In 1976 I bought a little .30 caliber rifle made by Louis Smith of Johnson City, Tn. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had bought what was for me the perfect squirrel rifle.
The gun is representative of the late flint period, stocked with premium curly maple, slender, with a slightly Roman nose butt stock. The butt plate, trigger guard, patch box and inlays under the belly of the forearm, on top and bottom of the butt stock and the nose cap are all brass. The side plate, escutcheons around the barrel wedges, the star on the cheek piece and the touchhole pick holder under it, the inlays on the butt stock where the rococo carvings usually go and on the wrist are all of German silver. There are no carvings, but it is highly engraved.
The rifle weighs 7 pounds, overall length is 55”, the barrel is 11/16” x 38.5”, straight octagonal, made by William Large. The rifling is standard pattern, 1:56” twist, .010” deep with 7 lands and grooves. Length of pull is 14” and there is a double set, single phase trigger.
It is sighted at 25 yards with 25 grains 3F Goex and a .295” ball weighing 39.4 grains, patched with .007” cotton, beeswax and lard lube.. Muzzle velocity is 2120 fps (these little calibers really zip), which gives a trajectory dead on at 25 yards, .4” low at 50, 2” low at 75 and 5 1/2” low at 100 yards.
Too many pictures:
The gun is delicate, and on first appraisal looks like a small size rifle made for a woman or boy, but is actually full size. It is quick and handy in the woods and shoots far better than I can. Just for curiosity’s sake I once shot a 3-shot group at 100 yards from a casual rest, got a 2 3/8” group exactly on the predicted drop of 5 1/2”.
I use shot for most of my squirrel hunting these days because I’m no longer a spring chicken, but I have a lot of memories of squirrels collected with the rifle “in the old days”.
I’ve always been sorry my state doesn’t allow rifles for turkey, because the little gun would be absolutely perfect for them, too.
Spence
The gun is representative of the late flint period, stocked with premium curly maple, slender, with a slightly Roman nose butt stock. The butt plate, trigger guard, patch box and inlays under the belly of the forearm, on top and bottom of the butt stock and the nose cap are all brass. The side plate, escutcheons around the barrel wedges, the star on the cheek piece and the touchhole pick holder under it, the inlays on the butt stock where the rococo carvings usually go and on the wrist are all of German silver. There are no carvings, but it is highly engraved.
The rifle weighs 7 pounds, overall length is 55”, the barrel is 11/16” x 38.5”, straight octagonal, made by William Large. The rifling is standard pattern, 1:56” twist, .010” deep with 7 lands and grooves. Length of pull is 14” and there is a double set, single phase trigger.
It is sighted at 25 yards with 25 grains 3F Goex and a .295” ball weighing 39.4 grains, patched with .007” cotton, beeswax and lard lube.. Muzzle velocity is 2120 fps (these little calibers really zip), which gives a trajectory dead on at 25 yards, .4” low at 50, 2” low at 75 and 5 1/2” low at 100 yards.
Too many pictures:
The gun is delicate, and on first appraisal looks like a small size rifle made for a woman or boy, but is actually full size. It is quick and handy in the woods and shoots far better than I can. Just for curiosity’s sake I once shot a 3-shot group at 100 yards from a casual rest, got a 2 3/8” group exactly on the predicted drop of 5 1/2”.
I use shot for most of my squirrel hunting these days because I’m no longer a spring chicken, but I have a lot of memories of squirrels collected with the rifle “in the old days”.
I’ve always been sorry my state doesn’t allow rifles for turkey, because the little gun would be absolutely perfect for them, too.
Spence
