What kind of rifle for Daniel Boone?

[Eric Smith]

If you had to build a rifle for Daniel Boone to take to Kentucky today, what would you build?

[JDK]

If Kentucky was still full of hostiles today, I think an M4 would handle anything he would run up against and a mess of ammo is easily carried......Oh, you mean built today for back then!!!

Boone was born in 1734 in Berks County, PA and the family migrated to N.C. in 1750-51.  It is generally excepted that he began hunting around this time so any EARLY Eastern PA Rifle Gun would be acceptable.  Doubt he bought one along the way or waited 'til he got there to buy one (or could've afforded it anyway).

Boone had a long career in the Kentuck woods though so any early Pennsylvania or Virginia gun is likely at some point.....you could even go smooth rifle as it's documented that he was fond of buck an' ball.

J.D.K.

[Dphariss]

If you had to build a rifle for Daniel Boone to take to Kentucky today, what would you build?

Would probably depend on what story/legend/myth that one wanted to believe on any given day.

Dan

[Jack Hubbard]

Being a Quaker, I don't think he would have wanted anything fancy....Don Bruton brought this up to me a number of years back...I tend to agree....

[rich pierce]

I seem to recall that Squire Boone was a gunmaker.  If so something English-looking would make sense, or perhaps he was influenced by Reading guns.

[louieparker]

Back in the sixties there was a rifle here in Missouri that someone supposedly got from Boone..This would have been while he lived here in Missouri ..The story was Boone traded it for  a hog..I don't recall all the details, but the information with the rifle was believable  ..A Lot of people believed this story, myself included ...If my memory is correct it was a very plain rifle without a butt plate and had some poor restoration ,,, I have not seen it since that time ...But to me this rifle fit what I would imagine he carried ....LP

[elk killer]

the book Born Out Of Season by Ralph Hooker, claims he had the Boone rifle in Missouri,
or so the story goes,,has lots of pictures of the rifle,,says Boone traded it for livestock,,,

[deano]

There was an article on that rifle in Muzzleblasts years ago, just an ordinary brass mounted rifle that has Lancaster lines with a grease hole in the stock. It was a good story to read.

Ken

[Eric Smith]

I guess what I meant was what caliber, barrel length, and makers style. Remember, Boone was living in North Carolina when he made his first foray into the Cumberland. Yet he had strong ties in Pennsylvania. I doubt DB carried the same rifle for his whole career, since it would have been a tool rather than an object of art. And I'm not talking about Fess Parker. I'm talking about DB, the real DB, properly distilled from the myth.

[T*O*F]

This is an old article that I put up around 1996, but it was written almost a century ago.
I also recall that one of Boone's guns was made by Dreppard.

http://home.comcast.net/~illinewek/faqs/boonegun.htm

[The other DWS]

interesting read but he makes some generalities of his own that I wonder about

"Increase of powder behind a patched round ball, however, does not affect the sighting at all. It will merely add velocity, and so cause it to shoot farther and hit harder. The sighting does not have to be changed."  
  Is he referring in some way to extending the "point-blank" shooting distance from 50 to 150 yards without having to compensate by holding high or low?

[Karl Kunkel]

Didn't Boone have several rifles?  I thought he lost some to indians.

[Ben I. Voss]

I seem to remember reading a description of Boone's rifle written by John J. Audubon that described it as long barreled, heavy with set triggers and about .45 cal. I'm thinking Boone went through a few dozen rifles in his eighty some years, what with all the times he was captured by Indians and had his outfit stolen! I'm of the opinion that his rifles would have been simple working "tools", and probably fairly small bored, but who knows!

[JDK]

Without a doubt he owned several, smooth and rifled, and lost more than one while being captured.  The man roamed the wilderness off and on for 67 years and hunted locally before that....and with his father being a rifle maker himself.  What he carried when will forever be a mystery.  J.D.K.

[Dphariss]

Somebody going off into the wilderness would likely have a rifle similar to the Haymaker.
Which was carried into Kentucky before the Revolution and may have been used there before the fatal trip.

Rifles without buttplates are more likely to be seriously damaged in use so I don't consider this a valid option, possible but extremely unlikely. This is not something that would appeal to someone going off to the wilderness for 1-3 years. The rifle was the most important tool he carried with him.

Caliber 42-50.
Length? This is up to Boone, we can't get inside his head. So make it typical.
Where is it from? Any place. Probably VA or south but just as easy PA.
There are others in RCA  #42  etc.
Lots of possibilities.

Dan

[Eric Smith]

No doubt Boone owned many different rifles during his time. When he began to venture over the mountains to the west, he probably carried a rifle he obtained in North Carolina, or southern Virginia. That rifle could have been built there, or it could have been imported from Penn. Having family in Penn. would certainly have given him access to most builders in Penn.

[Bob Roller]

Marshal Ralph Hooker was a friend of mine and I know that he had authentication on the Boone gun that he owned.He used to build facsimiles of it and I supplied the locks and triggers for most of them. He lived to be 95 or 96 years old and lived with his daughter,June in Miller, Mo.
He owned a number of interesting guns and other relics over the years and I used to call him from time to time just to see how he was getting along. After he died,I tried to call his daughter but her phone number had been reassigned to someone else so all contact was lost.

Bob Roller

[Ben I. Voss]

  Imagine being out in the wilderness for six months to a year, or more. Driving rain, wet snow, steaming summer days, misty nights, scrambling up and down rocky hillsides and over logs, etc. Crossing creeks and rivers every day, sleeping on the wet ground and every minute dragging a ten pound five foot long rifle along with you! You would do your absolute best to keep it dry, clean and oiled and dread falling on it and breaking the stock, but the days and miles would surely take a great toll on your rifle.
  I'm sure that Boone and his contemporaries would make a beeline to the nearest gunshop when returning from a long hunt and at the least get their rifle freshed and otherwise made serviceable and if they had a profitable trip they probably traded for a new rifle.
 

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

My Boone Gun  .54  44" swamped, iron mounted So Colonial.....Made from a Don Bruton pattern.... Southern English lock but PA architecture in many ways..... 7.5 lbs...... Well as a Boone I can have my fantasy eh??   It is a deer taker!!

[rich pierce]

nice rifle, Tim.  I like the idea of a .45 to .50 for going into Kentucky.  Plenty of rifle for the game there and it would save on powder and lead.

[Eric Smith]

Very nice rifle. I think DB would have treasured his rifle the way a gun maker of today might treasure a Phiel chisel. My personal thought is that .45 caliber would allow any man skillfull with a rifle to knock down any game animal with a well placed shot. If it didn't kill clean, that was OK, because the sound from the shot might draw hostile Indians who were in the neighborhood. Might want to wait a few hours to see if the shot drew attention. In those hours the prey would surely die from any well placed shot.

[David R. Pennington]

Have to disagree with the article about charge not affecting sighting on slow twist patched ball. On a real good day my .50 will group 2-1/2" at 100 yds. with 75 grains 3F. I can bump up to 80 grains and the group opens to 6"every time. I believed the oldtimers shot more instinctively and really learned how to dope their shots for range and windage much like an instinctive bow shooter must do. Remember that the rifle was a tool that was in their hands every day and their life literally depended on their proficiency with it. They knew how to hold or they didn't get old.

[DB]

I think Boone carried a
.45 into Kentucky
 Light enough on lead but big enough for eastern bison.

[Mike R]

Didn't Boone have several rifles?  I thought he lost some to indians.

Indeed he did.  Apparently some of y'all have not read any of the numerous Boone bio books.  I have read five books, last count--the best is arguably the one by Farragher.  Boone had several rifles stolen by indians over the years, from his earliest days in Kentucky right on up to his last days in Missouri.  I has been argued that he would not have carried a fancy rifle because(1) he was raised a Quaker and (2) he lost so many arms to indians.  I fact, late in life he and his son were robbed by Osage indians while on a hunt, and he stated that his son lost a fine rifle, implying his was of no account.  His first rifle was given to him as a child when he lived near Reading, PA and is described as a "short rifle".  He had a relative in Philly who was a gunsmith--no doubt English trained, as the family emigrated from Great Britain.  This event was in the mid 1740s and I have long thought that his first rifle may have looked much like the English short rifle offered by Chambers or pictured in Shumways RCA.  So, Boone owned several rifles over a time span from the mid 1700's to 1820.  ALL of the claimed Boone rifles date to the 19th cent.  I too have a Don Bruton 'Boone rifle', which is a 1760ish English style plain rifle.  "Old Ticklicker" of Boone legend was supposed to shoot an ounce ball--~.68 if I recall.  The late claimed rifles range from .43-.46 if I recall [notes not in front of me].  I chose a .50 barrel for my "Boone rifle".  

[Dphariss]

Without a doubt he owned several, smooth and rifled, and lost more than one while being captured.  The man roamed the wilderness off and on for 67 years and hunted locally before that....and with his father being a rifle maker himself.  What he carried when will forever be a mystery.  J.D.K.

Squire Boone was the first, that anyone knows of, trained gunsmith in Kentucky.

Dan