The longrifle in 1810

[54ball]

It's my opinion that rifles made from 1800 to about 1820 are the pinnacle of the American longrifle. In a sense, rifles from that era are hard to describe in words. If you do some real research on these rifles and their architecture, you can easily spot them. It's one of those things, with some education you'll know it when you see it.

I'll try to give a brief description of a rifle made during that era, 1800s-1810s.

Long, Slender and Refined.

Barrel: 42 to 50+ inches in length with 42 to 46 inches being quite common. Hand forged barrels will be swamped or tapered. The swamp will not be as profound as on a 18th Century rifle. In this era you start to see early factory straight barrels. Keep in mind that even some hand forged "swamped" barrels from this era, have such a slight swamp that it is not detectible by the naked eye. Caliber .30s to mid .50s with mid to upper .40s being the most common.
Barrels can be Cold rust blued, charcoal blued, in the white or browned.

Wood: Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Ash and other oddball woods in that order. I would say mid-grade maple by far the most common.

Stock: Here is where IMHO, it's difficult to put into words. Firstly is a certain grace, They do not call it the "Golden Age" for nothing. One feature that I see that is quite common in this era and seems to be found in many regions is a Oh So slight Roman nose in the comb and a Oh So slight gentle curve on the bottom of the stock from the triggerguard to the toe.

As time progresses inlays tend to replace carving as decoration. In this era you see many rifles with a pleasant balance of carving and inlays.

A good majority of these rifles will be trimmed in brass. In the South you really start to the early iron trimmed mountain rifles, sometimes with a mixture of iron and brass. Some high end rifles will be trimmed in silver or have a mixture of silver and brass.

Engraving like carving seems to be less and less as the years go by.

Butt plates will have a gentle curve, not as flat as Rev War or early Golden Age but not as severe a curve as the later crescent butts.

Barrels can be pinned or keyed.

Full metal "Brass" patch boxes most are engraved some not. Wood boxes can still be found especially on rifles by older makers like Beck but they tend to be an exception for the era. A wood box rifle tends to be less decorated than a Metal box rifle.

Lock: English export locks like the Ketland Design and American hardware variety locks are quite common even on some Penn made rifles. Early in the era the locks will have a pointed "teet" at the rear of the plate. As the era progresses, circa 1810, locks with rounded off tails come into to style. Some makers still continue to make their own locks or use the Germanic style like Beck, Dickert and Armstrong.

Sights will be Lowww, especially the front sight and commonly with a silver blade. Some front sight blades are so low and long the are hard to see from the side.

Keep in mind these are my observations of a "common" circa 1810 rifle. They're are many different regions and schools of rifles from this period. Some Rifles like all things made by the hand of man from that era man may be different than described above. So it's up to you to study and confirm the style and region of rifle you want.

 

[kaintuck]

very good......
then there's the different trigger guards~ like that 'Gillespie' one in the photo...tons of different TG, brass, iron curved back, forwards, thick, thin, bridged, sloped..... :youcrazy:

then TANGS........flared, straight, lollipop, to the buttplate etc etc........

marc n tomtom

 

[Claude Mathis]

54ball, who are you quoting?

 

[nchawkeye]

The Golden Age was more 1770-1810...

 

[tenngun]

Look like his from what's my rifle look like thread :wink:

 

[54ball]

It was mine, I posted it as a response in the 1812 Forum. Some folks liked it so I thought it might make a good topic in the general flintlock forum. I thought potential builders my want to give this era a look.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

The Golden Age was more 1770-1810...

I think you are way too early for the start of the Golden Age. Golden Age rifles typically have a much thinner butt than a 1770's rifle, a much deeper crescent shape to the buttstock, and a Lot of decoration that you didn't find in a 1770's rifle.

The end of the Revolutionary War in 1783 was the whole reason the Golden Age came about. There were relatively few rifle builders prior to the Rev War, but by the time the Peace Treaty was signed in 1783, there were a good number of them. Then all of a sudden, since the war was over, the demand for new rifles tanked. So now in order for a gunsmith to get someone to pick his rifles instead of one of his competitors, he had to do something different to make it stand out. Rococco relief carving was already commonly found on rifles during the Rev War, so the move was to brass ornamentation and/or sometimes German Silver Wire accents.

That post-Rev War era is where the Golden Age designs really took root. Stocks became more slender and graceful, caliber size shrank (from around .50 caliber down to around .40 and.45 caliber) and brass ornamentation along the forearm, around the wrist, behind the tang, and along the cheek piece started to become popular. Pierced patchboxes also started becoming more common than solid patchboxes. The rifles just started looking prettier!

1790 is much better time period for the beginning of the Golden Age. And it also extended longer too. Percussion Cap rifles came on the scene in 1820's but didn't really catch on until they were made for the military in 1833. Pretty safe to say that by the 1840's (fur trade era), percussion rifles were widely used, which of course spelled the end of the Golden Age of Flintlock Rifles.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup: