Beavertail cheek piece -- period

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

When were these shapes of cheekpieces first introduced??  19th century?  OR have you ever seen one on a mid 18th century English gun?

Acer's photo:

[Acer Saccharum]

Oh, $#@*, Tim, that's a fantasy gun. I made this like an 1860's sporting rifle, but in flint, which was long out of date.

Tom

[Dave B]

Tim,
I have a couple of books showing examples of a beaver tail cheek piece in the 18th century. One is the "Early firearms of Great Britain and Ireland showing S X S hunting  rifles made by Joseph Manton which are dated to the 1790's the earliest example of a beaver tail cheek piece is in the Jaeger book Jim Chambers imported. Its on page 443. The Jager rifle is from Hanover Germany and dated at 1736. As with most European artistic details we were a few years behind the times. If Manton was doing them in 1790's then we here would have followed suite by the early 1800's I would think. I have no examples of american rifles with beaver cheek pieces that predate the turn of the century.  Has any one else found examples of this detail on a american made piece This early?

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Well I am building a knockoff of a Griffin Rifle (.58 Octagon to round, tapered and flared. Early Ketland lock modified to somewhat resemble a Griffin... it is fowler architecture.... highly figured black walnut stock. So I am thinking of using this style of cheekpiece just to add a little to the sculptured look of the stock.   I don't want to make an obvious mistake of mixing two blatantly different time periods if I can help it......but who knows it may end up a fantasy gun too....     Have you seen the fowlers Allen Sandy builds..last year they were featured in CLA adds in Muzzleloader Mag or Muzzle Blasts.....

Just took the bandsaw to the blank last night.... left wood for a cheekpiece......wood is drop down beautiful...thank you Don Reimer and Ron Scott!!  Tonight I will inlet the standing breech. or at least get it soldered to the barrel. making the hook was fun!! You learn from mistakes right??  

[KY Shinner]

Dr. Tim
      This is a little off subject but I thought I would ask.
      I did not know there were Griffin's as gun builders.  As you can see from my name I would be interested in this.  Were might I find some inofrmation about him.
Thanks in advance.

Ed

[Dennis Glazener]

I once had an original flintlock rifle with this type cheekrest. Not sure when it was made but most knowledgeable collectors thought it came from Southwest VA or Southern WVA.
Dennis

[G-Man]

Shumway showed a few early American guns, look to be 18th century anyway, with variations of the semi-oval and rounded or "beavertail"cheekpieces.  Don't know the page or gun numbers from RCA off the top of my head, but there are at least two in Volume 2 as I recall.  One is that magnificent rifle with the Virginia Valley looking patchbox (4 petal "edelweiss" finial) and floral wire inlay around the breech that was in the Windsor Castle collection, which Shumway attributed as "maybe" York County, but possibly from other places as well.

In the 19th century they turn up occasionally on fullstock flint guns made in Virginia, including what is now West Virginia, Tennessee, probably other places too.  There were a couple (I think one of these may be one that Dennis was referring to) such iron mounted guns listed for sale on this site a few months back.  Whisker shows quite a few with rounded cheekpieces in his "Virginia" books - when done right, they are quite beautiful.

Guy

[smart dog]

Tim,
Early English rifles of the period contemporary with B. or J. Griffen generally did not have cheek pieces.  Later rifles probably did (>1780) and many of those copied German styles.  I have seen photos of several English rifles from made after 1800 that had beaver tail cheek pieces.  I built a nice little early English rifle styled as a cross between the Turvey pictured in RCA and the Grice model 1776 military rifle.  It has no cheek piece and does not need one for accurate comfortable shooting.

dave