Long, Andrew North Carolina "Eagle Patchbox"

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

This history was written by Michael Briggs

 I have been studying the Salem and Davidson Longrifle Schools for the last five years and wrote a book on the Men that made Longrifles in those two schools two years ago. The two schools seem to have worked independently of each other but used the same stock architecture. There are two items that usually seem to be different between the two schools, the first is the barrel tang. You can look at the barrel tangs of the two Vogler Rifles I have posted in the last month. They both have Salem School Barrel Tangs. The Longrifle I am posting today has the normal Davidson School Tang. Salem and Davidson both used the same style fore-stock molding on their full-stock rifles. The second difference that you normally encounter is the way they terminate this molding. Salem Schools usually has a large C scroll while most Davidson Longrifles end with a wavy line or just stop above the entry pipe.From time to time an unsigned Longrifle turns up that mixes features from both Schools and makes it impossible to attribute it to either school, much less to a single maker with any certainty. Had it not been for John Bivins, this would have been one of those rifles.In 2006, I received an email from a fellow KRA Member in Missouri telling me that he had recently purchased a collection of Longrifles that included two Jamestown Rifles and inquired if I would be interested in purchasing them from him. He emailed me photos and offered them to me at a reasonable price so I purchased both of them from him and found them good homes here locally. (I usually buy and sell between six and ten longrifles per year and only keep the rarest and the best.) After I purchased the rifles from him he told me that he knew a man that lived in Missouri that had an old Longrifle with an Eagle Patchbox that might be a Vogler but it was in very poor condition. It took him several months to find the persons name and contact information for me.I called the owner of this Longrifle once I received the information. He told me that he was originally from North Carolina and had come home for a visit back in the late 70's. While here he went to an estate auction in Burke County and purchased this Longrifle. He then took the Longrifle to Old Salem and showed it to the late John Bivins. He said that John attributed the Longrifle to Andrew Long. John certainly knew more about those two schools than any other person I have met so I have let his attribution stand.I purchased the Longrifle in October 2006. It was in very poor condition having been broken into two pieces at the wrist and was missing the Lock. Brian LaMaster had a wonderful flint plate that was a perfect fit to the rifle and was kind enough to sell it to me. I have a local friend that is an excellent restorer and he did an outstanding job with this Longrifle. I got it back in the summer of 2007.The barrel on this longrifle is 46 1/2 long and the rifle is .36 caliber. The Longrifle features the typical Salem/Davidson stock architecture and has the longest comb of any rifle I have ever seen from these schools. The rifle has a great Eagle Patchbox and a nice guilloche toe plate. The Fore-stock molding is Salem style. The Fore-stock also features false silver wedges. The Longrifle has a Davidson School style barrel tang and a Man in the Moon inlay above the cheek rest.Here it is:



 









This is the kind of good stuff that I like to find. It made my year. I hope you enjoyed the photos and story.