I was recently asked how early the loly-pop tang was used on TN rifles. I first said I thought it showed up around the beginning of the percussion era then happened to remember that I had David Byrd's book on Unicoi County TN rifles (see this link
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=22261.0 ). I pulled the book and even though not many of the rifles showed photos of the tang there on pages 95-97 was a James McInturff rifle with a loly-pop tang. David gives a build date of 1790-1810. David has forgotten more about E TN guns than most of us have ever known so I trust his thoughts on a the dates.
I would be interested to know if any of you have seen this type tang on any other early TN rifles?
Dennis
