The American Longrifle

[Boaz]

A quote from John G. W. Dillin's book .........The Kentucky Longrifle written in 1924 . There is no practical purpose to this thread , I just always liked it .

From a flat bar of soft iron, hand forged into a gun barrel; laboriously bored and rifled with crude tools; fitted with a stock hewn from a maple tree in the neighboring forest; and supplied with a lock hammered to shape on the anvil; an unknown smith, in a shop long since silent, fashioned a rifle which changed the whole course of world history; made possible the settlement of a continent; and ultimately freed our country of foreign domination. Light in weight; graceful in line; economical in consumption of powder and lead; fatally precise; distinctly American; it sprang into immediate popularity; and for a hundred years was a model often slightly varied but never radically changed .

[square butte]

There are still folks building them just that way. Just returned home last week from Dixon's Gun Builders fair in PA. You could see a barrel being hand forged - And a hand rifling operation in action as well. What's being turned out today are as fine or better than any made in the 1760-1780's. Works of art to behold. Aug. 14-15 is the Contemporary Longrifle Assoc. show in Lexington. Not to be missed if you if you love flintlock longrifles.

[Wayne Smith]

And it happened twice - at Saratoga during the Revolution and at the assault on Baltimore during the War of 1812.

[bigted]

see now ... a great start for this posting and still no photo's of that of which ye speak ! the long and slender rifles are a thing of beauty and fun to just observe and maybe be lucky nough to have n hold for a lifetime before handing it down to another soul that ... is as of yet ... incomplete.

[Uncle R.]

There are still folks building them just that way. Just returned home last week from Dixon's Gun Builders fair in PA. You could see a barrel being hand forged - And a hand rifling operation in action as well. What's being turned out today are as fine or better than any made in the 1760-1780's. Works of art to behold. Aug. 14-15 is the Contemporary Longrifle Assoc. show in Lexington. Not to be missed if you if you love flintlock longrifles.

I first learned that hand made rifles were not lost in the past when I read many years ago an article about Royland Southgate and his guns. I was smitten with the romance of the man, his lifestyle and his work. He was quite literally a bridge between the rifles and makers of the nineteenth century and the rifles being made today. I was especially impressed by reading that he considered his rifles practical working tools for sport and target, not just wall hanger decorations. I still entertain hopes that I'll some day own a Southgate rifle.

Thanks for your posting, I had never heard of the Contemporary Longrifle Association. I'll have to read more about them - I have much to learn.

Uncle R.

[koger]

One of my all time favorite guns, am building one now. I was blessed to grow up around a old time blacksmith/gunsmith who taught me how to temper steel by color, in a dark forge building, he could forge a barrel in a ancient block he had, with a bar and flat steel, most of his guns were .40 or .36 caliber. He could rifle a barrel in less than a day by hand on a homemade rifling machine. The guns made here in southern KY, on the Tenn. border had modest iron fittings, brass was either unavailable, or too expensive. Rear sights were made out of the upturned end of worn out horseshoes. I am building a .54 longrifle, southern style, but with curly maple, instead of walnut or apple wood. Most were .40-50 inches long, and barrels were thick in the wall, so if the rifling got too worn, they could be freshed out, and made into a bigger caliber, along with their mold.

[Toymaker]

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n519/Toymaker1944/Isaac%20Haynes/DSC09906_zps4ddc53a8.jpg

Well, I'll toss in a couple of pictures. Hope it worked right. Two rifles here, both Isaac Haynes. One's a 40 caliber, which is mine, and one's a 50 caliber for my youngest son. He didn't want a lot of carving on his so I picked out a piece of wood that was nicely figured. I made both to our specific measurements as far as cast-off, drop, length of pull and balance point. Mine has served me well for many years. His has seen little use since he gets transferred around quite a bit and keeps it here so it won't get damaged or lost when moving.