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We guarantee all of our guns to function as designed. As a reenactor, I understand the abuses that muskets see in the field, and can't really warranty things like the stock, the finish etc. once the gun has been used. What we can and do warranty is the lock, provided that it is maintained properly by the customer and not modified.

Frizzens wear out, that is part of shooting a flintlock. The sparks that you see when you pull the trigger are tiny, red-hot pieces of metal that the flint has just scraped off of the face of the frizzen. Eventually, the case hardened face of the frizzen wears away. In the old days, the local blacksmith would rivet or solder a piece of steel, generally a piece of saw blade, to the face of the frizzen and it would be good as new. Most of the original flintlocks that you see in museums have had the frizzen repaired in this way. What we do is to polish the worn face of the frizzen, then reharden it. We will do this for free to any gun that we have sold.

Springs are covered by the warranty. Even though the hand-forged springs on these guns are vastly superior to the investment cast springs used in most locks today, they will break on rare occasions. Very rare. Out of thousands of guns, we have only had to repair a handful of broken springs due to part failure. We cannot be held responsible for people using the wrong tool to remove a spring. If you use vise grips to remove a spring instead of a spring vice, you WILL break it. Springs obviously damaged by improper disassembly techniques are not covered under the warranty. Yes, we can tell the difference.

We cannot be held responsible for the function of the lock in cases of abuse and neglect. If you do not clean and oil your gun, it WILL rust. This is not the gun's fault, it is the shooter's fault! A muzzleloader is not like a modern gun in that you can come home from the range and throw it in the closet dirty. Black powder fouling is corrosive and starts to create rust almost immediately. If you send in your lock for repair and it is rusty, expect a lecture!

We've had a few clowns tell us that they are made of "cheap, inferior steel" because they rust easily. Everyone who has claimed this B.S. has lived by the salty air of the ocean to boot. Dumb, dumb, dumb...sort of too dumb to actually own a gun. If you don't change your baby's diaper, it will get a rash...if you don't change the oil in your car, you will prematurely wear your engine...AND...if you don't clean and oil your black powder gun, it WILL rust.

For example, this is a lock that was sent in because it wasn't working right. Gee, do you think the rust and crud that coated the lock parts just might have had something to do with that? The problem wasn't that something was worn, it was that there was rust and crud built up between the frizzen and the spring so it wouldn't pop open all the way when the flint hit it.

This is just a minor example of some of the atrocities we have seen. These are black powder guns. You NEED to clean and oil them...it is that simple.

If the lock has been modified, it is not reasonable to expect us to have to cover it under the warranty. Flintlocks are a specialized thing to work on, and very easy to ruin by unqualified individuals. If you are having problems with your lock, please allow us to take care of it in the proper fashion.

Do not remove the breechplug from the barrel. It is not meant to be removed as a part of normal maintenance. The barrel of a gun that is pinned together is not meant to be removed for cleaning either. Each time you remove pins from a stock you risk damaging the stock upon reinstallation.

If you have a lock that needs repair, contact Pete at info@middlesexvillagetrading.com and he will send you a warranty form via email for you to fill out and enclose with your lock. If you have a non-warranty repair, sometimes we take those in too, explain what you need and he will send you the non-warranty repair form.

This form MUST be sent in along with the lock for warranty repairs. We stand behind these locks, but you need to meet us partway and fill out the simple form.

POLICY CHANGE effective October 13th, 2009, we will be charging a $10 fee for warranty repairs on guns ONE YEAR or more past the purchase date. Please enclose a copy of your invoice along with the warranty form with any repair jobs if you gun is less than 12 months old. For warranty repairs within ONE YEAR of purchase, return shipping is still free. This change is in response to certain folks treating our generous repairs policy as their annual maintenance and sending in dirty, rusty locks that have received no maintenance for the whole season and expecting us to clean and tune them for free. Remember: all rules exist because somebody did something stupid.

Returns policy

Please contact us if you wish to return a gun for any reason. For most repairs, we only need the lock and would prefer it if just the lock were shipped to us since UPS has been known to smash a stock or two. If your stock is cracked or whatever from shipping damage, rest assured that we didn't send it out that way. Shipping can be brutal on long guns. If it arrived damaged, contact us so we can start a claim with UPS.