Tom and I have talked a lot about the original gun as he's shared pictures and plans with me. I noted several things about the gun that might provide clues as to where it was made, but there's the possibility it's a gun with some new and some old parts, making for a complex story.
The buttstock is very unusual in architecture. I call it "the dolphin" as it is a little inflated looking and the way the comb comes down to the wrist reminds me of a dolphin nose. The cheekpiece viewed from underneath looks exactly like the cheekpiece of the Brass Barreled Rifle. The way the cheekpiece slopes to the buttplate is effective and simple; easily accomplished with a spokeshave. We speculate this was a rifle made during the Revolutionary War for that purpose. The sideplate is identical to a walnut stocked Virginia rifle in RCA volume 2, if I recall #124 or nearby. The tang carving is generic with the possibility of Reading influence. The lock is unusually fine quality. Of all these features, the similarity of the cheekpiece to the BBR and the sideplate strike me the most. Whether the sideplate on this gun or the Virginia rifle are both "first use" on both guns, I don't know. But the sideplate seems more than coincidence to me, and sideplates can often be signatures.
It looks to me to be a strong, bold, well-executed plain rifle made quickly and efficiently. Something like a Don Getz rifle.
