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For sale is this original, signed, curly maple long rifle. I originally thought this was a North Carolina piedmont rifle. After research and talking to several experts in NC and KY and OH rifles, I was convinced this rifle was likely made near the Ohio River, and probably on the KY side. The...

I went back and looked at all of mine, and you're right, most are not super thin. I must have been seeing things. Here are two, probably from the same era.

I would perhaps thin down the rim of wood around the lockplate. A lot of originals I have are thinner there.

Range of black walnut: Range of sugar maple

Again, almost all the southern mountain rifles were made with walnut stocks. If you collect them, and talk to long-time collectors like I do, (some have collected them since the 50s) it's very seldom anything but walnut. The books on them show almost all walnut. I've never seen one in cherry...

I have to say, some posts have a lot of misinformation in this thread. Eastern TN rifles and Western NC rifles had very similar features. Walnut stocks were on 95.5% of them with a few maple. Maybe 1 out of a 100 were other woods. Early gunsmiths supplied the Scotch-Irish families who...

What is complicated about that? Any gunsmith should be able to make a basic spring that doesn't require any precision cuts or fitting, cheaply. But saying don't shoot a shootable gun because you might break a spring is borrowing a jack.

Anyone paying $300 for a simple u-spring needs to shop around more.

Shelby, I was thinking definitely Eastern TN too, even before I saw that tang. The pointed lock rear and matching wood point, and entry thimble are signs it's early, I would say too.

I did post it there. Most of what I said about it being border region of OH/KY came from there. I also posted on the Ohio Long Rifle group on Facebook. No one has definitively ID'd the initials/signature.

I sure hope they don't just shutter/bulldoze/make condos out of any GOEX facilities. Having just one place in the world making black powder, and off shore, is very daunting to the thousands of black powder hunters, target shooters, reenactors that use it constantly over the years. ANY...

I was informed by good authorities that it is not a NC rifle. Instead, likely KY near the Ohio river border area. Anyone know the initials?

I just got a rifle that I believe is a North Carolina, likely from the Jamestown school. Can anyone recognize the signature? I'm very pleased with it, it has some good things and bads, like most old rifles. One bad is I believe the trigger guard was replaced. It doesn't look like any of the...

Ruminating is good. These are hand-made rifles with great variation. It's really hard to tie them down. I should probably change my list from "typical or common" factors to "found on southern rifles" and if any are not, list "not usually found..." etc. To me, the dolls head, long tang is...

I got the rifle in and am pretty impressed with it's condition and quality. The first big discovery was the "almost lollipop type" tang: To me, that is an iconic clue that it's Appalachian region. Other pics then my rationale below. Because I'm an engineer by training I like to...

Thanks Bob, I'm hoping it's Southern too, I'm from NC. On the cheekpiece, there were a few makers in Eastern TN that used that type too. Dave Byrd who is a mountain long rifle scholar and author and has collected for 60 years calls the type a "Holsten" cheekpiece. I believe it's more of a...

On another forum one collector said it looked to be an Ohio gun. Another said it didn't look Ohio. Way too many guesses without giving a tangible "why".

It's alleged to be 46" and about .40 caliber. Arriving soon.

Hi, I joined because I'm starting to collect American Long rifles. Longtime black powder shooter since I was young, just never bought long rifles. I have this one coming and trying to ID it. I think it may be Southern. The trigger guard and cheek piece are unusual, but I've found a few...