Research Suggestion

[Vaquero]

Hey Everyone,

As I’m planning my Bent’s Fort-esque, large bore rifle, I’d really like to find information pertaining to any period accounts of restocking or reboring done while out on the frontier.

Or, any literature that would give information regarding available or common firearms in the Southwest, anything from contract rifles to French and Spanish military arms to Texian civilian arms.

The time period I’m mostly focused on is turn of the 19th Century to 1850.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Davison

[Mtn Meek]

Vaquero,

One of the more interesting first person accounts of the restocking of a rifle at Bent's Old Fort is told by James Josiah Webb in his Adventures in the Santa Fe Trade 1844-1847.  On Webb's first trip to Santa Fe he acquired a rifle in a trade that had a long history.  Here's his account.

He [Doan] had been presented with an old rifle by Messrs. Bent, St. Vrain and Company, and wished me to trade with him for a double-barreled shotgun I had...Many years before, a trapper employed by the American Fur Company had taken it on a trapping expedition in the Blackfeet country.  The Indians killed him and took his gun.  Years after, Messrs. Bent, St. Vrain and Company sent an expedition to that nation on a trapping and trading trip, and traded for the old rifle.  At the fort it was re-stocked (full length), and altered from flint-lock to percussion, and kept at the fort for a target rifle for several years.  In 1846 I had it newly grooved, half stocked, and [added] a new lock and breech pin, and have carried it in all my travels in the trade except my last trip.  In 1849 a man from Boonville, Missouri, on his way to California, came into the store when I was cleaning it up, and on looking at it, said:

My father made that gun.  There are his initials.  It must be very old, for he has been dead many years and did no work of that kind for many of the last years of his life.  He made all his guns by hammering out the barrels by hand, and boring them and creasing them in the same way.

This is the history of my old and trusty friend, companion, and bedfellow, who never went back on me--"Old Blackfoot"--the name it was known by at the fort and which I have always retained.

Bent's Fort had a blacksmith/gunsmith capable of repairing and restocking any gun or rifle.

I cut this out of a Denver paper back in the 90's.  The original rifle obviously wasn't a Hawken if it was made in Boonville, Missouri, but it's possible that the Hawken brothers rebuilt it in 1846 when Webb "had it newly grooved, half stocked, and [added] a new lock and breech pin."  It's likely that the only part of the original rifle still remaining was the barrel.

[Vaquero]

 Thanks MTN MEEK,  that’s exactly along the lines of what I’m looking for.  I had heard about that rifle, but did not know that it was still in existence.

 Looking forward to hearing more period accounts or research books from you all!

Davison

[fahnenschmied]

Somewhere - I think it was in Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail - is a mention of a rifle that had been restocked with wood of a tree that had been killed by lightning.  Ive never read much of French or Spanish arms, but much mention of Northwest guns in that area, and of course the rifles made for the trade by Henry and Leman.