Mike Gahagan Morton rifle

[Lucky R A]

   If you like western Pennsylvania longrifles and want to see a really nice recreation of a Daniel Morton rifle, check out Art Riser's Contemporary Maker's blog site.   Really nice job Mike, I sure would be proud of that one.    Best wishes, Ron

[Robert Wolfe]

Yea, I was drooling over that gun yesterday. I particularly love that patchbox. Outstanding work.

[Jim Chambers]

As Don Getz and I have said many times, Mike is the best kept secret in the entire contemporary building world.  The quality of his work is second to none.

[B Shipman]

David Morton is getting to be a popular maker to build. There was a Jud Brennan rifle at the CLA Show and I'm just finishing one up. I'll post it in a few weeks.

[Lucky R A]

A couple of years ago the owner of the gun that Mike re-created had that and the "old" Mortin (attributed) to the Jefferson Co. Historical Society's Arms & Artifact show at the Jefferson Co. Fairgrounds.   They were directly across from my display and I had a lot of time to look and photograph both.   I had Fred Miller put barrels in stocks for both guns, but just have not caught up enough to do either gun.   There was a lot of very fine gun making done in Western PA, that seems to have been largely overlooked.   As Bill says I think that trend is changing.  there will be a lot more guys poring over the originals and the book Longrifles of Western Pennsylvania, Rosenberger & Kaufmann.   Both of the original Morton rifles I mentioned are illustrated there.

[Mike Gahagan]

Thanks guys for the kind words.I too believe that the Western Penn. guns are over looked and that they were some of the prettiest gun built at that later time period. I had always wanted to do one,but I didn`t think that I would ever get the chance.Then a guy calls up to order a gun and when I asked what he wanted,he told me to build him something that I have always to do.So it didn`t take me long to decide on what to build....Mike

[B Shipman]

Mike, pretty much the same thing with me. A guy wanted a fancy rifle and I steered him in that direction. Fleeger is another good one. You always do beautifull work. Post some pictures here for us to enjoy.

[RobertS]

There's another maker by that surname, Ken Gahagan, whose work has caught my eye quite often on the contemporary makers blog. 

Could these two talented souls be related?

[Mike Gahagan]

I have met him at the CLA show but I don`t believe that we are any close kin.There are not too many of us around(probably a good thing)so we are most likely related somewhere down the line.He definitely make some beautiful stuff.I would love to own on of his knives.

[Madcaster]

 Do you have a link please?

[J. Talbert]

I got to looking thru my pics from the CLA show and sure enough, I have a nice picture of the patchbox of the Morton rifle that Jud Brennan had there.  Boy, how cool would it be to see all three of those guns, (Brennan, Gahagan, and Shipman)  together.  Even better,  how would you like to have to pick one of the three. 
Now there's a sweet dilemma.

[lew wetzel]

between mikes and bills rifle i dont know which one i like the best.both are very nice rifles and done very,very well.have not seen juds rifle yet.bravo zulu to mike and bill on a job well done....