New guy here. I recently was affected by muzzle loading rifle fever. I think it suddenly happened when I viewed some of the finished Kibler rifles. I bought a starter. ATraditions Hawken rifle. Then wanted a Pedersoli Kentucky but the backorder was until December. I don’t want to wait that long. Now thinking about the Traditions Pennsylvania rifle. It looks great on line. Wondering if any members here might have an opinion on this rifle. Next year a Kibler.
I have one of those. It was my first longrifle and I got a good price of ~$449 at Sportsman's Warehouse in about 2001 or 2002. The good news is the rifle is a tack driver with the right load. Mine actually needs a 95gr. load of 3F powder and then it is a tack driver.
It's a pretty rifle and mine actually has some highly figured walnut which is unusual. They had two and one had a walnut stock with the normal grain and the one I bought actually has striping on it. It's very pretty rifle. It is very nose heavy because it is not a swamped barrel, but I don't know of any production rifle that has a swamped barrel.
It is also HIGHLY decorated and not at all what you would see during the Rev War, but rather in the "Golden Age" of the longrifle which went from just after the war until about 1840. There had been a lot of demand for longrifles during the Rev War and when the war ended and the treaty was signed in 1783, that demand all but disappeared.
It was then that the gunsmiths started ornamenting their rifles with hunters stars, weeping hearts around the wrist, and more ornamentation along the length of the barrel. This rifle has all of that ornamentation as well as a much deeper crescent shape in the butt than you would see during the war. All of those things point to a much later period of use.
Nonetheless, I used it for reenacting until about 2005 when I bought a much more historically correct Early Lancaster rifle with a swamped barrel from a private builder. Nobody ever gave me grief about my Traditions longrifle except the gun builder in our group who "educated" me in Rev War period longrifles. And he really only did that once. The main thing in Rev War reenactments is that it must be a flintlock rifle.
By the way, the bluing on this rifle is fine as charcoal bluing was a popular option in the 18th century. If you are not worried about historical or period correctness, none of that cosmetic stuff matters. So if you're not doing reenacting...don't sweat it at all!
The biggest problem I ran into with my Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle was the shape of the stock. It has a big Roman Nose sweep to it and it will bruise your cheek or give you a black eye if you try to shoot it like a normal rifle. The reason for that is that, mounting it like you would a normal rifle, you have to lean your head over the stock to line up the sights. Then when you fire the rifle that upward recoil will smack you right in the cheek or along the bottom of your eye. It hurts and it bruises so you look like you've been in a fistfight.
There are two ways to keep that from happening. One is that you mount the rifle with your head farther back on the stock than normal. That allows you to sight your rifle with your head farther down that Roman Nose stock and without putting your cheek over the top of it. That way the recoil doesn't smash the stock into your cheek but rather up and along side it.
Another way to fire it successfully is to use an old shotgunners trick and when you mount the rifle, turn your noise into the stock so you are just sighting out of the corner of your eye. That keeps your cheek away from the top of the stock and recoils just slides up and back instead of bashing into your cheek.
Now when you have a rifle made or order one from a maker a few years from now, ask for a 1/4" offset on the stock (right-handed shooters) and a swamped barrel. I used to do fittings for custom-made shotguns and that 1/4" offset will make it so your eye aligns with the sight when you mount it with extremely little sighting adjustment, if any, to get on target. Most people need 1/4", a few folks, and more commonly women need a smaller 1/8" offset, and folks with big cheeks and a wide jaw may need as much as a 1/2" offset. For most folks, 1/4" works just fine and is much better than a straight stock.
The swamped barrels taper from the breech to the middle of the barrel and then swell back up about a foot to 18" before the muzzle. The swamped barrels are how rifle barrels were made in the 18th century. They are lighter and the balance point is right back at the hand you place on the forearm. They are not nose-heavy at all! They are much easier to mount and swing with as well as hold on target when shooting off-hand (without a rest). My much longer Early Lancaster rifle is a full 2-lbs. lighter than my Traditions Longrifle.
Hope this helps,
Dan
Twisted_1in66