Daniel Buck Pennsylvania Rifle

[nafzimo]

This rifle has been passed down in my family. Daniel Buck, my 4-greats grandfather, was a gunsmith in Pennsylvania. He was born in Montgomery Co in 1881 and moved to Crawford Co in 1823. I'm told that he carried this rifle to Illinois in 1839. I have removed the lock and the butt plate hoping to find a signature with no luck. The "No 4" sized lock was manufactured by "B.E. Co" but I didn't find anything about them online. I would love to see other examples of Daniel's work. Can you narrow down the date it was built? I would put it between 1822 and 1835 but maybe that can be narrowed further. I wish this rifle could talk!

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
I urge you to post the rifle on the ALR website too (www.americanlongrifles.org) in the "antique gun collecting" section. There are experts there who will help.

dave

 

[Cattywompuss]

This rifle has been passed down in my family. Daniel Buck, my 4-greats grandfather, was a gunsmith in Pennsylvania. He was born in Montgomery Co in 1881 and moved to Crawford Co in 1823. I'm told that he carried this rifle to Illinois in 1839. I have removed the lock and the butt plate hoping to find a signature with no luck. The "No 4" sized lock was manufactured by "B.E. Co" but I didn't find anything about them online. I would love to see other examples of Daniel's work. Can you narrow down the date it was built? I would put it between 1822 and 1835 but maybe that can be narrowed further. I wish this rifle could talk!

This is by no means the be-all-end-all, but his name is not in the maker index of Kaufman's "The Pennsylvania Kentucky Rifle". Again, doesn't mean he isn't there, just that he isn't in that book. That is a very pleasing rifle in many ways. The top of the buttplate is one of the only "skinny" butts I've seen that still has a hexagonal design. That's really cool. Also, the lock side plate is really cool. Reminds me of the facing horses design of Theoden's sword hilt in Lord of the Rings. The barrel is also quite heavy for caliber. Your dating is perfectly reasonable, and could even be later, but probably not.

 

[Mulebrain]

What a gem, and it is in very good shape. I would have it checked out, and shoot it!

 

[Brokennock]

The barrel is also quite heavy for caliber.

It's pretty great isn't it?
I'm no expert but it seems to me that many of the small bore rifles I've seen pictures of from this period have what we consider heavy for caliber barrel walls.

 

[Brokennock]

This rifle has been passed down in my family. Daniel Buck, my 4-greats grandfather, was a gunsmith in Pennsylvania. He was born in Montgomery Co in 1881 and moved to Crawford Co in 1823. I'm told that he carried this rifle to Illinois in 1839. I have removed the lock and the butt plate hoping to find a signature with no luck. The "No 4" sized lock was manufactured by "B.E. Co" but I didn't find anything about them online. I would love to see other examples of Daniel's work. Can you narrow down the date it was built? I would put it between 1822 and 1835 but maybe that can be narrowed further. I wish this rifle could talk!

I would second the suggestion of Mr. @dave_person and encourage you to post this on the ALR forum.
No slight meant to anyone there, but there are folks there who seem to have information resources on original guns that are hard to beat.

 

[Cattywompuss]

It's pretty great isn't it?
I'm no expert but it seems to me that many of the small bore rifles I've seen pictures of from this period have what we consider heavy for caliber barrel walls.

I could see that being the case especially for smiths who purchased blanks to lock and stock. Why buy 3-5 barrel profiles when you can make a .32 and a .50 from the same size? Not saying that's the case here, but I could see that being the case in many instances.

 

[Brokennock]

I could see that being the case especially for smiths who purchased blanks to lock and stock. Why buy 3-5 barrel profiles when you can make a .32 and a .50 from the same size? Not saying that's the case here, but I could see that being the case in many instances.

I mostly find it interesting because we are now so adverse to small bore rifles with such thick barrels due to weight. They seemed to have no such concerns.

 

[nchawkeye]

I suspect they wanted them a bit thicker so it could be refreshed and rebored as it was used in later years...