Author Topic: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....  (Read 5984 times)

Offline Cades Cove Fiddler

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.. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« on: October 10, 2017, 03:12:53 AM »
...... :o :o :o.... I had heard from Dennis Glazener that there was a Gillespie rifle trying to hide-out here in Henderson Co., NC. ....So , I had to go look her up ..... Mark on barrel too faint to read, but overall, she speaks, "GILLESPIE" .... what ye think, boys ...??? .... Regards, C C Fiddler .... :D :D :D






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Offline mountainman70

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2017, 03:18:38 AM »
Hey CC, what a find.Ol girl looks rite smart at home in your hands. It it now yours ? Thanks for sharing,bro. Dave F 8) 8)

Offline wildcatter

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2017, 04:09:46 AM »
Was it hanging up in Craker Barrell?? Background sure looks it. Anyway, great find!!
You have to play this game like somebody just hit your mother with a two-by-four.

Offline Cades Cove Fiddler

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2017, 05:11:51 AM »
 ;D ;D ;D... Dennis had told me that he heard there was a Gillespie Rifle at the "Cracker Barrel" in Hendersonville, NC ... Well, I had to find out ...!!! ....  Barrel mark is too faint to read, she's in poor shape, but sure looks like one to me ...... !!!

Offline WElliott

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2017, 05:21:08 AM »
Good for Cracker Barrel. Their decorator did much better than the usual percussion shotgun over the fireplace. Not the typical greasehole for a Gillespie . I wonder which Gillespie made it.
Wayne Elliott

Offline Molly

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2017, 02:38:48 PM »
Shabby as far as I'm concerned....but a nice old rifle ;)

Offline Dennis Glazener

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2017, 04:34:52 PM »
Good for you CCF Gillespie TG, BP most likely Gillespie, not so sure about stock. If I were betting I would say restock.

Dennis
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Offline Cades Cove Fiddler

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2017, 05:56:01 PM »
 8) 8) 8)... Thanx for the "heads-up" on this rifle, Dennis .... she is in mighty poor condition, mark on barrel is too faint to read , but as Wayne said, great that Cracker Barrel used a Gillespie gun in Henderson County .... Manager was gracious enough to take her down from above the fireplace & allow me to examine ...... I wish I coulda taken better pix ...By the way ....Get the country ham breakfast.... it's larapin' GOOD .... !!!!!

n stephenson

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #8 on: October 10, 2017, 05:59:54 PM »
DANG!!!  CCF , A Gillespie rifle and, biscuits and gravy in one stop!! Some folks have ALL the luck. That is cool. Were those inlays in the stock?

Offline oldtravler61

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2017, 06:30:44 PM »
  Great find CC.... to bad they wouldn't sell it to you..! Sometimes they do part with them...antiques...Oldtravler

Offline Elnathan

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2017, 10:16:02 PM »
Huh. Just a couple miles from me, too. I may have to do a little exploring...
A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition -  Rudyard Kipling

Dave Fox

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2017, 08:05:55 PM »
Earlier this summer I examined a well-marked Gillespie in private hands also here in Hendersonville (see photo). Consensus among the wiser heads was it was a circa 1870s rebuild, being now a half-stock percussion. You've seen the one on loan in our old courthouse museum, haven't you?


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Offline Dennis Glazener

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2017, 11:17:15 PM »
Dave Fox,
I own a Mathew Gillespie with the exact same signature on the barrel (photos in our virtual museum). If that rifle is the one I am thinking about the owner still has the original stock with the gun.

A cousin of mine bought a half stock signed the same way and on that one the owner just cu the forearm off and made it a half stock.

Dennis
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend" - Thomas Jefferson

Offline Cades Cove Fiddler

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #13 on: October 13, 2017, 03:42:39 AM »
 8) 8) 8)... Yessir, Dave .... I have been by several times to stand and stare at the P G rifle in the museum ... haven't made it over to Brevard yet to see their M G rifle, "Old Ellen" ... message me your contact number ... I stay at Mountain Home when I'm in Henderson Co.,...... we can get together & talk Mountain Rifles .....Dennis has provided me much info on the Gillespie gunshop and Sitton Forge ... I've been to the grave-yard, and need to look up these other sites ... Regards, C C Fiddler ....


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« Last Edit: January 19, 2022, 12:11:13 AM by Dennis Glazener »

Offline Dennis Glazener

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #14 on: October 13, 2017, 04:55:53 AM »
8) 8) 8)... Yessir, Dave .... I have been by several times to stand and stare at the P G rifle in the museum ... haven't made it over to Brevard yet to see their M G rifle, "Old Ellen" ... message me your contact number ... I stay at Mountain Home when I'm in Henderson Co.,...... we can get together & talk Mountain Rifles .....Dennis has provided me much info on the Gillespie gunshop and Sitton Forge ... I've been to the grave-yard, and need to look up these other sites ... Regards, C C Fiddler ....


Old Ellen was built by Philip, or at least its signed PG. I highly suspect that anyone working for Philip signed their rifles with his PG. If you see many of them you will notice the wide variance it their looks.
Dennis

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« Last Edit: January 19, 2022, 12:10:49 AM by Dennis Glazener »
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend" - Thomas Jefferson

Dave Fox

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #15 on: October 13, 2017, 10:02:25 PM »
Fiddler: I'm no expert on civilian rifles. Know just enough to be dangerous and wasn't even reared around here. Military arms are more my specialty. the civilian muzzleloaders I own are chiefly of interest for shooting.

The Mathew Gillespie rifle to which I refer has been in the same family for decades and hasn't been exposed to the public. Mr. Glazener has seen pictures and he and others with expertise opine it's a rebuild using Gillespie parts. the wood doesn't whisper "Gillespie" to them. It's a quality rebuild in half stock with under rib. The owners were sorely disappointed.





« Last Edit: October 13, 2017, 10:06:12 PM by Dave Fox »

Offline Cades Cove Fiddler

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Re: .. Gillespie Rifle Found ....
« Reply #16 on: October 13, 2017, 11:07:11 PM »
 8) 8)... Thanx for additional pix ...nice looking gun ... who's to tell how gun was originally ..?? ...the rifle I hold in the above pics is an original Baxter Bean flintlock ... remained in same family over 100 years, now in the current owners family nearly 100 more .... She has a couple "non-typical" Bean features and some say is probably an old re-stock, but I don't think so ..... who's to say Old Baxter didn't try something a little different ...???.   .... we see most guns by certain makers following a "typical" look, but I think they might have made a "one-off" now & then ... !!.... thanx again .......