Kelley,
I also understood what Mudchild was saying. The mild point I was making is that in my mind the guns we love today ought never go away. I hope they are always available for the enjoyment of future generations. Maybe added to by new guns, but not replaced. As much as I love an M1 Garand, I add it to my mental classic list of Sharps, Springfields, etc., but it cannot replace any. Same with my Series 70 Gov. .45, or my 9mm Luger or Walther P-38. The add to my .45 Colt SAAs and 1849 Pocket, and 1851 Navy and 1860 Army, and even my 1805 Harpers Ferry pistols. So in my mind the list will simply change by growth, not by replacement.
But his thought is very intriguing.
Not necessarily about BPCR...if it's alright.
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Lee Stone
- Posts: 2817
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8iowa
- Posts: 187
- Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2003 10:53 am
- Location: Gainesville, FL and Michigan's UP
the Kentucky rifle
There have been a lot of great collectable firearms mentioned, but one rifle comes to mind that has been with us for over 200 years and had a vast impact on the development of our country - the Kentucky rifle!
Actually, the Kentucky rifles being made today are not replicas. This gunsmithing craft originated in Eastern lower Pennsylvania in the mid 18th century. It was never really factory produced, each gunsmith and region (school) had a distinctive style. Through all these years this craft has never completely dissappeared, and today there are many fine craftsmen turning out beautiful rifles as their own individual art, just as it was done so many years ago. If anything, this craft is going strong and will be with us many years into the future. If you don't have a fine Kentucky rifle hanging on the wall --- well what are you waiting for!
In two weeks I'll be taking my flintlock .50 with a sliding wood patchbox up to Michigan's U.P. for the muzzleloading hunting season.
Actually, the Kentucky rifles being made today are not replicas. This gunsmithing craft originated in Eastern lower Pennsylvania in the mid 18th century. It was never really factory produced, each gunsmith and region (school) had a distinctive style. Through all these years this craft has never completely dissappeared, and today there are many fine craftsmen turning out beautiful rifles as their own individual art, just as it was done so many years ago. If anything, this craft is going strong and will be with us many years into the future. If you don't have a fine Kentucky rifle hanging on the wall --- well what are you waiting for!
In two weeks I'll be taking my flintlock .50 with a sliding wood patchbox up to Michigan's U.P. for the muzzleloading hunting season.
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Lee Stone
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Ken Hartlein
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- Location: Floresville, TX
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Texas Shooter
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8iowa
- Posts: 187
- Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2003 10:53 am
- Location: Gainesville, FL and Michigan's UP
Guys:
My "huntin" rifle is an early Kentucky style (1770's).50 rifle, stocked in walnut with a sliding wood patch box. It was made about 30 years ago by John Burman, a Tennessee maker. My son and I are also very fortunate to own William Buchelle rifles that were made in the 1960's.
To learn more, a good web site to start with is americanlongrifles.com. There are companies that sell the components to make rifles, but these are not "kits". It would take skill and research to make a rifle that looks good and functions well.
I go to the Baltimore gun show every year. Next year it will be held March 20-21. There are usually several makers there. Sometimes you can find one or two for sale. Last year Larry Gardner, 301-384-6736, had two available at around $2500 each. I also met Wayne Dunlap of Dunlap's Wood Crafts, dunlapwoodcrafts.com. Dunlap provides carved stocks and the other components to make an Issac Haines style rifle. I was able to pick out my own stock with great curly maple.
The classic book on this subject is Kindig's "The Kentucky Rifle In It's Golden Age".
My "huntin" rifle is an early Kentucky style (1770's).50 rifle, stocked in walnut with a sliding wood patch box. It was made about 30 years ago by John Burman, a Tennessee maker. My son and I are also very fortunate to own William Buchelle rifles that were made in the 1960's.
To learn more, a good web site to start with is americanlongrifles.com. There are companies that sell the components to make rifles, but these are not "kits". It would take skill and research to make a rifle that looks good and functions well.
I go to the Baltimore gun show every year. Next year it will be held March 20-21. There are usually several makers there. Sometimes you can find one or two for sale. Last year Larry Gardner, 301-384-6736, had two available at around $2500 each. I also met Wayne Dunlap of Dunlap's Wood Crafts, dunlapwoodcrafts.com. Dunlap provides carved stocks and the other components to make an Issac Haines style rifle. I was able to pick out my own stock with great curly maple.
The classic book on this subject is Kindig's "The Kentucky Rifle In It's Golden Age".
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Ted Kramer
- Posts: 316
- Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2003 2:01 pm
- Location: Long Prairie, Minnesota
8iowa,
Good to see another flint shooter here! My favorite for deer is my early Virginia 50 cal flinter. Don't know about you but my interest in the breechloading blackpowder rifles came as a result of many years of shooting muzzleloaders. Sort of natural to migrate into the bpcr waters. I've been building m/l guns for 17 years and there is no other feeling quite like harvesting a deer with a rifle made by your own hands, well, maybe seeing my daughter take her first deer with a flint Leman I built for her, man did she get excited! Our m/l season opens the Sat. after Thanksgiving.
I hope someone in the firearms industry will keep the classics available to those who want them. But those classic reproductions should be made to look and feel traditional, like the fine Sharps we can get from several manufacturers, even the Italians have the repros of the '73 Winchesters pretty darn close to what a new original would have been. I dislike the "plastic" looking finishes and stamped checkering some of the modern versions of good old leverguns have. I am so stuck in the 18th and 19th centuries as far as firearms go, I know very little about the guns made in the 20th century, so would not really know which I'd want to see reproduced in the years and generations to come. All of 'em I supose!
Keep your powder dry and good luck in the Michigan deer hunt.
Ted Kramer
Good to see another flint shooter here! My favorite for deer is my early Virginia 50 cal flinter. Don't know about you but my interest in the breechloading blackpowder rifles came as a result of many years of shooting muzzleloaders. Sort of natural to migrate into the bpcr waters. I've been building m/l guns for 17 years and there is no other feeling quite like harvesting a deer with a rifle made by your own hands, well, maybe seeing my daughter take her first deer with a flint Leman I built for her, man did she get excited! Our m/l season opens the Sat. after Thanksgiving.
I hope someone in the firearms industry will keep the classics available to those who want them. But those classic reproductions should be made to look and feel traditional, like the fine Sharps we can get from several manufacturers, even the Italians have the repros of the '73 Winchesters pretty darn close to what a new original would have been. I dislike the "plastic" looking finishes and stamped checkering some of the modern versions of good old leverguns have. I am so stuck in the 18th and 19th centuries as far as firearms go, I know very little about the guns made in the 20th century, so would not really know which I'd want to see reproduced in the years and generations to come. All of 'em I supose!
Keep your powder dry and good luck in the Michigan deer hunt.
Ted Kramer