David Crockett rifle?

[jrbaker90]

Been at reelfoot lake this weekend read where david crockett waa in 1822 not far from his last cabin and I been thinking what kind of rifle did he have was it like a half stock or like a southern mountain rifle

 

[Wes/Tex]

An original of what is suppose to be Crockett's first rifle is on display at the East Tennessee historical Society Museum in Knoxville. At least two makers have made copies. Houston Harrison did this one.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uHeS4opoL_k/T_iVW13uG5I/AAAAAAAAyLI/CXUiK0Nhwq4/s1600/Unknown.jpeg

Danny Caywood was allowed to disassemble and make another version.
http://nebula.wsimg.com/d9f1c415e6...365A2CCA97F7A7CB9&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

The original is a 46" barrel .48 caliber long rifle. What provenance this gun has I have no idea. have never seen it or seen what history it has. These are exacting copies of that gun.

This is the rifle on display at the Alamo as being Crockett's gun and knife he had in Texas. How they proved that is anyone's guess.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2313/1904478676_dfb01ebcd3_b.jpg

Sam Houston's sword is immediately above.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/05/74/59/4b/the-alamo.jpg

This is suppose to be the original "Old Betsy".
https://i1.wp.com/www.grandviewoutdoors.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Old_Betsy.jpeg?ssl=1

This is the one that supposedly was found by his side at the Alamo. Ask any of Santa Anna's troops! :wink:

http://media.gettyimages.com/photo...-the-side-of-davy-crockett-picture-id50326754

Take your pick! :haha:

 

[William O.]

I question a cap lock rifle supposedly owned by Crocket and found at the Alamo when there are absolutely no records of anything but flintlocks. Would it be possible for a cap lock to have been in Texas in 1836? The short answer is yes. However, the probability of such new technology having been in the hands of even David Crocket is extremely remote. Then there is the possibility that after being retrieved from the battle field that the rifle was converted to cap ignition. My question is why? Why would anyone do that knowing who owned it?

That's my .02 and for what it's worth, probably less. So, someone be the devil's advocate and tell me why I'm wrong. For the sake of argument, I'm focusing only on the two rifles which appear to be cap ignition and purport to have been owned by Mr. Crocket.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Considering Santa Anna's troops were all the living except for women and slaves, its' hard to figure how Crockett's rifle or Bowie's knife could ever be traced. Santa Anna moved on with the 'preference Companies' (read grenadiers and riflemen) of his army in pursuit of Houston. Other regiments split off and followed in four wings. Who kept what is anyone's guess. Much was destroyed rather than leave it to the local population. Those troops left in Bexar were kept busy burying officers, burning rebel bodies and tossing all their own dead into the San Antonio River! I don't see them schlepping off anything that didn't fir in a pocket or back pack and weighed under 10 pounds! Maybe some of these items were there...who they belonged to is problematic at best.

 

[smoothshooter]

It's possible the rifle has had several owners over the years, and in the 1700's and 1800's people seemed to not be as sentimentally attached to to items that were widely seen as tools just because they belonged to such and such a person previously.
Practicality trumped everything else.
It is possible that whoever did the conversion or had it done neither knew or cared that the rifle may have belonged to Crockett.

Most likely neither this, or any other rifle or smoothbore credited with being used by Crocket at the Alamo, is genuine.
One or more of them MAY have been at the Alamo ( still not likely), but proof that any of them were owned or even borrowed by Crockett will never surface.

 

[buford87]

The rifle shown with the pistol grip is a rifle presented to Davy when he was in congress. the details escape me at the moment I believe it was made by a gunmaker in Cincinatti Ohio. The story is that Davy left it behind and took a flintlock to Texas because he didn't how plentiful percussion caps would be in Texas.............watch yer top knot..........

 

[Artificer]

This is the rifle on display at the Alamo as being Crockett's gun and knife he had in Texas. How they proved that is anyone's guess.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2313/1904478676_dfb01ebcd3_b.jpg

Sam Houston's sword is immediately above.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/05/74/59/4b/the-alamo.jpg

Wes/Tex,

Do I remember correctly that the rifle on display at the Alamo was a half stock percussion rifle? It has been about a decade since I was there, but I recall it being so. However, I don't recall Houston's sword above it?

Back then they were selling a very nice copy of what was purported to be Houston's sword in the gift shop and I think it was made by Wilkinson, but it was an earlier sword with a much more curved blade - as in War of 1812 period.

Actually, I find the sword displayed here as more correct for the period for Houston as ones like those were sold in great quantities for Militia Officers beginning in the late 1820's.

Gus

 

[54ball]

Lore says that Crockett sold that very nice York rifle shortly before he married his first wife. A grand Rifle could command a great price in that period. A young man could go a long way by selling it to set up housekeeping.

Remember too Crockett was a veteran of The Redstick War of 1813-1814. He was a mounted soldier in Coffee's Brigade and eventually acted as an advanced scout in Russel's Scouts and Spies.

He was in the Black Warrior expedition where Coffee explored the Warrior River Valley clearing Jackson's Right Flank. He was in the Battles of Tallasahatchee (where Crockett says they shot them like dogs and later after finding no food at Fort Strother, the starving Tennesseans returned to the battle sight and gorged themselves on Potatoes cooked in the cellar of the burned cabins....Crockett said the grease from the Indians made the potatoes look like they had been stewed with fat meat) and Talledega.
Crockett went home by Jan 1814 missing the Battles of Emukfau Creek and the Climax at Horseshoe Bend.
Crockett returned by the Spring of 1814 and was a scout under Major Blue. Blue was in the Escambia Country hunting for fleeing Redsticks. Crockett was involved in Pensacola and was still in What became South Alabama when the War ended in 1815.

Crockett at times worked with William Russels Scouts and Spies. Another Rifle Officer that Crockett likely knew was Jesse Bean.
The Beans were a rifle building family dating back to 1770s Watauga. The Old Holston Rifle is attributed to William Bean.

Now the Beans and Russels families are linked. Another family link is the Rifle Maker John Bull.

So.....It is reasonable that Crockett in the Redstick War period would have a rifle in the general style of a Early John Bull or by a member of the Bean Family.....Early Bull and Bean rifles are similar. As a matter of fact I have handled a early Bull Rifle where someone had scratched Bean over Bull's fading signature on the barrel.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I have a gun I bought on Gunbroker a few years ago with brass wire inlays in it with the initials "F P". I tell people it used to be Fess Parker's gun. No way to prove it of course, unless I could find a picture of him with it, which I haven't. It's a Lancaster, but not a particularly well done build.

 

[jefair1]

Your last link does not work.

 

[Wes/Tex]

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos...-the-side-of-davy-crockett-picture-id50326754

 

[jefair1]

Thanks