southern middle TN style??

[The other DWS]

My buddy who lives in south central TN (Lawrenceburg area--D. Crockett country) saw the rifle I'm building and has been asking me about helping him get started on building one that would be "native" to his region.   I don't know much about the various southern regional types.   Would there have been anything unique there or would they have been simply more eastern types carried west.

[Steve Bookout]

You will find that the farther West you travel in Tennessee, the more the rifles take on more details and appearances of rifles across the Mississippi.  I guess an easier way of describing them would be that they have more of an appearance of say Hawkens or Dimmicks. Much shorter barrels and half stocks become much more common, and this was relatively early on.  The use of silver for decoration is quite evident as well.  In mid-Tennessee, you start to pick up some Germanic details because of the influx of immigrants.  The Schutzen style rifles are fairly common.  There are a few references in print about mid and Western Tennessee rifles, but they are few and far between.  The late Robin Hale's small treatise has a photo of a target rifle from that area.  Cheers, Bookie

[Bill of the 45th]

Another thing to add to what Bookie said, is the time period, the earlier the period, the fewer the smiths, and thus the more the influence there was from the east, and north, so earlier on would be some guns of eastern TN, Carolina, and Virginia would be around that area.

Bill

[The other DWS]

that info gives a lot of room for exploration, interpretation, creativity.


D Crockett was active in that area. Before he went into politics he owned a couple mills on a small river west of Lawrenceburg.  they and the other mills there got wiped out in a spring flood.  That area now is the TN DNR's D Crockett State Park.   from there he went into politics---and history.   what kind of rifle might he have used there--say 1820s or so?   I'm speculating he might have carried something from farther east when he located there.