Antique E.Tenn Squirrel Rifle

[Carper]

Direct from the closet ( about an hour ago) of a distant neighbor.  Twenty something caliber, 40 inches long barrel, walnut stock with forged furniture. The forgings are nice. The buttplate and long toe plate are nailed in place. The design of the fullstock is better than most. The comb is sort of Roman Nosed. The cheekpiece is very similar to E.Tenn. style and very distinct and short with the rays. The triggerguard looks a lot like the "Bean" style and is pointed on both ends. Two not original screws hold it to the stock. The stock is sound and patinaed but missing a small sliver on each end at the muzzle. Rear thimble is typical E.Tenn as are two barrel thimbles( although a little short) The hardware store cap lock while very old is not the lock that the gun had when it left its maker, as it does not perfectly fit the lock mortise. If I guessed, I would say the lock has been on the rifle since early 1900's.  Inverted T shaped lock bolt inlay with pointed ends again appears to be iron. Iron tang runs the full length of the wrist and ends at the comb  with a  radius end. Two screws hold it in.  I like the design of this rifle from the wrist to the butt as the butt is 1" wide and the wrist is heavy. The comb line is sharp and dainty. The rifle is black and dirty and uncleaned. The bore  I have not inspected.  The reason that this rifle came here is that the mainspring is broken on the lock. I also got the antique ball mold. They gave me the bag and horn too but they date from I would guess the 1950's or so when they last used this rifle. The old ramrod is in place. Folks never quit using these rifles here (south West Virginia.)  A direct from the family rifle you don't see much

This rifle is now sold but due to the number of folks that wanted to see photos the new owner graciously agreed to allow us to post the photos. Enjoy them! I will move this over to antique guns now that it is sold. Dennis

[Carper]

The E. Tenn rifle has a new home.  Thanks for all the interest and inquiry. A special thanks to Dennis and Art who offered to post pictures on the site since I did not know how.  Thanks again      Johnny

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Interesting cheekpiece location...the shooter must have liked to crawl his stock...??

[brobb]

I don't believe that I have ever seen a cheekpiece that far foreward.  Do you think that that it could be located there for shooting prone?

Bruce Robb

[Carper]

It is hard to pick up from the photos but the rifle had a very wide wrist. Actually no  lock moldings just a constant taper to the buttplate which was about one inch wide. If you held the rifle on your bicep the  cheekpiece actually fit pretty good and the twenty something caliber would have had very modest recoil. I really liked the thick wrist and intend to make my next rifle like that. It had about a full buckhorn rear sight too.  Johnny