Comments:
This rifle has very appealing architecture and should be in the Library, but if it is to be attributed to East Tennessee, it would be helpful to have some indications of why. Some elements appear to be East Tennessee and some western NC. For some unsigned guns, it is hard to tell whether they were made in East Tennessee, Western Carolina (North or South), Northern Alabama or Georgia.
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Similar rifles were also built in southeastern "hill county" Kentucky, heavily influenced by their Tennessee "cousins" due to the number of TN gunsmiths who migrated up into southen KY, or whose children did.
Perhaps someone can educate me on a detail seen on this rifle. When a flintlock gun has a "double throated" or "military" type cock that rests or seats on the pan's rear fence, why does the stock need a relief cut just above the lock's top edge??? I thought a relief cut was only needed for single throated cocks whose inside edge had a shoulder that seated on the top edge of the lock plate, thus the need for a relief cut for clearance for that inside shoulder.
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Dramatic architecture! Regardless of exactly where it was made, it's a wonderful rifle.
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Love these pieces that are as long and slender as a buggy whip. This one is a screamer! As a southern iron gun, it is just the best. Would be nice to know who made it, but we don't always get that lucky. I would be proud to have it up on my wall, signed or not. It does appear as though it has been refinished, but that does not detract from the gun itself. After all, it has a grease hole in the butt stock. And that long, long barrel!
