Smooth bore in the 1820s

[jrbaker90]

How much was the smooth bore like a fowler used in the 1820s in the frontier in Tennessee

 

[tenngun]

What a can of worms. By 1820 America was a country of rifelmen. So the gun in most western areas was a rifle, or at least looked like a rifle. Many of the known guns from this time were smooth rifles or rifle mounted fusils. Some of these may have been rebooted smooth. However some seem to be made that way.
Corrected vision was rare and if a man had glasses they were likely to be reading glasses. A rifle that will shoot four inch groups at a hundred yards won’t help some one who can’t focus on a target at that range less then a foot in diameter.
Poor boys, often spent well on guns and had very good rifles. The southren style rifle was often plain but very well made, and silver mountings were not uncommon. However also the old guns, daddy’s old gun and even grand pa’s gun were known. From Texas 20 years later a cache of freebooters guns had a near equal mix of smoothies and rifles.
At this time the east was tending toward small game hunting and the making of shotguns was the vogue. To give a very good impression of a Tennessee middle class avarage Joe a rifle is probably your best bet. Should you want a smoothie you have lots of options. You also have latitude in style. An Ohio style or a plain Pennsylvania rifle would not be unheard off. Nor would a classic southern rifle. Keep in mind if you lived in 1820 Tennessee you probably came there from someplace else.

 

[54ball]

Tenngun makes a point....
In the East from the 1820s onward the shotgun begins to replace the rifle as the family gun in the East.
To quote Hank Jr.

We're them old boys raised on shotgun.

Oddly enough, Southerners tend to shoot a shotgun like a rifle. Most tend to handle them and aim like a rifle, at least that's the case in my cultural circle. Maybe that's the whole "Rifle Culture" thing showing up.

To answer you question...
A simple English Import gun like a single bbl Flint gun with a later Ketland lock....some of these have a waterproof pan and a flat tail.
You begin to see doubles and as the years pass, a lot of doubles either English or Belgian.
Then there's the "old guns" like English and French Fusils. Many of these are found converted to percussion and few from Tennessee. Sometimes even old large caliber rifles are found bored smooth.
Then there's buck and ball guns.....a buck and ball gun has features of both a rifle and a fowling gun but it is not really a true smooth rifle. Many have basically a rifle style stock but with a round to mostly round barrel. They tend to have heavier barrels than a say a fowling gun.
Confusing? I know. :wink:

Tennessee in 1820...
wild in places yes, but nothing like Tennessee in 1794 or even 1813.
As the Indian threat diminishes and the large game hunted out, rifle bore size gets smaller for small game and shotguns begin to have more practicality.
No threat of Indian raids...
No big game to speak of....even the white tailed deer was nearly extinct in this period.
Any self respecting Tennessean ate free range Pork he raised in this period....deer was the fodder of the low class.
Hence the Hog Rifle.

In the mountains rifles were used until modern times. In the low lands....rifles are still found but shotguns are very very common.