unidentified rifle?

[Ken G]

I'm posting these for a friend of Woods Runner.  Hopefully someone can help with identification and/or the geographic are it is from.   It has a very pronounced Vee shaped foreend. 
Thanks Woods Runner for the pictures.  Ay idea on the caliber or barrel length?

[smshea]

Wow! I have no Idea but I love that kind of stuff....you just know that has stories to tell.

I know almost nothing about southern mt. guns, I'm wondering if that forestock is as 'V" shaped as the pictures make it seem and is that seen in the guns down that way. That is something you would see here in eastern Pa but nothing else about that gun would make me jump to a Pa conclusion. Love it.

[Ken G]

I've seen several guns from the Soddy Daisy are with that very pronunced Vee shape but they normaly have a diamond shaped butt also.  None of the other characteristics match Soddy guns though. 

[Levy]

Ken:
I noticed that it has a rounded looking spot to the rear of the lockbolt.  Is that a mark like the ones you have shown previously?

James Levy

[woodsrunner]

I've talked with Billy this morning, and he says the following:

The barrel on this rifle is 47.25 inches long, and it's .32cal. Close examination doesn't show the circular design that Ken asks about. The caplock is not original, and he's basing this on the fact that the moitise was not made for the lock presently on the piece. It's significantly different. The nose cap is missing, and he thinks the original was brass but that's just a gut feeling. The trigger guard is not original in his opinion, and again because the moitise is different. The  thimbles are brass and he thinks the one closest to the muzzle is not original, but is a replacement because it is attached by flairing while the other two are pinned. The rifle was found with an old family in Union County (Blairsville,Ga) and the previous owner says that all he knew was that it came from somewhere in Tennessee originally.

Billy has almost finished a close copy he's making using a 44" .32cal Rice barrel and a Silar lock from Jim & Barbie. The stock is flat sawn Cherry off Billy's GGrandad's old homeplace in Union County. (Billy is directly decended from John Gillespie, the Union County riflemaker along with his brother James Gillespie). Our plan at this point is for me to swing by Union County and pick up the original and Billy's copy and bring both up to Mel's Show at Lake Cumberland next month.

[Ken G]

Woods runner,
Thanks for the additional information.   I tried blowing the picture up and I didn't think the mark looked the same.  I did notice it looked like the trigger guard was pinned rather than attached with a screw. 
47 inch long by .32.  SOmething tells me she's not a light barrel either.  Maybe 1" at the breech. 
Cheers,
Ken

[Nate McKenzie]

It reminds me of some of the Gillespie rifles in Dennis Glazener's book.

[Dennis Glazener]

It might be a Gillespie the stock profile is fairly close but I kinda doubt it. I suspect its a late rifle (after 1840) with that small caliber, is the barrel swamped?

All of the Gillespie's that I have seen without a buttplate were fairly early rifles. I have seen quite a few Gillespie's with vee shaped forearm, most were made by Mathew's sons in the Mills River shop. Earl Lanning's unsigned Gillespie has a vee shaped forearm and probably is a circa 1810-1825 rifle.

The longest Gillespie barrels that I have measured were 45 1/4 inch and I believe both of them were probably made in the East Fork shop and neither barrel appeared to have been cut. The odd length makes me think that was the longest their equipment would handle.
Dennis