English wild fowling gun

[Mike Brooks]

This one gets shipped tomorrow, and I thought some of you might like to see it before it goes.
This is a ca.1760 English wild fowling gun. Getz 50" 11ga. barrel with .035 jug choke for turkeys. that's the reason for the rear sight also. English walnut stock and Chambers Virginia lock and all the steel hardware is Chambers also , except for the pipes which I made myself.
All of the carvin checkering and engraving are my work, copied off of fowling guns of the period.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Here's some more.

The detail is better on my photo bucket site if you want to go over there to see it.
>>>>WILD FOWLER

 

[bnail]

Way to go Mike, great piece! :hatsoff:
I especially like the carving on the hardware. No wonder you've got such a waiting list :thumbsup:

 

[AZ-Robert]

The engraving is fantastic. I also really like the aged look you get on the metal.

 

[Deerstalker]

:bow: Mike,
You are an artist, Sir! Fantastic work. I want to be like you when I grow up ( if I grow up). Seriously, wonderful work as usual.
Bryan :hatsoff:

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

Mike, another beautiful piece of work. Why not put some more of you work up on GB so the guys there can see what real muzzleloaders look like? :shake: (Please!)
T.P.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Awesome! :thumbsup:

 

[rudy parnell]

Mike if that gun had been delivered to the colonies in 1760 where and perhaps who would have commissioned the piece? Or do you figure the gun would have been made to sell? What do you speculate it would fetch $ and who might have built the gun? It is a dande elegant gun that probably went to a Planter or a Merchant or someone of landed Gentry to be sure ,if it came to the colonies in America? But, could it have shown up in India or Africa? Does anyone else have a guess!"Who might have actually owned a gun like this?" Anyway, Thanks Mike and would appreciate some discussion on this interesting" great gun".

 

[Mike Brooks]

It is a dande elegant gun that probably went to a Planter or a Merchant or someone of landed Gentry to be sure

That pretty well answers your question. It was probably bought by someone with money from a retailer in one of the larger Colonial American cities.
A gun like this would have been available in any british colony in that time period I suppose, never really thought about anywhere else besides colonial america.

What do you speculate it would fetch $ and who might have built the gun?

I have no real grasp of the currency of the time, so I wouldn't be much help in this area.
Any of the britsh gun makers in London or Birmingham, etc. may have built a gun like this.
British fowlers were imported to the colonies by the tens of thousands as they could be made cheaper in England than they could in the colonies.

 

[mike mckinney]

Jolly good show old boy!:thumbsup: A most outstanding piece of work Mike. By the way I did not know that Getz made a 50" barrel, weres a good spot to obtain one of those?

 

[Mike Brooks]

The only place I know of to get a 50" Getz barrel is from John Getz.
Rayl makes some long barrels as does Ben Coogle.

 

I thought Getz could only make barrels to 48". It seems to me that for the barrel on the rifle in "last of the mohicans" Don said they had to make a 2" extention to get it to 50". Did they retool to allow them to make longer barrels?. Do you know how long can they go? Or perhaps it's just RIFLE barrels that can only be made up to 48" :hmm:


Cody

 

[Mike Brooks]

Rifles up to 48" and smoothbores to 50".

 

[akapennypincher]

Awsome looking firearm :thumbsup:

 

[rudy parnell]

It is a dande elegant gun that probably went to a Planter or a Merchant or someone of landed Gentry to be sure[/quote]
That pretty well answers your question. It was probably bought by someone with money from a retailer in one of the larger Colonial American cities

.
British fowlers were imported to the colonies by the tens of thousands as they could be made cheaper in England than they could in the colonies.

I must admit that I was just a little bit more than circumspect about tens of thousands of British Fowler Guns in the colonies in circa 1760. Therefore, I read, "The most careful study of the distribution of population on the basis of national origins was that made in 1927 by a group of scholars under of the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies, using the statistics of the first federal census of 1790. This study, employing linguistic techniques in the analysis of family names, revealed that of the total white population of 3,172,444 in the United states, 60.9% English, 14.3% Scotch and Scotch-Irish from Ulster, 8.7% German, 5.4% Dutch,French, and Swedish, 3.7% South Irish, and 7% unassignable and miscellaneous. Thirty years before, in 1760 the proportion of English stock was probably higher, but the firure for 1790 will provide at least an indication of the distribution according to national origins near the end of the colonial period".This is by Louis B. Wright," The Cultural Life of the American Colonies[1607-1763].For those interested, he gives credit to the Germans for the first American Long Rifle,ca.1720 in Lancaster Valley of Penn. So, what does all this mean? To me I quess it is entirely possible that there were this number of guns. I was very surprized and I appreciate Mike Brooks for bringing this information to the forum. Also, a great looking gun! Congradulations, to the new owner.