Last of the Mohicans Rifle

[lexington1]

I kind of envisioned Hawkeye’s rifle to be similar to the one I had built, my Edward Marshall rifle, circa the late 1850’s. If I’m off base on that, no offense in pointing it out.

That would have been a great choice!

 

[Mike]

It seems to me we can not rely on Television or Movies to faithfully follow the original book or be historically correct .eg: Peter Jackson turned The Hobbit , which was a small book written for children into 3 massive movies which were , In my opinion , were more like science fiction .

If you look closely, you can see that Smaug never primes before he fires...

 

[Mr. Flintlock]

I need to build a copy of Daniel Day Lewis' rifle he used in the movie Last of the Mohicans. I'm stuck on ,what patchbox did it have , a wooden box , or was it metal ? My copy of the movie is not viewable any longer.
According to a guy I bought the precarved stock from , the gun is not really a copy of any known rifle , but it has Lehigh Valleyish , Pa. characteristics.
I've seen the movie a dozen times , but can't remember the patch box type. Anybody remember???

 

[Mr. Flintlock]

Here you are. That is Wayne Watson with Hawkeye's rifles

 

[excess650]

Hello you got this English man interested as I love flint long rifles. I think guns just evolved by small gunsmiths getting British parts from trading posts Then nationality decided design the frontier man wanted a strong rifle not a delicate beautiful on then larger manufactures evolved then we have different people from the old world bring homeland styles with them. Some makers below were into percussion on a flintlock style. So I went through some American Bonhams auction catalogs all I know a frontier man would want a good rifle Films contain so much crap just entertainment The names below don’t even scratch at the surface with mountain men making and forging their guns and parts Remember the USA is a big big country not like little old England. Ha ha. I wish you well

Ps these three are London style made by me

so here we go American gun makers and styled

french chargrilled style. JA- Bedford county. Farmer Bucks county. Pennsylvania. Slotter and co for Robert Liddke &co. Postley Nelson. Benjamin Bigelow. C F Scholl Marysville. Rickets Mansfield Ohio. A Fluhr Sacramento. Adolphus J Plate San Francisco Hillard. George Goulcher. P Gardner. H Goff
Pensilvania contract made. I M Dixon North Carolina. St Louis style. Whitney Arms Company A composite British made
James WLkace Edinburgh. Korb Germany
John Moll Lehigh County. J P Beck.
New England 1790. Henry Kock Pensalvania.
Robert Dutch Burn Virginia Style.
1816 ASA Wartern. Harper’s ferry 1820. 1816 flintlock by Nathan Starr.
MT Wickham 1816 flintlock.
1814 flintlock. Henry Deringer
1817 flintlock R&D Johnson
1815 flintlock Lancaster county

M T Wickham was John Armstrong's first apprentice circa 1798 and went on to work at Harper's Ferry Arsenal. The "1816 flintlock" was a military arm, and not one of Wickham's early personal works.

 

[user 48679]

The perfect woman heh heh.

NOW yer in trrouble.........

 

[Snake Pleskin]

The rifle was written up in an article in "Muzzleloader Magazine" in 1992 when the movie was made. Maybe the article can be located in a back issue. May/June 1992 can still be purchased on the Muzzleloader web site. (May/June 1992 Muzzleloader Magazine) The rifle is the director Michael Mann's interpretation of a rifle for Hawkeye and is not representative of a rifle of 1757. In Cooper's book, the rifle "Killldeer" came into Hawkeye's possession 20 years previously in the "Deerslayer" so the rifle in the movie "The Last of the Mohicans" is even more out of place. Of course Cooper's description was also not in keeping with such a rifle. I think there were at least two rifles used in the filming.

There is always more than one "rifle" in case something happens to the first one. They need a back up. Most people are " watching the actors" in the movies, not the minute details of the rifle being used, so they wouldn't notice a change.

 

[Gordoncourtney]

They look plain and simple, as they should be, so graceful but WOW!!!! Beautiful
Who cares about films anyway. I have seen WW2 rifle props dozens blow moulded and painted I once saw a friends flintlock marked it was at the battle of Quebec , that’s real. I previously posted flint long rifles on the forum. They were real too, Bonhams California auction

 

[daniel1863]

I share Mr. Twain's opinion on "The Leatherstocking Tales".....

The movie is VASTLY better than the book... something people don't say very often. Cooper's writing is wretchedly bad.

I find Cooper’s writing exquisitely, descriptively good!

 

[Tradbow]

Cooper wrote his book in a time where the language and how it was spoken is different than what we are use to today. But if you want to do trekking in the historical sense it would help on knowing how to speak the way our forefathers spoke especially if one is wanting to do live impersonating roles.

 

[tcarver1964]

I need to build a copy of Daniel Day Lewis' rifle he used in the movie Last of the Mohicans. I'm stuck on ,what patchbox did it have , a wooden box , or was it metal ? My copy of the movie is not viewable any longer.
According to a guy I bought the precarved stock from , the gun is not really a copy of any known rifle , but it has Lehigh Valleyish , Pa. characteristics.
I've seen the movie a dozen times , but can't remember the patch box type. Anybody remember???

 

[2005Bluewatermonkey2005]

All the ramrod wear marking in barrels i've seen , including my own , is usually in one area and depending if the loader is right handed or left handed , and or the barrel is too long for the loader to hold the rifle vertical when loading. ... It won't be even all the way around unless the muzzle is coned for easier ball starting.. Just an opinion from what i've observed. oldwood

Hi I have inherit a gun that is engrave with name W.Watson and they’re claiming this gun was used in the last Mohican movie. How can I find out if this is gun authentic? thank you

 

[2005Bluewatermonkey2005]

Hey folks.....Thanks for the history lessons , photo's , and the volumes of info on J F.Cooper . All is completely fascinating. Now I gotta hurry and finish the rifle I'm working on so I can start the movie gun. I've built a number of Lehigh school guns , so this one shouldn't hold any surprises.
One of the guys mentioned Wayne Watson had passed away. Too bad. He was the LOTM movie gun builder. Thanks again guys............oldwood

 

[2005Bluewatermonkey2005]

Hi do have a W.Watson gun was given as a gift. I was told it was use in the movie The last Mohican. The name of the gun is called Miley. I would like to know if this story and gun is authentic. Any advice? I would like for it to go to a good home. Thank you

 

[wiscoaster]

Trying to zoom in on what's wrapped around the wrist in the first pic posted by @Tom A Hawk because it looks a lot like plastic electrical tape.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Bumpo got the rifle, Killdeer, about 20 years before the events of "The Last of the Mohicans". That puts the rifle being made about 1725 or so as the rifle was used for several years before it was given to Bumpo, who was called Deerslayer at that time. By the end of the book "Deerslayer", Bumpo had earned the name, Hawkeye. So, the rifle would have been an early transitional rifle and perhaps not as long as the rifle the Director, Michael Mann, envisioned for Hawkeye.

The Leatherstocking Tales were written out of sequence. This causes all sorts of continuity issues with the books. It's really not worth putting much effort into trying to determine the rifle used by Hawkeye. I'm not sure that J. F. Cooper knew either. He used more or less generic terms to describe the rifle. I don't recall a mention of caliber (or gauge) as the bore diameter would have been described by the number of balls to the pound and not by caliber.

The rifle used in the movie is a very nice rifle and it will be a worthwhile exercise to build one based on the rifle used in the movie.

 

[Crow Choker]

Glad to see this thread resurrected, always enjoyed the information contained in it. Great movie (the last one), sort of like Outlaw Josey Wales, never get tired of watching it even though you know what happens throughout the movie. Every time I do watch L of the M, I get all fired up to grab a rifle and head out along a timbered river area near me and just walk and plink and yearn for deer season to be here.

 

[CuNosecap]

Crow, I just read through this entire thread as I was not a member when it was last updated/posted. Thanks to you and Wis and Grenadier, I have a new understanding of the movie, the rifle, and Cooper.

 

[springfield art]

Now if we could just find that suitcase of Mr. D.B. Cooper, we'd be set for a new custom rifle! All good interesting info, it's amazing how various hobbyists can get wrapped up in movie props, of all persuasions.

 

[oldwood]

The contrabution to muzzleloading , and to the interest in Colonial American history , is priceless from the movie Last of the Mohlcans. Sure there is a lot of Hollywood in it , but that's just spice. I have been fortunate over the last 0 or so yrs. to have accumulated about a wheelbarrow of books that recount many details from actual happenings from about 1740 to 1820. Most of the details from my library are shocking to modern day senses , just as many of the details in L of The M's movie. That history is what it was.. I was born , and grew up in Pa. , between the Mid Monongehela River , and the Ohio River below Wheeling W.Va.. My 6th grade American History teacher , Mr. S. , spent about one half of one class period explaining the local history around the county where we lived , but sadly , though he lived almost with in sight of the famous Garrard's Fort indian massacer , as revenge for killing chief Logan's family , Mr S's contribution to local history was lacking. Loved the guy. He was in several hard fought battles in France , and Germany , during WWII. I admired him.......oldwood