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"Schools" of Pennsylvania Rifles

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What Schools of Pennsylvania Rifles do you like best. I prefer the Lancaster School and Beck Rifles (I think they are Lebanon School).
 
I like the Lancaster rifles also and the Isaac Haines is one of my favorites. Also like the Dickert rifles real well.

I built a Isaac Haines rifle last year for my son for X-mas. It is on my web page if you would like to see it.
 
I like the Lancaster rifles also and the Isaac Haines is one of my favorites.

I am building a Bucks County rifle now & almost finished with it. Next is a German Jaeger & then a Jacob Dickert.

I built a Isaac Haines rifle last year for my son for X-mas. It is on my web page if you would like to see it.

Custom Muzzleloaders
 
Birddog, I was planning to get a Jim Chambers kit and build a lefthanded Isaic Hayes ...soon as i got the courage to spend the $800, and now you've discouraged me...I went to your web page. I see what one should look like, vs what I'll probably turn out....kidding aside, that is a beautiful gun..Best, Hank
 
Hank, that is supposed to Inspire ya not discourage ya !! You can do it ! Just take it slow & measure 5 times before ya cut.
It takes me longer to do the drawing & figuring than it does to build it, as for some of the things ya do, once ya do it there is no turning back. A good book to go by is The Gunmakers of Grenville County. Very indepth & good easy reading & good instructions. I have not used Jims kits but have looked at them & from what I have seen of them they are superb.
Also, you don't have to carve or engrave one to make a beautiful rifle. As you can see, that rifle is not real fancy carved & has no engraving at all but the wood really makes it come alive... Most of the old rifles we not carved & engraved, they were utility rifles & most of the ones you see now from old days that are fancier are still here because they were not used much & were put away.
Buy a kit, take your time & have at it. You may be really suprised with the results.
 
I'm working on my 2nd Isaac Haines from Track's parts. The first one I built for a friend and wish I'd never sold it, Was one of the best balanced guns I've held and a pleasure to shoot.

Horse Dr.
 
I like the Lancaster as they are one of the earlier "school" guns,I have one from track parts with a 44" barrel circa 1770 plus or minus, the stock lines are similar to those of Haines. The look and feel of some of the Bucks county guns are hard to beat though, I have a gun I made from some stuff I got from Jackie Brown that was a "Carolina" in the white project but the closest thing I have seen to the style is the Bucks guns in Schumways book, this style fits well and comes to the shoulder and eye nicely, I cannot recommend the source I got mine from but the gun style is a good one.
 
I personally like the Vernor's and the Bethlehem's. The custom I built is a vernor and is very balanced and a pleasure to shoot.
 
Well Hello Mamaflinter,
Sure am glad to see your name around. Was wonderin' when you'd get over here from the NMLRA posts. Nothin' to do with the subject posted, just wanted to say "Hello".

Pahu Aska
(Chris )
 
quote:Originally posted by Chris Hastie:
Well Hello Mamaflinter,
Sure am glad to see your name around. Was wonderin' when you'd get over here from the NMLRA posts. Nothin' to do with the subject posted, just wanted to say "Hello".

Pahu Aska
(Chris )
Would've been here sooner if I had even known about the site. I only found out about it maybe 10 minutes before joining. Flint was the person who told me about it.
 
I guess I have to say I like them all for one reason or another but my favorite is probably the Bedford.

As those who have seen my guns know, I am kinda into the inlay mindset (ya I know, "em thins don't make it shoot a bit better an' mine") and the Bedford School was about the last to let go of the craftsmanship envolved in installing them (they kept up this tradition well into the caplock era).
That coupled with the pierced patchbox, the really thin locks and the graceful slim stock which has a lot of drop to it so it easily comes to the eye when shouldered makes a Damn pretty easy to handle gun.
grin.gif
 
I'm a southern gent here born in Atlanta with the rest of my life spent in South GA. My mother and her people come from the Blue Ridge mountains in the wonderful northern part of the state. Therefore I favor the Southern mountain style of longrifle - .45 caliber. Just the kind us Johney Rebs used to send Sherman and his troops back down Kennesaw mountain with!
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Ooops! You did ask for PA style didn't you? Sorry. I guess I might build a York or maybe a Haines next after I've finished the S. mountain I've got on the bench now.
 
By "Southern Mountain Style" do you mean the kind of gun made by the Beans or Hacker Martin, as in the Fosfire Book - with Iron furniture and a grease hole?? These kind of remind me of what the Dixon's call a Schimmel - sort of a meat and potatoes style gun built for function rather than style - or am I wrong???

I know they made fancy style rifles in North Carolina and Virginia, like they did in Pennsylvania, but used English style as a guide instead of German style.

What caliber are you making? What kind of wood?
 
Snake-eye:
Well I probably went to the extremes in my desires of what I'm building now. There were probably not that many styled like the one I'm building as far as simple southern mountain rifles. The caliber is .45 with a straight octagon barrel 7/8" across the flats. The lock I'm using is a Large Siler. My current shooter has an L&R Durrs Egg. The stock is close, tight curly maple. It will have brass furniture and I havn't made my mind up as to a patchbox or not. It really will be more of a "classic" style PA longrifle and not S. mountain. I did get the pattern off my current Early TN.

The early TN I now have is in curly maple with one long incised carving starting below the lock and extending to the muzzle. No grease hole or patchbox. It also is trimmed in iron with a really curved butt plate.
 
I like them all but I like those with the less curved buttplates the best. I shoot a York County
mostly now but am almost finished with an Issac Haines with a swamped barrel and iron fittings that balances so well, I can hardly wait to finish it and shoot it.
 
What time frames and differences are there in an Early Tennessee and a regular Tennessee rifle I have not seen much in the way of documentation or examples of originals of these types of guns
 
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