James Gillespie Rifle

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

  ... Thanx, Dennis,... great forge work,... did the Gillespies ever do any cast iron fittings,...? .... this guard is equal to the cast brass ones they used,.. have you ever seen their unique buttplate in cast iron,...?... copper rammer pipes are interesting too,... are they plain or decorated,...?

[Levy]

Dennis,  I can't tell from the pictures.  Are the ramrod pipes pinned in or do the pipe tabs extend into the barrel channel and flare out?  A JAG that I saw in Blairsville once didn't have any pins in the ramrod pipes.  James Levy

[Dennis Glazener]

James,
They have 3 cross pins.

CCF
I don't recall every seeing any cast iron work but plenty of cast brass. All the Gillespies seemed very talented at forge work, I had to look at the lock side to see the seam where the buttplate was joined.

The copper thimbles are plain, no decoration.
Dennis

[Marcruger]

What a great rifle.   Thank you for showing us this one Dennis.  I'll bet it has a lot of stories stored up inside.   God Bless,   Marc

[geologyjohn]

John R. Gillespie (1811-1894). Buried in the “Old Union Cemetery” in Towns County, Ga.