HALFstock flintlock rifles?

[Skychief]

Were halfstock flintlocks ever very popular?   

If so, did they generally have shorter barrels (~34-38")?

I am mainly wondering about "Eastern", smaller bore rifles....not Hawkens and so forth.

I don't know, hence my asking.   Yet, I thought they may have been in vogue just priop to the perfection of the percussion cap.

Any knowledge imparted very appreciated.

Thanks, Skychief.

[SCLoyalist]

After doing a search for 'halfstock flintlock' in google and in the ALR 'museum' it doesn't look like they were too popular over here.   I saw a couple of English game guns from 1810 to 1830 & a couple of halfstock fowlers (French or English).  The 1803 Harpers Ferry Rifle would fall into your category, but that's more the letter  than the spirit of your inquiry.

I think John Wayne used one in "The Alamo", though.

I've seen one or two recently made halfstock flinters and think they're rather handsome looking guns.

[smylee grouch]

Dr. Shumway shows one by Jacob Kuntz in his Longrifle Articles, Volume 1 on page 12 & 13. Nice looking gun of course and it has a 43 & 7/16 inch barrel.    Gary

[Lucky R A]

   More than a few flintlock long rifles were "converted" to 1/2 stocks and most of the locks were then converted to percussion at the same time.  A few were left as flintlock particularly in the more remote areas where percussions caps were not readily available.

[Dale Campbell]

New England had half stock rifles.  Check out the Silas Allen in the ALR museum.  Others have been posted in the forums.  I think both in the antiques and gun building sections.

[WElliott]

Half-stock flintlocks were also made in Georgia.  Examples survive by Wiley Higgins and Templeton Reid.

[mbriggs]

I have owned several North Carolina Flintlock, Half-stock, Longrifles.  One by Henry Ledford that was made in 1838, also one by Jabez Stephens and one by William Lamb.  I think they were popular in the late 1830's and early 1840's.

Michael 

[stuart cee dub]

Most of the half stocks I have seen that were flints were full stocks at one time .If the foreend broke cracked shattered  but the stock was sound it was a common fix as eastern guns moved west .Sometimes the barrel was shortened and it was left a full stock albeit shorter .Some of those originals are still being used at shoots .

In the 70's some gunmakers would replicate these guns intentionally and it was a legitimate style .
 My first homebuilt gun was a ''Pennsylvania'' half stock c.1975.

At a shoot last weekend Dick had a Michael Hayes built percussion gun that was a bench copy of an roman nosed original so converted  , built back in the 70's ,a trim 45 caliber with skinny shorter  straight douglas barrel .
It was well used but still lovely to hold .It pointed well too .It was a way of using  a straight barrel and still ending up with a  dynamic handling gun .I had to go back and ask to handle it again as I was very taken with it .

No reason you could not still make such a gun.

Seems to me Skychief you have a Douglas barrel which you have mentioned on some other threads .And straight barrels if long are nose heavy.And you are going around and around trying to figure out how to get it to work for your squirrel gun .
This must be keeping you up at night.I tried to the same thing for years .Kept me up too.
So if you try to make a full stock of it you, you will either to learn to live with it nose heavy like the mountain folks did as making do was what they did .......
Or you will not be happy with it because you are trying to defy gravity .
And if making do was really OK with you, you would not even ask .

Think of it this way .There really were some but not a long time period's worth of half stock flintlocks .Straight barrels made in manufactories flooded But did not ''swamp'' the market in the 30's 40's and beyond .Calibers really did get smaller.Barrels got somewhat shorter .Flints were on the way out .The industrial revolution was underway .Interchangability even looked possible .And the big game was pretty much gone like woods buffalo and the deer out east
(Luckily there were those tasty passenger pigeons AND the new cheap two barrel hardware store percussion shotguns to keep the nimrods happy. Wish they would clone those pigeons next,but I digress ).

But there is this brief little window .....It is just not  common for gunmakers today to build in this window but these guns can really be  delightful .         

[Don Getz]

The name Silas Allen was mentioned above.  I remember when one was pictured on the cover of Muzzle Blasts and I kind
of fell in love with it.   Half stocks always intrigued me.   I really liked the looks of this gun, along with the wooden underrib
which I guess was kind of a common feature of New England guns.   Stuart also mentioned a gun by Michael Hayes, that's
a name and a fine gunbuilder I haven't seen in a long time, he did some great guns.......Don

[Skychief]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply Stuart Cee Dub!

I have a Southern 45 caliber flintlock (fullstock) that is channeled 13/16".

I swapped it's barrel for the .32 Douglas to get a very close idea of how it would handle.   To my suprise, it was NOT the monster I had feared it might be.   I weighed the rifle wearing the .32 barrel at 7 pounds!   While it is of course a bit muzzle heavy, It held well and I didn't feel fatigued taking aim over the top flat.

So, I am leaning toward using the entire 42 inches in a fullstock flinter.   I can now rest at night.

Thanks again for your help!

Skychief.