I'd say "non typical" rifles were far more common than "typical" ones.
The last rifle I built and probably the last I ever will build is what I call a "Bucks County" rifle. I just didn't worry much about getting everything exactly in keeping with the written "standard" for that style. I studied lots of photos of so called Bucks County rifles and read descriptions of the characteristics of that school. What I found was that not one single rifle exactly conformed to all of those characteristics and several examples didn't even vaguely resemble the "standard" for that school, even though identified as being from that time and place.
The fact is that every rifle was a one of a kind piece by an individual maker to suit the wants of an individual buyer. Old parts were reused, old guns were restocked, the buyer may have provided the wood, etc. To try to take generalities as law is just deluding ones self.
So there is nothing wrong with "doing what you like", that's what they did two hundred years ago.
To the hide bound "this is right and that is wrong" thinkers, I say. :blah:
