Left Hand Lock

[WKevinD]

I have been noticing that most of the period LH rifles that I have found are RH stocked. RH patch box, LH cheek piece. I have never examined one physically so I don't know about cast off/on.
Does this mean stocks were "pre-shaped" waiting for an order? Expensive locks added later? Or was it the fashion to have the patch-box on the RH in spite of the lock placement?
Kevin

[Curt J]

Left handed originals are few and far between.  If you were born left handed, they "changed you", as that was considered a birth defect in the 18th and 19th Centuries.  Out of nearly three hundred originals, I have just two that are left handed.  One is quite plain (halfstock) with neither a cheekpiece or a patchbox, but has the lock on the left side.  The other one is a fullstock, with cheekpiece on the right and patchbox on the left, but the lock is on the right.  I do have three others that have a cheekpiece on both sides.

[Majorjoel]

There is an example pictured in "The Lancaster Longrifle  at the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum" by Patrick Hornberger & John Koler.  It is of a rifle made by Andrew Gumph c.1830 #56 on page 60.  This has a left handed flintlock with everything else made for a right handed shooter.  Very unusual.  Then, in the same book a rifle by John Fondersmith c.1800-1810 #40 on page 72. This also has a left side flintlock with all other features for a right hander.  The only conclusion I can draw from these two longrifles are that the gunsmith's used what ever they had on hand to work with.

[Levy]

If you look in T. M. Hamilton's book on trade guns, you will find a very nice left hand fusil fin.  I had the opportunity to clean it and it was a nice quality piece.

James Levy

[WKevinD]

 This also has a left side flintlock with all other features for a right hander.  The only conclusion I can draw from these two longrifles are that the gunsmith's used what ever they had on hand to work with.

That's what I have been wondering. Would a successful gunsmith have had stocks on hand that possibly an apprentice had "pre-carved"?  Would that account for a stock "on hand"?
I understand the attitude about "the devils hand" but also know it was a fact of life. I teach and study fencing and collect fencing manuals from the 17th & 18th centuries and almost all have a chapter devoted to dealing with the left handed swordsman.
So as rare as they are LH rifles are a reality and a curiosity with more questions than answers and I am trying to understand the

[Hungry Horse]

 I would suspect that a lot of these rifle, are either, right handed rifles, built with what the gunsmith had on hand, that being a left handed lock. Or the other way around, where he had a left handed customer, but only had a right hand lock. The double cheekpiece guns were a style all their own and are quite common is some areas. I own a W.H. Brown full stock percussion with matched beavertail cheekpieces, and silver inlays.

                   Hungry Horse

[Breadhead]

Here is a North Carolina Rifle, with a Left Hand (right side) cheek piece and a Right Hand Lock...

[WKevinD]

That would make sense for a shooter with a problem (blind) right eye or a dominant left eye.