Yes. By the time they were being made (1790-1825) there was practically no deer-size game in New England... in fact the whole area was largely clear. In 1830 NE was about 80% clear where today its about 80% forrest. I knew Don at the time that was written and eventually ended up with the unmarked rifle he attributed to Silas Allen.
I believe the large bore was to accept government rifle ammunition. I even have one, with traces of rifling intact, in .65 caliber, large enough to take a musket ball. Nevertheless, rifles aren't mentioned in the militia acts and their use in volunteer companies, while popular, was locally regulated. Nearly all of these NE rifles come from Worcester County (which is about 15 minutes north of me). The entire area was fairly affluent in the early 19th century and volunteer companies were popular...what hunting was done was done with smoothbores, though I am personally of the mind that there wasn't much of that either. Firearms ownership was extremely common but the overwhelming number of surviving arms appear to have been for militia service.
Every Massachusetts militia regiment was supposed to have two flank companies, a Light Infantry Company and a Rifle Company. In 1842 the state effectively disbanded the enrolled militia and agreed to provide arms to the Volunteer militia (which is the first time that militia act arms were actually issued to troops). There weren't enough rifles and some of the "rifle companies" were issued muskets. This, needless to say, resulted in reams of angry correspondence. In order to supply the rifle companies the state sent its store of flint 1817 common rifles to Waterveliet Arsenal to be converted, polished and fitted with bayonets.
