early lancaster pictures

All of the rifles posted here look great to me.....My longrifle is rougher than a night in jail as far as looks go :grin:

 

[hanshi]

This is not the "early" Lancaster but rather the later period Lancaster. While the differences are obvious, the family resemblance is obvious as well. My next rifle will be the early style.

 

[Okwaho]

It is interesting to look at the Lancaster guns and others in RCA and use a straight edge to see where the bottom butstock line goes and do the same with the top of the stock and the top and bottom of the cheek pieces, a definite pattern appears on many guns, as to the intersection of these lines.

Gene,if you have Henry Kaufman's book,"The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle",PP.37-38,he illustrates the point in question that you are raising using two fully evolved Lancaster rifles from the late 18th century.One is by Dickert and the other by J.Hoak. :grin: :bow:
Tom Patton

 

[J.D.]

Killer, your butt plate tang does run down hill. But have your critics study photos of original longrifles. Those tangs run up, down, or crooked to the comb. Have them look at Whisker's "Gunsmiths of Lancaster County",page 62, Andreas Albrecht's rifle. Tang runs down hill, dished comb line. Next page, Henry Albright's rifle it runs uphill a little, so a curved comb line. Page 65, another of his (I recently did a copy of this one), the comb line is straight. Page 90, a George Frederick Fainot rifle, tang really runs down hill into a straight comb line. But I never heard of nose caps not fastened on. I don't know if they are glued, but they are often riveted. I rivet mine.

Yeah, there were a lot of warts on some originals, possibly made by an apprentice, possibly restocked by someone who was not as accomplished as the original maker or by someone who used existing parts on a already roughed out stock, or parts replacement using mismatched parts, or who knows.

IMHO, though I am not an expert, in any sense of the definition, I really don't think it's a good idea to duplicate the poor design features or poor fits seen on some original rifles. Some of the warts we see in old guns comes from replacement parts and wood shrinkage. Does anyone honestly want to duplicate replaced mismatched parts or inletting gaps that are the result of wood shrinkage? Not me.

As to the loose nosecap, I have never seen a nose cap that was left loose, even on the cheapest repops. Even gluing one in place, with GOOD epoxy is better than leaving it loose. IMHO, the excuse of leaving it loose to facilitate the removal of the barrel is pure BS. I have never encountered any problem removing a barrel from a pinned or glued nosecap.

God bless

 

[Herb]

J.D., I agree with you. I think the crooked butt plate tangs are poor workmanship and wonder if those weren't done by apprentices. Have had some crooked myself and took a lot of pains to straighten them out.

 

[Slash]

After reading all of theses responses, I have a couple of questions. There are 2 "TVM s". Is the barrel signed "M. Avance"? The buttplate and trigger guard aren't what we would have used together unless ordered that way. I can't find where we shipped to Michigan in February, either.
mattsgirl
P.S. We do not use rubber cement on nosecaps.

 

[killer]

Toni. I bought the gun in question from a fellow here on this sight. it is an older gun 3 or 4 years i believe but never fired he said it was to pretty to shoot. It is signed by matt. on top of the barrel the fella who sold it from me ordered 2 from you a early virgina and the early lancaster in the pics i dont want to put his name in this thread. pm me if you want it. What do you see wrong with the butt plate? just wondering. Thanks Denny

 

[hanshi]

There seems to be a lot of concern about nose caps falling off. I've owned both factory and handmade and never, and I mean NEVER, had a nose cap fall off. I suppose it's possible as it has been mentioned here. But I've never had to waste my time gluing nose caps back on; never had to.

If a member posts that his rifle's nose cap came off then that's good enough for me. Anything can happen to a rifle; they can break at the wrist, a sight can get knocked off, a lock spring can break. It all boils down to the fact that a rifle is a mechanical device and can be damaged. This IS the first time I've ever heard of this from anyone. Older rifle, bad luck, it can happen. If you want to glue a nose cap back on because it falls off; that sounds reasonable to me. I've tried to pull the nose caps off my rifles and couldn't do it without risking marring the stocks.

 

[Stophel]

As a general rule, nosecaps should be riveted to the stock with brass, copper, or even iron rivets. They don't come off.

:wink:

 

[hanshi]

As a general rule, nosecaps should be riveted to the stock with brass, copper, or even iron rivets. They don't come off.

:wink:

I've had them come pinned and they were fairly difficult to remove even with the pin out. Though it's a minor issue I still wouldn't want to lose one! :idunno:

 

[Powerkicker]

All of the rifles posted here look great to me.....My longrifle is rougher than a night in jail as far as looks go :grin:

No kidding. All of these rifles put my Pedersoli Kentucky .50 to shame :rotf:

 

[truckwilkins]

expert ex meaning used to be,spurt a drip under pressure your freind truckwilkins

 

[Pete44ru]

PC/not PC - I'm just REALLY enjoying the pics of ALL these fine rifles ( and I DO mean ALL of them).

:hatsoff: :hatsoff: :hatsoff:

.

 

[hanshi]

PC/not PC - I'm just REALLY enjoying the pics of ALL these fine rifles ( and I DO mean ALL of them).

:hatsoff: :hatsoff: :hatsoff:

.

Ain't it a fact!

 

[Zonie]

My Early Lancaster

My late Lancaster

 

[hanshi]

Both of those rifles are very attractive and the pics do them justice. I'd already decided the next rifle I get will be an Early Lancaster.

 

[Sunkmanitu Tanka]

be still - i'm in heaven!