-
Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.
We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.
Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103
Barn Gun?
- Thread starter talon
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
Mike Brooks
Cannon
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2005
- Messages
- 6,686
- Reaction score
- 32
Here's a Leighigh barn gun by Al Martin.
BIG AL'S BARN GUN
BIG AL'S BARN GUN
talon said:
Not sure what type of gun that would be. But is that what they called the weapon left in the barn for easy access when working in the field?
Do thet mean what I think it do? Somethin about being raised ina barn! :rotf:
Davy
Taken literally, it would be an old gun, probably of small caliber for shooting rats, snakes and whatever else happens to upset the farmer.
It would be a gun that is serviceable but if it got wet, dusty or some mildew the farmer wouldn't care "As long as it can put a hole thru that dam fox without being so loud that the cow drys up."
As I envision it, it isn't a gun I would really want to own, but then I can only speak for myself.
It would be a gun that is serviceable but if it got wet, dusty or some mildew the farmer wouldn't care "As long as it can put a hole thru that dam fox without being so loud that the cow drys up."
As I envision it, it isn't a gun I would really want to own, but then I can only speak for myself.
WOW! Really nice looking guns! Just proves that a gun doesn't have to be fancy to be good looking! :hatsoff: ...loojack
Stophel
75 Cal.
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2005
- Messages
- 5,963
- Reaction score
- 868
Wow, I've been "Linked"! :grin:
While you WILL find actual 18th century examples of what would be considered "barn guns", most of what people would call barn guns are from the early to mid 19th century. One gun I saw at a show was of "ordinary" stock design and construction, and was built with an old musket barrel and a 1760's English lock. The English type triggerguard was missing. It once had a sliding wood box lid, now lost. There was NO stain on the plain maple stock, and the wood was a nice yellow from years of handling/wax/dirt. This could have been built in 1770, or it could have been built in 1820...hard to say.
The nexus for 19th century barn gun production seems to be in eastern Berks county, PA. There are actually still in existence quite a few of these guns from Berks and Lehigh counties. I have gotten to see and handle a couple of them, and have photos of several more. I prefer to use the term "farmer's gun"...
They are built normally, but without buttplate or sideplate and only one or two upper rod pipes. A simple strap iron or brass guard is often used, though you will find examples with normal brass guards. They do seem to be often built a bit "oversize"....NOT "fat" but "fully figured".
The ca 1810 Berks county "Bauernwehr" that is in my photo album was modeled on the two original guns I have gotten to see. I really like doing guns like this, and actually hated to sell that one. They make great "beater" guns. I am EXTREMELY clumsy, and a fancy gun I will beat up pretty quickly. These are kind of like the old surplus Mauser rifles...you don't worry about banging up the stock a bit.
Southern "poor boy" rifles are something else entirely, and someone with more knowledge than me can tell you more about them.
While you WILL find actual 18th century examples of what would be considered "barn guns", most of what people would call barn guns are from the early to mid 19th century. One gun I saw at a show was of "ordinary" stock design and construction, and was built with an old musket barrel and a 1760's English lock. The English type triggerguard was missing. It once had a sliding wood box lid, now lost. There was NO stain on the plain maple stock, and the wood was a nice yellow from years of handling/wax/dirt. This could have been built in 1770, or it could have been built in 1820...hard to say.
The nexus for 19th century barn gun production seems to be in eastern Berks county, PA. There are actually still in existence quite a few of these guns from Berks and Lehigh counties. I have gotten to see and handle a couple of them, and have photos of several more. I prefer to use the term "farmer's gun"...
They are built normally, but without buttplate or sideplate and only one or two upper rod pipes. A simple strap iron or brass guard is often used, though you will find examples with normal brass guards. They do seem to be often built a bit "oversize"....NOT "fat" but "fully figured".
The ca 1810 Berks county "Bauernwehr" that is in my photo album was modeled on the two original guns I have gotten to see. I really like doing guns like this, and actually hated to sell that one. They make great "beater" guns. I am EXTREMELY clumsy, and a fancy gun I will beat up pretty quickly. These are kind of like the old surplus Mauser rifles...you don't worry about banging up the stock a bit.
Southern "poor boy" rifles are something else entirely, and someone with more knowledge than me can tell you more about them.
Okay, that has me just having to ask.... what is the etymology of "Barn Gun"? Did it evolve from Bauern Gun? A "farmer's gun" makes more sense (from description and our ideas of who used them) than the idea that the name comes from the gun having been kept out in the barn.Fatdutchman said:
I wonder then, were those 'farmer's guns' rifled or smooth?
I have one in the works, but the barrel is rifled. Not that it matters, I'm just curious.
I think that the beauty of the gun is in it's simplicity.
So far, I have the barrel in the wood, the lock and the trigger guard. The wood is very plain. Maybe I'll start cutting in the lock next week.
I have one in the works, but the barrel is rifled. Not that it matters, I'm just curious.
I think that the beauty of the gun is in it's simplicity.
So far, I have the barrel in the wood, the lock and the trigger guard. The wood is very plain. Maybe I'll start cutting in the lock next week.
Mike Brooks
Cannon
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2005
- Messages
- 6,686
- Reaction score
- 32
:rotf:
I've met the Dutchman in person, he's a tall strappin' lad, nothing fat about him. The most notable thing about him is his groovey Elvis side burns. That cat knows how to jive...... :bow:
Guest
Fatdutchman said:
Nothing wrong with the fanciest of guns getting beat up if it happens to be owned by a clutz. They're ALL made to be used (or at least they should be). Now to purposely "distress" a gun, well, I never could get my head around the point in that but to each his own. So, would a cooey/winchester single shot .22 be the more modern equivilent to a barn gun?.
Cody
Stophel
75 Cal.
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2005
- Messages
- 5,963
- Reaction score
- 868
"Bauernwehr" is just the German word for "Farmer's arm". It's not something that was probably used at the time (I have seen large 18th century knives in German auction catalogs described as being "Bauernwehre"...)
ALL the "barn guns" I have seen or have photos of are smoothbore. I have been told by those much more "in the know" than I am that it is a rare barn gun indeed that was rifled.
Yes, one might easily equate the old "barn gun" with the plain single shot shotgun. All it has to do is go "bang".
I could have called myself "the slightly overweight Dutchman" but it didn't have the same ring to it. (I took the name from the OLD Pennsylvania German polka band "Six Fatdutchmen").
TCB, baby,
E
ALL the "barn guns" I have seen or have photos of are smoothbore. I have been told by those much more "in the know" than I am that it is a rare barn gun indeed that was rifled.
Yes, one might easily equate the old "barn gun" with the plain single shot shotgun. All it has to do is go "bang".
I could have called myself "the slightly overweight Dutchman" but it didn't have the same ring to it. (I took the name from the OLD Pennsylvania German polka band "Six Fatdutchmen").
TCB, baby,
E
Smoothbores make sense.
"Now whan Ah'm a shootin at sum rat, Ah don't want some gun whats gonna put a hole thru ma barn wall! At's why Ah loads her with shot.
It ain't tha barn wall Ah'm worried about. It's that $300 sow a layin out thar behind tha barn Ah'm worried about. You know what them Vets are chargin now-a-days?"
"Now whan Ah'm a shootin at sum rat, Ah don't want some gun whats gonna put a hole thru ma barn wall! At's why Ah loads her with shot.
It ain't tha barn wall Ah'm worried about. It's that $300 sow a layin out thar behind tha barn Ah'm worried about. You know what them Vets are chargin now-a-days?"
Good afternoon gentlemen, this is my first post on this forum so if my questions and basic observations are simplistic please be gentle!
So I've been reading a lot about long rifles as of late, and I think I'm missing very basic here. I've found a good deal of information and pictures regarding regarding "poor boy" rifles of the Southern frontier, plenty of info about many of the intricately carved and decorated rifles of the eastern Pennsylvania counties, and even some info on the "schimmel" or "barn gun".... but what about the middle ground?
Was there an equivalent to the "Mountain rifle" in the western PA counties and the like? Are there many original examples of just good, solid rifles without a great deal of embellishment? I was just thinking that for every one beautiful piece of art shouldn't there be five or more that aren't as shiney and highly carved?
I'm not saying "cheaply" built or worn out like a 'barn gun'... but I just can't see a mountain man in Somerset or Fayette County, PA routinely using one of the gorgous pieces to come out of Bedford (or farther east). I understand that a gunsmith wasn't going to turn out inferior product, but where (if any) is the middleground?
So I've been reading a lot about long rifles as of late, and I think I'm missing very basic here. I've found a good deal of information and pictures regarding regarding "poor boy" rifles of the Southern frontier, plenty of info about many of the intricately carved and decorated rifles of the eastern Pennsylvania counties, and even some info on the "schimmel" or "barn gun".... but what about the middle ground?
Was there an equivalent to the "Mountain rifle" in the western PA counties and the like? Are there many original examples of just good, solid rifles without a great deal of embellishment? I was just thinking that for every one beautiful piece of art shouldn't there be five or more that aren't as shiney and highly carved?
I'm not saying "cheaply" built or worn out like a 'barn gun'... but I just can't see a mountain man in Somerset or Fayette County, PA routinely using one of the gorgous pieces to come out of Bedford (or farther east). I understand that a gunsmith wasn't going to turn out inferior product, but where (if any) is the middleground?
Similar threads
