Firearms from the past - Why the appeal?

[Acer Saccharum]

Post civil war target shooting became a nation past time. Some of the FINEST gunsmithing was done between 1860 and 1890 with the schuetzen target guns, as in the buttstock photo above. George Schalck comes to mind, and his rifling pattern was adopted and improved by Harry Pope. This was an era where the search for ultimate accuracy was at an all-time high.

While these guns are not the focus of this longrifle site, please don't try to tell me that these guns had no bearing on our history. There was a revolution in technology, in chemistry, ballistics, optics, all coming together in the short fifty years between CW and WW1. A fascinating time period.

Indian wars, the demise of the buffalo, the expansion and development of the West, the laying of the transatlantic cable......

Oh, $#@*, I'm off topic. See what you did? I got all sidetracked, and forgot what I was thinking about....again.

Great topic, Jim.

Tom

[rich pierce]

Acer, they are great guns and in many cases the workmanship exceeds almost anything ever accomplished on longrifles.  Although important in history these guns did not build a nation from wilderness, which is my primary interest in our history.  But these later styled rifles would be a wonderful palette to challenge the very best artisans of our time.  When I look at some of them in the Steel Canvas book, I am amazed.

[Dan'l 1946]

 Early exposure to these guns coupled with Davy Crockett and other films about the early history of our nation had me hooked from a young age. Then there is the beauty and grace of the guns themselves. And the history.
  It is said that the Winchester 1873 is the gun that won the West, and that may be so, but the long and splendid firelocks are the guns that won America and for that alone they should  be treasured.

[smart dog]

Hi Jim,
I love decorative arts and the merging of form and function.  My favorite human examples of the near perfect merging of those elements are sailboat hulls, suspension bridges, and flintlock and earlier firearms.  The flintlock firearm, epitomized by the English fowler and American longrifle, is nearly a perfect union of form and function and expression of decorative art.  Stocks flow from the barrels like they grew out of them and the shape perfectly fits the human anatomy to perform a desired task.  Moreover, I love histories of technology, science, and business and old firearms are acute expressions of those subjects.

dave   

[T*O*F]

While these guns are not the focus of this longrifle site, please don't try to tell me that these guns had no bearing on our history. There was a revolution in technology, in chemistry, ballistics, optics, all coming together in the short fifty years between CW and WW1. A fascinating time period.
Indian wars, the demise of the buffalo, the expansion and development of the West, the laying of the transatlantic cable......

Acer,
You almost hit the nail on the head, but not quite.  Most of us are baby boomers who grew in the 50's or before.  WW2 had just ended and overall progress was poised to take quantum leaps.

The US was still largely an agrarian society and most of us grew up in small rural towns.  Farms were still small and done with horses or 2 bottom plows.  The country was still wild, and wilder the further west you went.  As kids, we were free to roam the countryside unfettered by property lines and no trespassing signs.  We hunted , fished, and camped as our primary means of recreation. TV was still a bit of a novelty..we got our first one in 1953.  We walked or rode our bikes everywhere.

Most of us were already outdoors and gun people.  TV just led us in special directions.  There was more cowboy stuff than Fess Parker stuff.  That's why cowboy action shooting is so big today.  What we are today was shaped more by our environment and our own then recent history than what was on TV.

[whitebear]

This has got to be the best collection of answers to a question that I have seen.

Yes I also like the romantics of Fess Parker and all the others.  In the 60's I never missed an installment od Daniel Boone or David Crocket and would take the broom and put the brush part to my sholder and "shoot" with the handle.  After I got married I found a person in our town that actually shot longrifles and went to see him.  He showed me my first real handmaid (handmaid for himself as opposed to custom maid for him by someone) flintlock rifle which I later bought and fell in love with the geometry and flow of the lines.  Then I found that I could actually own this rifle and later found another person that encouraged me to try to build a flintlock.  I was hooked all this was in 1973.

[Cody Tetachuk]

I just love old stuff, guns, cars, planes, steam locomotives, antique furniture, coal oil lamps, my wife etc....

[Bob Mac]

Cody, I hope your wife doesn't read this, or if she does she has as good a sense of humor as mine does.
Acer, did you smack your knuckles for going off topic for a couple of words?

[Ed Wenger]

Excellent thread...  For me, it's what many have offered, creating a functional piece of art that accurately represents a piece of American history.  It ties us with our past and enables us to create an icon of American history.  I could do the same with furniture, or some other form of Americana craft, but the longrifle ties my interest in history, outdoors, shooting, and craft manship together.

                   Ed

[Bentflint]

I'm with you guy's. Like Dave said I didn't have the money to buy one. But, before that I sure liked them. My dad was born on the kitchen table of the farm house where he was raised. I still have his grand dads twist barrel twice gun. I wish it could talk.

Oh ya, flint guns. The place in history where they were used, the smell and sight of a clean shot at a tom on a foggy morning when the smoke lays on the ground in the stillness. The taste of vineson taken with a hand made flintlock. $#*! ya, that's what I like em.

Bruce

[ChipK]

I taught marksmanship for the military for 20 years and watched millions of rounds go down range from firearms that open up on both ends of the barrel.  I have always been fascinated by the act of setting off a chemically controlled explosion in your hands and launching a projectile accurately towards a target. 

One day I got to shoot a flintlock and that started me down a different path.  A modern firearm, although very useful in purpose and function, simply does not have the grace and beauty that a period firearm has.  These link us to our past and the creation of our country.  These allowed for a different type of freedom to exist in the world and set generations of people seeking out a dream for a better life.

No modern firearm has the graceful lines of a Virginia rifle, Beck, Tennessee Mountain, or any other period firearm.  These are unique in history, function, and grace.  Simply put, nothing else compares...

[Mike R]

Missed the beginning of this as I was off reenacting the 18th cent at a local colonial French Fort, which is part of the equation--I love history and especially colonial and early American history. But this was coupled with a love of firearms as well and an early training as a hunter and woodsman. Then too, I love art. There never has been any firearm as beautiful as the American longrifle IMHO. The longrifle and its cousins, like the long English fowling guns and French fusils, marry history, art and function. Early in life I witnessed backwoods Ozark and Smokies hunters with longrifles--albeit plain ones, but long and graceful arms they were! Then we moved to PA where originals could still be seen [and had, unless you were a child with no cash]. I was fascinated with them--long before Davy hit TV....fast forward to my early days in the oil business and finally a salary that could afford a few extras in life--but no! The handmade longrifle was still a reach with a family to support, but a local muzzleloading club in Tulsa reinvigorated my desire to own and shoot a longrifle. I learned to build from a local, scraped together enough cash to buy components in 1978 [~$300], and built my first longrifle using only hand tools except for a drill press--an eastern PA late flint era styled arm that I designed from studying photos in a couple of books. It still is my best shooter. I did not remain a builder [built only a couple rifles and a couple pistols], but learned to appreciate what it takes.  Now I have a modest collection that is my pride and joy...

[LURCHWV@BJS]

  It's like a time machine for me,  though I'm only on my first I find it truly relaxing. I feel as though I am transport if only briefly to a time when life didn't have the hustle & bustle of this modern life.  A more simple time.  I also love to hunt, High Power Rifles make hunting too easy I see a deer at 200yrds+++ put the scope on it pull the trigger drop the deer.  no challenge.   While working on a rifle the world around me disappears for awhile.  It's an ambrosia  a drug an addiction.

   Or it's a stepp into insanity..... I like it


   Rich

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

...........or sanity perhaps?? 

[Cody Tetachuk]

Cody, I hope your wife doesn't read this, or if she does she has as good a sense of humor as mine does.

Sense of humour??? What woman doesn't appreciate being told that they are loved.

[Majorjoel]

I have really enjoyed this thread and have found agreement with most everyone's idea's. Along with the art, history, and romance of the longrifle, I would just like to add that each one of these objects is unique. One of a kind with no two alike. A lot of folks enjoy collecting Winchesters and Colts but with them if you've seen one.......basicly, you have seen them all.  It is the uniqueness of the Kentucky rifle that holds my interest.

[keweenaw]

As a gun builder there is so much more leeway to express yourself with a colonial era piece than with modern firearms.  I love great modern sporting rifles as well but there the style and decoration are locked in and the challenge is solely about execution, not artistry.  Then there is the backlash factor against the trend in current commercial firearms to be mass produced, plastic, identical and ugly.

Tom

[Bob Mac]

You're right Cody, I guess I missed the love part and focused on the old part. Sounds like you got a good one, I know I do.
Bob

[huntinguy]

I am a machinist by trade... The skill that goes in to building them is amazing. Considering that the Colonial gunsmith built almost all of the parts... including the screws... Sheesh. I am humbled by their skills.

Considering that you are sending a projectile down range and any variation in power, bore constriction, and millions of other variables.... I am amazed that our forefathers were able to hit anything....

The main reason though, for me. When I carry traditional I can hear the moccasins steps of generations walking in the forest, my eyes sharpen because I am looking for dinner for my family and trying to keep my scalp at the same time, I am exploring with capt'n Clark or ...

The same reason my hunting rifle stays in the safe and my fathers is slung over my shoulder... some day it will be slung over my sons... and some day his sons... it is that connection... it is why I am never alone in the woods.

Someone earlier said insanity... I think they might be right. 

[frogwalking]

I once saw a Hopkins and Allen being loaded in photos in a gun magazine when I was 15.   The sight of the big .44 round ball being pushed into the thick barrel mesmerized me.  I still remember that the article said to use a "thimble full of powder"  I was bit then and there and stayed that way ever since.  It took me about 5 years before I managed to get one of those H&A guns and I still think the action looks like a shovel neck,  but we had a grand time with it.  I still am not much of a craftsman, especially when I see some of the first time guns shown here, but I can assemble one that shoots OK.  I usually make it the way I want it, and that is fun in this time of mass produced obsolescence.