thoughts on "THOUGHTS ......

[omark]

was looking in kindigs thoughts on the kentucky and noticed several smooth bores with set triggers. was wondering if this would be a reliable indicator that the gun had started life as a rifle and had been rebored. was also wondering if the presence of a rear sight might indicate the same thing. if you feel these ideas are inaccurate, i would appreciate knowing your sources. i live in the west so i have seen/handled less true long rifles than many of you own personally. but in my feeble 20th century mind set, i dont see a need for sets on a smooth bore. in advance, thank you all very much.    mark   

[Tom Currie]

George Shumway in his 2 volume set Rifles of Colonia America calls several of these smoothbores  with set triggers and rear sights " Smooth Rifles " as believes they were made as such. That is not to say that some rifles were bored out to smoothbores as the rifling wore out but I will leave it to others wiser than me to comment further.

[B Shipman]

A "smooth rifle" by definition, is a smooth bore built as a rifle. Rear sight, cheekpiece, prehaps a patchbox and carving in the spots you would expect on a rifle. In other words ,any gun you would expect to be a rifle but happens to be a smoothbore.
Many were built as such for practical reasons. Some were bored out rifles. I suspect that set triggers would be a sign that the barrel was bored out.
In all things, there might be exceptions.

[Roger Fisher]

A "smooth rifle" by definition, is a smooth bore built as a rifle. Rear sight, cheekpiece, prehaps a patchbox and carving in the spots you would expect on a rifle. In other words ,any gun you would expect to be a rifle but happens to be a smoothbore.
Many were built as such for practical reasons. Some were bored out rifles. I suspect that set triggers would be a sign that the barrel was bored out.
In all things, there might be exceptions.

Thanks Bill - shows again nothing really new under the sun!!

[Stophel]

I'd say with near 100% certainty that any gun with set triggers was made as a rifle.

[doug]

I'd say with near 100% certainty that any gun with set triggers was made as a rifle.

      I have a British .95 cal elephant gun which is smooth bored plus has sights and set triggers.  I am absolutely sure that it started out bored the way it is now.  Also have a John Moll barrel with rifle sights and is .49 cal smooth bored

cheers Doug

[PGosnell]

There are a lot of oddities in the world of antique firearms, more than enough to support a supposition that a double trigger smoothbore was produced, in its original form.

Having seen contemporary rifles with hummingbirds sipping from flowers and whitetail deer craved in relief and being of the opinion that the market rules of today are not much different than they were in the past, I would propose that more than one smooth bore American Longrifle was in fact produced in its original form as a smoothbore with double set triggers.  The builder when presented with the request from a buyer with cash in hand, happily took the order and produced the rifle. Whilst the buyer went home with his new fangled double trigger "rifle" to show his rabbit hunting friends.

Of course everyone knows that happened south of the Mason Dixon.  Probably in Virginia.

[jwh1947]

We'll never know.  George Shumway argued with Don V. and me over this exact issueabout 8 years ago.    We suggested that it may have been shot out and/or  freshed smooth, and that started a heck of a controversy.  Nobody knows for sure and probably nobody ever will.  There's just too many plausible possibilities.  JWHeckert