AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Antique Gun Collecting => Topic started by: WKevinD on September 03, 2014, 04:02:10 PM
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I have been noticing that most of the period LH rifles that I have found are RH stocked. RH patch box, LH cheek piece. I have never examined one physically so I don't know about cast off/on.
Does this mean stocks were "pre-shaped" waiting for an order? Expensive locks added later? Or was it the fashion to have the patch-box on the RH in spite of the lock placement?
Kevin
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Left handed originals are few and far between. If you were born left handed, they "changed you", as that was considered a birth defect in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Out of nearly three hundred originals, I have just two that are left handed. One is quite plain (halfstock) with neither a cheekpiece or a patchbox, but has the lock on the left side. The other one is a fullstock, with cheekpiece on the right and patchbox on the left, but the lock is on the right. I do have three others that have a cheekpiece on both sides.
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There is an example pictured in "The Lancaster Longrifle at the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum" by Patrick Hornberger & John Koler. It is of a rifle made by Andrew Gumph c.1830 #56 on page 60. This has a left handed flintlock with everything else made for a right handed shooter. Very unusual. Then, in the same book a rifle by John Fondersmith c.1800-1810 #40 on page 72. This also has a left side flintlock with all other features for a right hander. The only conclusion I can draw from these two longrifles are that the gunsmith's used what ever they had on hand to work with.
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If you look in T. M. Hamilton's book on trade guns, you will find a very nice left hand fusil fin. I had the opportunity to clean it and it was a nice quality piece.
James Levy
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This also has a left side flintlock with all other features for a right hander. The only conclusion I can draw from these two longrifles are that the gunsmith's used what ever they had on hand to work with.
That's what I have been wondering. Would a successful gunsmith have had stocks on hand that possibly an apprentice had "pre-carved"? Would that account for a stock "on hand"?
I understand the attitude about "the devils hand" but also know it was a fact of life. I teach and study fencing and collect fencing manuals from the 17th & 18th centuries and almost all have a chapter devoted to dealing with the left handed swordsman.
So as rare as they are LH rifles are a reality and a curiosity with more questions than answers and I am trying to understand the
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I would suspect that a lot of these rifle, are either, right handed rifles, built with what the gunsmith had on hand, that being a left handed lock. Or the other way around, where he had a left handed customer, but only had a right hand lock. The double cheekpiece guns were a style all their own and are quite common is some areas. I own a W.H. Brown full stock percussion with matched beavertail cheekpieces, and silver inlays.
Hungry Horse
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Here is a North Carolina Rifle, with a Left Hand (right side) cheek piece and a Right Hand Lock...
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fz3lbJ5W.jpg&hash=cfc9754dc5135792ff5133c534bbc69b95c53c70)
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FSm0CT1U.jpg&hash=2711972f72b4712565fd16b92bb25f1e15948fe1)
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That would make sense for a shooter with a problem (blind) right eye or a dominant left eye.