,802 flintlock pistols for the US Government. (Eleven smiths won the contract, but four never produced a single gun.)

Problems with the pistols arose immediately after the guns were delivered to the Schuylkill Arsenal. Upon inspection, almost all of them were rejected. And the problems weren’t confined to just one contractor. They were all guilty of submitting sub-par products.

Even early on, the government had “milspec” standards … and these guns didn’t measure up. One government official quipped, “It would have been better to have thrown the whole amount of purchase in the river, than to have procured with it.” Nonetheless, the government had indeed purchased them to the …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand