You are right, no carving. but more inlays than I've ever seen on a gun. Even the rococo "C" which is so often carved behind the cheek piece is an inlay.Flash Pan Dan said:Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t see any carving.
I really have no idea, and I may never. Price is set when things are sold, and I doubt I'll ever sell that one.bushytail said:What would a gun like that be worth today?
Sadly Don is gone now too, I grew with Don remember Lester Smith also. Hacker Martin's grandson was a best friend and same age as me. Hacker had worked with Sammy (grandson) building a 36 caliber cap rifle for Sammy when he was just 14 year's old. Everything was completed but no stock. He sold all the parts to my Dad in 1966. Dad then had Joe Durham assemble with a Joe built curly maple stock. This gun is now in my possession. My Dad paid Sammy the grandson $25.00 for all the parts all hand built at Hacker's shop in Virginia. Joe Durham then made the stock assembled and test fired twice. He charged my father $100.00. So $125.00 Hacker Martin caplock. Joe was a rifle maker for many years also helping Don Davison get started in the business. I grew up around all these guys here in the Gray, Tn area. Hacker lived here a long time owning a water mill in the Cedar Creek area of Gray before moving to Virginia.I found and spoke with a man, Donald Davison, a long-time gun builder from Johnson City, TN, who knew all the people involved with my gun. He learned gun building and engraving from Lester Smith. He said Louis and Lester Smith were not related, but did work together. It is his opinion that at the time my gun was built it would been done by Louis Smith, then turned over to an expert in inlays, Buck Fleenor, for that part, then to Lester Smith for the engraving. Lester Smith died at a fairly young age somewhere around 1980, so he would have still been doing the engraving for Louis Smith at the time my rifle was made, sometime before 1975. He said Lester Smith's engraving was unique, and he was known for his excellent "wiggle" engraving. Here's a picture of it. Every edge of all the inlays is done in this fashion.
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I'm sorry to hear that. I met Don only on the internet, never in person. He seemed a very nice guy, was a lot of help to me in figuring out the backstory of my little gun.Sadly Don is gone now too,
That is a beautiful work of artThirty-five years ago I bought a trim little flintlock .30 caliber rifle which as been my main squirrel rifle. It would be hard to make a better one. The rifle was built by Louis Smith of Johnson City, TN. It has a Wm. "Bill" Large 38" barrel which is 11/16-inch across, straight octagon and has a 1:56" twist. The lock is a Hadaway, made by "Doc" Hadaway in my home town of Louisville, Ky. I've never seen a gun with as many inlays and engravings as it has. It is so slender and trim that first glance makes you think it's a woman's or child's gun, but trigger pull is 13 3/4", overall length is 55" and it fits me very well. Weight is 7 lb., and it hangs well offhand. I shoot mostly .295" balls with .010" patch, sometimes .290". It handles 15 to 30 grains of FFFg well and is my most accurate gun out to about 40 yards. As the old boys used to say, "she will make 'em come!"
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It’s a beautiful rifle for sure. So much so that if I had one just like it, I could not, in good faith, take it to the woods here. My squirrel rifle goes through hell and it certainly shows it, too.Thirty-five years ago I bought a trim little flintlock .30 caliber rifle which as been my main squirrel rifle. It would be hard to make a better one. The rifle was built by Louis Smith of Johnson City, TN. It has a Wm. "Bill" Large 38" barrel which is 11/16-inch across, straight octagon and has a 1:56" twist. The lock is a Hadaway, made by "Doc" Hadaway in my home town of Louisville, Ky. I've never seen a gun with as many inlays and engravings as it has. It is so slender and trim that first glance makes you think it's a woman's or child's gun, but trigger pull is 13 3/4", overall length is 55" and it fits me very well. Weight is 7 lb., and it hangs well offhand. I shoot mostly .295" balls with .010" patch, sometimes .290". It handles 15 to 30 grains of FFFg well and is my most accurate gun out to about 40 yards. As the old boys used to say, "she will make 'em come!"
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