Rich Pierce said:
Also cannot recall a flintlock rifle from Virginia with an octagon to round barrel. So if I wanted to make an early Virginia "rifle" but have it be a snoothbore I'd choose a swamped octagonal barrel and brass furniture of course unless replicating one of the early "black rifles". Look up "old Holston rifle" for more on that. Ian Pratt made an elegant "black rifle" patterned after the old Holston rifle.
Rich,
Maybe 5 or so years ago I visited the Valley Forge NPS. In their Information/Tourist Center, they have a somewhat small but very nice museum of Revolutionary War Items. In the tall case against the wall where they have a number of “Revolutionary Rifles” on display, the very bottom rifle was described as a “Virginia Rifle.” I got with their Head Curator of Arms and he could tell me nothing as to who made the rifle and there was nothing listed as to a signed name, barrel markings, etc., etc. The Head Curator had no idea why it was listed as a “Virginia Rifle,” but it was. Oh, some folks include Rifles used in the Revolution as “Early Rifles” and some folks don’t, so I’m not sure if this fits the OP’s question or not. OK, I think I have all the caveats listed before I describe the rifle from memory and I had to lay on the floor to get the best look at it I could.
The Rifle really surprised me for having been made in Virginia before or during the AWI. It had an octagon to round barrel that seemed tapered and flared. The flare was barely noticeable at the muzzle even through the glass of the display case. The barrel was held to the stock by I think four wedges, though it may have been only three. That surprised me even more than the Octagon to Round barrel, though was in keeping with at least a somewhat higher quality rifle than one would normally expect. The stock was curly maple with a good amount of figure in it. There was some tasteful looking carving, but I could not see the top of the rifle to describe the carving around the tang. It had a brass patchbox with some engraving and the other furniture was brass. The right side of the rifle was only visible, so I have no idea what the side plate looked like and the Curator had no pictures of the rifle on file. Looking at the rifle, it really seemed it was a higher cost rifle UNTIL you saw the lock, which really looked out of place.
The lock was what I would describe as a much earlier “Dutch,” Belgium or perhaps French Flintlock and by the size of it, it may have originally come from a pistol. It had the earlier very noticeable “teat” at the rear of the lock plate and the bottom of the lock plate was arched. When I noticed the lock, the first thing I thought was, “What is such a crappy looking lock doing on an otherwise more expensive than normal rifle?” The answer to that question may be as simple as it was the only Lock the gunsmith had on hand or the customer could supply to make the rifle during the AWI when no more locks were coming from England and it was even more difficult to get them from the European Continent.
I looked at RCA Shumway and the rifle is not listed in the Southern Arms section. Then I remembered that many, if not most AWI original items on display at Valley Forge came from the Neuman collection. It was not listed in his Collector’s Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. I also have a copy of his “Weapons of the American Revolution,” but the illustrations are too small for me to see until I get my eye fixed.
I was privileged to hold in my hands and examine one original PA smooth rifle that was in private hands in Marion Center, PA not far from Puxatawney where the Ground Hog is viewed each year to see if winter will last longer. However, I do not know if it was ALWAYS a smooth rifle, because it had been professionally converted to Percussion and the job was done so well, the percussion hammer perfectly matched the style of the lock. The lock was a round faced German lock and the threaded hole for the frizzen spring screw had been plugged and there was only the faintest impression where it had been filed to the surface of the lockplate. The conversion to percussion was of the bolster type and it was beautifully blended in style to the Rifle and to the lockplate. You had to look at it VERY closely to see the faint impression of where the bottom of the priming pan had been, but it looked more like a curved/engraved line under the bolster on the lock plate.
There was no doubt it had been at least a smooth rifle in its early life, as it had the correct period front and rear sights. It also had a very nice wood patchbox. It had the wide Brass buttplate and trigger guard one would expect on a Pre AWI rifle, though as I recall the only carving was a little incised carving. The stock and patch box cover were so dark it was very difficult to tell what wood it was, but it seemed to have been Maple, though it was too dark to see any figure or curl. The barrel was swamped and sure enough that was ONE day I did not have my pocket brass bore gauge on me, but it appeared to be around .58 to .60 caliber, purely by eyeball guess. Even though I have “Orangutan” length arms, it felt very good even if a bit short for me. There was also what appeared to be an 18th century fowler with it, but the bore was so small, the barrel almost paper thin at the muzzle and it was heavily coated in rust; I did not look at it more than to be polite. It was the rifle I was interested in so I looked at it as long as I could.
Both guns belonged to my Mother in Law’s Father, but they were not family pieces. He had purchased them at a barn sale or local auction years before and he had no other information on it. Unfortunately, I was transferred to the West Coast for a number of years, so I never got a chance to see it again to take more notes and measurements. Oh, but what treat it was to see and handle it!!!
Gus
