Author Topic: Jeager question  (Read 4805 times)

KennyC

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Jeager question
« on: June 23, 2011, 06:23:45 AM »
Does any one know of a Jeager in the (sic ) shimmel format . just wondering  thanks. or are am I going to start a new fad lol

Offline Don Getz

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2011, 03:37:35 PM »
Never saw one, but, that doesn't mean you can't start the trend.   My "christian's spring" barn gun is coming along real well, Dixon's will be the first showing.   I know we have never seen a Christian Oerter barn gun.......until now...ha.     Don

Offline Cory Joe Stewart

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2011, 05:21:24 PM »
One thing to keep in mind are the examples we do have.  In the museums world there is an idea that the stuff that gets saved and handed down so we can look at it, is quite often stuff that was deemed special at the time.  So fancy rifles, powder horns etc. 

Point is there could have been "barn gun" jeagers that were not preserved becuase they were used up.  Like Don, I say go for it.  My dad wants one as well so I may do a barn gun version for him, he just wants a plain gun with a short barrel.

Coryjoe

Offline t.caster

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2011, 08:41:36 PM »
I've been dreaming in secret of doing one for a couple years, but never have time to build one "just for me"! Figured I'd be the first....but alas, someone is going to beat me to it, durn it. I've gathered parts & wood so far though.
Tom C.

Offline Artificer

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2011, 08:55:29 PM »
In Dewitt Bailey's Small Arms of the British Forces in America, 1664-1815, it mentions that Col James Prevost, Commander of the 4th and later the first battalion of the Royal American Regiment, was on recruiting duty all over most of the Protestant area of Germany in 1756.  While on that tour, he bought 300 flintlock jaegers for use in America.  He landed with them in New York in January 1757.  These most likely were very plain rifles, but no example of those rifles have yet been identified. 

This taken from pages 175 and 176 of the book. 

Gus

Offline LRB

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2011, 12:06:53 AM »
  I would bet they were not Shimmel plain.

Offline Lucky R A

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2011, 12:53:34 AM »
    I have seen some very plain Jaegers, but they still had a butt plate, trigger guard and the requsite number of ram rod thimbles.  i own one from late in the flintlock era (now percussed) that probably came to the USA in some G.I's dufflebag.  It has absolutely no inlays and the butt trap is flush with the stock with just a little lip at the rear to facilitate opening.  It is a neat light (about 7lbs) 60 cal. little gun.   There are a lot of references in colonial writings to "short rifles"  I would bet they were imported Jager based guns....
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Offline Acer Saccharum

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #7 on: June 24, 2011, 03:34:12 PM »
I have seen a jaeger where the guard was made of wood, the buttplate was integral with the stock, all carved and engraved to look like a brass BP, the thimbles were made of steamed birch, bent round into pipes. Rather than a shimmel, this was a form of gunbuilder's humor.
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Offline rich pierce

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #8 on: June 24, 2011, 06:05:09 PM »
I am always a little confused by the usage of the term "jaeger".  To me it means a short barreled Germanic rifle made in Europe.  But others sometimes use it to describe early rifles made in the colonies, and some would even call the Marshall rifle a jaeger though it was stocked here in maple and has a 37-38" barrel.  At that point, the term jaeger becomes too broad to be a useful term for me.

After that philosophic intro I'll say that its unlikely that barn gun style jaegers were made in Europe and found their way here.  So making a jaeger with Euro walnut and leaving off the buttplate or entry thimble, sideplate and nosecap woud be a fantasy rifle.  On the other hand it is entirely possible that a wrecked, European jaeger rifle could have been restocked in the colonies and some parts substituted or left off the resulting rifle.  Would something like this be the norm or common for anyone to own or carry?  I doubt it.
 Barn guns or schimmels were mostly made in a specific timeframe and location, likely for a specific clientele that is not so romantic.  Farmers guns.  Many re-enactors nowadays like to expand the concept by reasoning without much data that at all times, in all places, the common man used bare bones, stripped down rifles.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2011, 06:09:37 PM by rich pierce »
Andover, Vermont

Offline Stophel

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2011, 06:42:28 PM »
  There are lots of "relatively plain" German rifles (still with all the hardware and moderate carving), but never seen anything that looked like a German barn gun.

Now, there are some early 19th century cobbled-together German guns made from old musket parts and such that are floating around, but not quite the same thing.   ;)
When a reenactor says "They didn't write everything down"   what that really means is: "I'm too lazy to look for documentation."

KennyC

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Re: Jeager question
« Reply #10 on: June 24, 2011, 07:58:03 PM »
Thanks for the replies guys. Man I was hoping for a answer like . Yea theres 2 on page 9999999  of BILLY-bOBS flintlocks gone wild. It is going to be a no/go as I don't have much patience trying to justify myself to someone who doesn't know any more than I do. Just think they do
'
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