The Kit and Repro Market

The market for hand mortars is tiny, and that is exactly why it is easy to map. There are three routes plus a custom option, and unlike the blunderbuss market next door, one of them is a genuine parts-set kit with a published price list.

11.1 The four routes

Table 1 — The four routes

Route	What you get	Price	Skill	Availability
Veteran Arms	Finished, shootable reproduction, India-made and US-finished	~$790 (confirm)	none; a tune-up helps	ordered pre-pandemic, delivered over a year later
Loyalist Arms	Same builder; touch hole drilled and gun inspected before shipping	call	none	call
The Rifle Shoppe 819 parts set, lock castings	Bronze barrel with breech plug fitted, stock, all furniture, unassembled lock castings	$975	advanced	call; TRS is famously slow
The Rifle Shoppe 819 parts set, assembled lock	Same, lock built	$1,275	intermediate to advanced	call
Custom build (TRS parts + Ben Coogle bronze barrel)	Museum-grade finished piece	~$1,400 documented	expert to build, none to buy	one-off

Two names that make blunderbuss kits are absent here and it is worth saying so up front: neither Pedersoli nor Kibler makes a hand mortar, in any form. There is no drop-together CNC option and no Italian factory repro. What exists is what is in that table.

11.2 The Rifle Shoppe 819

This is the real kit, and it is the one Jeff should be looking at if the goal is to build.

The Rifle Shoppe’s own catalog copy tells you what the barrel is: “The breech plug is fitted to the barrel. The length of the barrel is 8” overall with a 2½” bore.” They also pass on the performance claim from a customer: “Ben Coogle shoots tennis balls from his and says it will send them two to three hundred yards.” (Volume 5 explains why that number should be treated with suspicion.)

The published price list, from the 2010 catalog - call 405-356-2583 to confirm current pricing and lead time, because that catalog is old and TRS is a call-to-order shop:

Table 2 — The published price list, from the 2010 catalog - call 405-356-2583 to confirm current pricing and lead time, because that catalog is old and TRS is a call-to-order shop

Item	Part	Price
Parts set with set of lock castings	819 PARTS	$975.00
Parts set with assembled lock	819 PARTSAS	$1,275.00
Barrel, bronze, 8 in overall, 2½ in bore, breech plug fitted	819 BA	$295.00
Stock	819 ST	$275.00
Set of lock castings	819	$150.00
Assembled lock	819 AS	$495.00
Breech plug	819 BRP	$24.95
Butt plate	819 BP	$39.95
Trigger guard	819 TG	$39.95
Side plate	819 SP	$18.95
Trigger / trigger plate	819 TR / TP	$12.95 / $15.95
Thumb piece + screw	819 TH / THSX	$16.95 / $4.95
Front sling swivel + base + screw	819 FSSW / FSSWB / FSSWBSX	$16.95 / $10.95 / $3.95
Rear sling swivel + base	819 RSSW / RSSWB	$16.95 / $10.95
Lock screw set	819 LSS	$24.95
Side lock screw (2 needed)	819 SLSX	$6.95 each
Tang screw	819 TASX	$4.95

Individual lock components - plate, cock, top jaw, frizzen, frizzen spring, pan, tumbler, bridle, sear, sear spring, mainspring - run $18.95 to $24.95 each and are all included in the castings set. The top jaw screw is $12.95.

Do the arithmetic on the upgrade. The castings set is $150; the assembled lock is $495. The difference between the two parts sets is exactly $300, which is what TRS charges to build the lock for you. Volume 12 argues about whether that is worth paying.

Is it actually buildable? Yes, and there is a witness. Grenadier1758’s reenacting unit: “Our hand mortar was built from the Rifle Shoppe’s kit.”

And the honest counterweight, from Col. Batguano in the same thread: “it sure looks cool and fun. Not so cool and fun that I would want to invest the time and money to build one though.” This is a casting-cleanup, lock-assembly and inletting project. It is not a weekend.

11.3 Veteran Arms

Veteran Arms’ “Early 1700s Grenadier Hand Mortar” is the buy-it-finished option. Reported specifications: overall length 24.25 inches, chamber .75 calibre, bore 2.5 inches, flintlock. Listed at $790 - though the store is a JavaScript storefront that does not put the price in the page source, so confirm before ordering.

Who they are. There was a long argument about this on the Muzzleloading Forum and the owner settled it himself: Veteran Arms LLC is an American company in south Georgia. Their own FAQ says “All of Veteran Arms’ muskets, pistols, and bayonets are made by experienced craftsmen in India”, and the owner adds that items are finished in the US shop, with some made domestically and others sourced from the USA, Canada, Pakistan and England.

What owners say. The reviews are consistent and mildly qualified:

• “Overall construction not bad, stock is a little rough on the inletting, lock needed tuning, no major issues there… he’s happy with it.” (KABAR2)
• “I’ve bought from them. Good prices and good, fast service. Return for refund if you don’t like the gun when it arrives. My musket functioned good from the start. I believe I got my money’s worth.” (okawbow)
• “Mine is a hoot to shoot! I lucked out and bought a barrel full of used tennis balls for $50! Ammo to spare…” (Flint62Smoothie)
• “About 120 grains lob nicely.” (Commodore Swab, who has owned two)

What to expect to fix: inletting cleanup and a lock tune. That is the standard Indian-repro tax and it is not a defect so much as a known step. Budget an evening.

Lead time is the real cost. One buyer “ordered this before the pandemic and received it over a year later.” Plan accordingly.

11.4 Loyalist Arms

Loyalist sits in the same lane and the forum consensus is that Loyalist and Veteran use the same builder, with the difference being in-house work before shipment: Loyalist drills the touch hole and inspects the gun. Loyalist also offers unbuilt hand mortar kits. No current published price was found for the hand mortar specifically - call them.

Between the two, the trade is straightforward: Loyalist for a gun that has had eyes on it before it ships, Veteran for price and for the specific model above.

11.5 The secondary market

Both matter because new lead times are so long:

• A used, unfired Veteran Arms hand mortar sold through the Muzzleloading Forum classifieds at $750 including shipping (January 2024). It went quickly - a member with a previous one wrote “An excellent deal if it’s still available I’ll take it” within hours.
• A dealer, mg34.com, listed a used Veteran Arms hand mortar at $1,495.00 - roughly double the maker’s price for the same gun, second hand, and out of stock at that. That is what a year-long lead time is worth to somebody who wants one now.
• Custom builds turn up. The best documented is a piece with pre-Long-Land-Pattern hardware dating it to about 1715, a lock marked W. Pedderson, TRS parts and a bronze barrel by Ben Coogle, offered at $1,400.00 - which the seller stated was his actual cost of parts and assembly, not a profit.

11.6 The recommendation

If you want to build: the Rifle Shoppe 819. There is no other kit. Take the assembled lock at $1,275 unless building the lock is part of the fun, and Volume 12 makes that case in detail.

If you want to shoot one this year: Veteran Arms or Loyalist Arms, finished, and budget an evening of tuning. Or watch the Muzzleloading Forum classifieds, where used ones surface at roughly the new price and ship immediately.

If you want the best object: a custom build on a Coogle barrel, at around $1,400 - which is, tellingly, less than a dealer wants for a used import.

And do both. Jeff’s stated plan - buy originals, build a couple from kits - is the right one for this particular object, because the original and the shooter genuinely cannot be the same gun.

Sources

The Rifle Shoppe catalog page 819 (2010 catalog; call 405-356-2583); veteranarms.com; mg34.com; the Muzzleloading Forum threads 91706, 113282, 113803, 174346 and 174994 (Grenadier1758, Col. Batguano, KABAR2, okawbow, Flint62Smoothie, Commodore Swab, vetarms, ljspoon, Glenn Osborne).