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Issac Haines rifle?

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MIR

32 Cal.
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Im not sure here, but most of the Isaac Haines style of rifles are made with the 37/38" barrel length. Or I should say most reproductions that are being built have that length barrel.
Would it be historically permissable/correct for a IH type rifle to have longer barrels like 42-46".

One more thing is the Isaac Haines style a pre Rev-War school of rifle?
Anyone have the period/years in which these rifles were built?

Something tells me that it goes from the late 1760's on up until about the late 1780's.
I could be wrong though.
 
Isaac Haines was a person, a Lancaster Pennsylvania gunsmith, who worked from before the Revolutionary War through perhaps 1800 or so (don't have the book in front of me). It is a shame that the kit suppliers do not give customers even a glimpse into the history of original guns. There are several fine examples of Isaac Haines rifles known and 3 of them, I think, are in Shumway's Rifles of Colonial America, volume 1, toward the back of the book.

The Isaac Haines kits being offered are simply Golden Age (1780-1800) generic Lancaster styled stocks with common Lancaster styled furniture, and generally, a Siler or Golden Age lock from Chambers and associated parts. Sometimes the kits will have a blueprint that shows Isaac Haines' style carving, etc. He was a fine carver and his work leaned toward sophisicated more than folksy.

Since Isaac Haines worked for several decades while styles were changing, then variations in parts are normal. But the generic kits which have buttplates perhaps 1 and 3/4" wide with some dish, and barrels 1" or narrower at the breech, should, stylistically, have long barrels, because the rifles correspond to the 1790's or so. Shorter barrels than 42" were rare in the 1780-1800 time period.

Investing in books illustrating original arms, and visiting museums that have originals, are very worthwhile investments for the rifle builder. It is a very big mistake to use catalogues as sources of information about originals. Many of them mis-label and mislead so often it seems they must be doing it intentionally. I recently saw a Bucks County styled rifle advertised at one of the big catalogue companies' websites where they sell custom guns, labeled as a "York County" rifle.

Long story short- what is sold as an Isaac Haines rifle just means 1790's Lancaster, more or less.
 
Wayne Dunlap of Dunlap Woodcrafts sells his Isaac Haines Golden Age rifle with a 42" barrel.

Old Salt
 
Don Getz once responded to this question on another board. He said that the reason the "Haines" kit was produced with a 38" barrel was that was the longest barrel he could make at the time. It was popular, and it just kind of stuck! :wink:
 
TOW used to have an"early Lancaster" parts set with a 42" barrel which could easily be made into a Haines style gun, for a Haines gun you might want to studey his originals and pick up on the little things that sort of define his style and apply that to a basic Lancaster parts set.
 

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