It seems to me back in the day, IIRC, some of the characteristics espoused for "Virginia" guns were a sideplate panel that paralleled the bore line and not the barrel contour, and a low cheekpiece. I think a lot of that was based on this gun. In handling the original, I almost wonder if the blank was too narrow because the sideplate panel and outside of the cheekpiece were basically in the same plane, i.e., they were at the level of the outside ("left" side) of the blank. I don't recall Wallace addressing the crooked buttplate - maybe he can come on and do so. I would have loved to attend the class he gave, if for no other reason than to see the rifle disassembled and learn what he had gleaned from it!
When I first saw the article I thought, "That is one ugly 'riffle gun'", but it grew on me. I had a barreled blank sitting in the corner - a plain piece of maple with my first attempt at hand inletting a swamped barrel - that had been there for a while because I wasn't happy with the inletting job. So I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained and went ahead and built it. I can only say it is one sweet handling rifle! Somewhat "unconventional" but a great-handling gun. Jim Kibler picked a good one to duplicate, and with his modifications to make is somewhat more conventional in architecture (e.g., making the wrist more uniform in depth) it's a winner for the masses!
On a related note, I think Fred Miller (and now Dave Keck) had the "Feather Gun", not the "Woodsrunner". When Fred was still doing them, you could get it with the incredibly short forearm of the original or have the ramrod channel routed to a more conventional length. I have one I picked up from Dennis when I was still up in Virginia. Now that I'm retired I hope to get back to building. It's number three or four on my list, but since it's a partially shaped buttstock, maybe I should move it up to number one just to get back into it!
And sorry for the ridiculously long post - just the ramblings of a retired guy drinking my morning coffee, before I head out to mow and bush hog!
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