...no such critter! but your rifle is certainly striking and has really nice architecture.
This is a Virginia Longrifle with a stock carved of American Wormy Chestnut. In 2006, I purchased a 100+ year-old reclaimed American Chestnut log that was discovered in a swamp-bog to be fitted with one a Jim Chambers lock:
http://www.flintlocks.com/rifles04.htm The swampy conditions had preserved the old wood to freshly-cut condition. In fact, the wood was still a bit green when it was shaved into a beam and kiln-dried!
The eighteenth century .58 Calibre Virginia Longrifle project is indeed using a 100% American Chestnut stock for all you Chestnut experts out there. The seller of the reclaimed American Chestnut log specializes in this.
My gunsmith, Al Edge of Old Dominion Arms was extremely excited to actually have the honor to actually assemble a longrifle using such a rare wood! I almost decided not to stain it, but the slight use of a the light coat REALLY brought out the beauty of the lines in wood!
I am very thankful that I was able to find someone that actually possessed some reclaimed American Chestnut pieces large enough to accommodate the 62"x13"x13" block of wood necessary to carve this longrifle stock. The fact that the conditions of the swamp preserved this piece of American Chestnut to a freshly-cut condition was an added bonus over other suppliers whose bulk of resources were comprized of old barn boards and beams that have greyed over the years due to decades of weathering.
The lock itself is also exceptional! When I finally had the opportunity to fire this flintlock, I hit the bulls-eye at fifty metres! The weapon looks like it just passed through a timewarp straight from some colonial gunsmith's fresh stock!
I have the feeling from my limited research, that American Chestnut was quite often used in gunsmithing during the Colonial American era. Although it was not as hard as Walnut, Oak or Hickory, it was THE dominant hardwood of Colonial America (75%) and quite hard enough to use for a rifle stock.
My theory as to why we rarely witness many American Chestnut rifles that survived 250+ years is because they didn't. Colonial gunsmiths did not kiln-dry their wood and therefore most likely most of the truth deteriorated into a lost era of history.
I have indeed, also seen original longrifles from that era that had stocks made of American Chestnut. It may not appear that this could never have been according to today's standards, but American Chestnut stocks are a forgotton piece of history...
