What was the first reproduction musket produced for the U.S. Civil War market?
The first U.S. Civil War weapon in our product line was the 1861 Springfield rifle-musket. The company was not making Civil War long-arms when they were approached about 20 years ago by an employee [Sue Hawkins] who then worked at Euroarms of America and that person was starting a new company, [Taylor’s & Company] which became our American distributor. They asked us to produce a musket for the growing Civil War reenacting hobby, so we first did the U.S. 1861. However, the 1853 Enfield is far and away the top seller in our Civil War product line. The U.S. 1861 Springfield is the second best seller, and the 1842 Springfield smoothbore being a strong third in popularity. When you say “top seller in the Civil War product line” what do you mean? Compared to the non-firing replicas? Well, the total sales of the U.S. Civil War rifles and muskets have been on the decline for several years. Our overall best sellers are currently the post-Civil War “cowboy/Western” and other cartridge firearms.
