WOW! You certainly have quite the collection! Thank you for posting and identifying these. All of these have something to love. From the pics, I suppose in terms of the shape/angle of the stocks, I favor the Reading and that “Transitional” quite a lot. They seem to have less of a drop than the others. But man, they are all gorgeous pieces. You built all of those?I'm not sure which tall rackfull you mean but I did take some old photos and set them up to show a few of my rifles.
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From left to right, the first one is a Northhampton county boy's rifle in .36 caliber. Next to it is a Pecatonica River "Transitional" butt in .54 caliber. This would be a early style. Next is a Southern style, probably from the Carolina's (I didn't use photos to define this gun). Last, on the right is the Reading rifle I posted above.
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Again, from the left is a "Early Lancaster" with the straight comb typical of Lancaster's. Next to the right is a "Late Lancaster". It's comb is similar but the butt is narrower and slimmer. The curvature of the butt plate is more pronounced. The checkering follows that used on a Fordney rifle I used as a basis for this gun. The checkering is not deep like modern checkering. It was more of a decoration.
Next to the right is the Bedford County I showed in the post above. Last, on the right is a Franklin County style. It is similar to the Bedford but it is not as slim. The lock used is typical of the locks used on other longrifles, not the long slim lock found on the Bedfords.
Hope this helps.
Grizz ... Jus asking.. You're not married are you? ... I only ask because of the question you jus ask. LMAO!!Ok, why would you ask someone else to pick out a shirt for you? A car or pickup? A hair color maybe?
Wouldn't you want to pick out one that you like instead of one someone else likes?
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Well, yes..... together 50 years - married 48 years - high school sweethearts.
Yes. I built them along with some others I didn't show.
I had a rather high stress job at the time and building these rifles was a way of forgetting about work related problems each evening.
The only ones that are the "kits" sold by Pecatonica River are the Transitional and the Bedford. The others are pre-carved Pecatonica River stocks which I used as raw material to modify into other shapes based on photos of original guns. Dick Greensides of Pecatonica River also provided these stocks without the lock mortise cut so I could use locks that closely resembled the locks used on the original guns.
Oddly, after I retired, I no longer needed to avoid the stress of my job so I haven't finished the Beck's county rifle I was working on at the time. It and it's Rice barrel and Manton flintlock are still sitting there. Every once in a while I'll do a little bit to it but I'm in no hurry.
Most of the inlays were bought from the company that eventually became Muzzleloader Builder's Supply. Places like Track of the Wolf and Dixie also sell some of them.
Most of the inlays were bought from the company that eventually became Muzzleloader Builder's Supply. Places like Track of the Wolf and Dixie also sell some of them.
The Franklin county rifle has a total of 32 German Silver and Sterling Silver inlays on it. By the time I finished it I was so burned out on installing inlays, the next gun I built didn't have any at all.
Here's a link to the post that I made about that gun
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/first-try-at-pictures.1035/#post-7756
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