Author Topic: cheek pieces  (Read 6468 times)

omark

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cheek pieces
« on: April 28, 2014, 12:37:39 AM »
wondering if any long rifles were ever built without cheek pieces, including barn guns, schimmels poor boys or southern mtn rifles. in my area i never have a chance to see originals.     mark

Offline Acer Saccharum

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2014, 01:00:21 AM »
Certainly there are rifles without cheekpieces. I've seen early rifles with fowler-like stock architecture that have a bare-naked buttpiece.
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Offline PPatch

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2014, 01:07:10 AM »
I have not seen a southern mountain rifle without a cheek piece but then I have not seen them all by a long long shot.

dp
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Offline Acer Saccharum

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2014, 01:21:48 AM »
On some later guns the cheekpiece is just a whisper tall, not really functional, merely for visual effect.
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Offline Dennis Glazener

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2014, 01:57:45 AM »
Quote
wondering if any long rifles were ever built without cheek pieces, including barn guns, schimmels poor boys or southern mtn rifles. in my area i never have a chance to see originals.     mark
   
Harvey Gillespie (1820-1877) Henderson County/Jackson County NC made a fair number of his rifles without cheek rests. I have seen a few other NC mountain rifles without cheek rests but either they were not attributed to a name or I forgot, which is quite possible!
Dennis
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Offline Artificer

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2014, 01:58:30 AM »
Acer,

My best friend in life owned an original circa 1825 - 40 Flintlock Rifle like that and it had no discernible cheek piece..  It was a VERY plain gun with no patchbox, nor carving, nor engraving.  It did have brass ramrod pipes, triggerguard and buttplate.  Mike used to jokingly refer to it as a "Mid Western Poor Boy" rifle gun.

Gus

mack700

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2014, 04:06:47 AM »
RCA #8 had the cheek-piece removed at an early date so I guess they were not popular with at least one guy.

kaintuck

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #7 on: April 28, 2014, 01:49:01 PM »
Iv handle a few old ones......looks like a fellow just grabbed a 2x6 and made a stock......like the little 'boys rifle' that were 22's, back in the late 30's......PLAIN stock!
Marc

Offline Hungry Horse

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #8 on: April 28, 2014, 08:06:34 PM »
Many late California guns were built without cheek rests. I own a late percussion rifle built in Elkhart Indiana that has no cheek rest as well.

                Hungry Horse

omark

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #9 on: April 28, 2014, 08:30:55 PM »
i'd like to thank everyone for their replies and info. always amazes me how much knowledge is available on this site and i appreciate how readily it is shared.
it sounds like cheek pieces were nearly always put on fancier rifles but not quite as often on plainer ones.   thanks again, mark

Offline JTR

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2014, 10:03:27 PM »
You asked about Long Rifles, so, if you look at say pre 1850, east of the Mississippi, Long Rifle style Rifles, I'd say about 99% of them were made with a cheek piece.
Certainly you'll find the oddball once in a blue moon with no cheek piece, but from what I've seen, ( my Free opinion  ;D  ) even the cheapest back action hardware store clunker had a cheek piece.

Move out of those parameters to a later time, out west, non rifle, non longrifle, and you'll find a different story.

John 
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kaintuck

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #11 on: April 30, 2014, 10:10:38 PM »

Offline Lucky R A

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #12 on: May 01, 2014, 12:14:53 AM »
     Just for giggles, there were a number of guns made with cheek pieces on both sides---that is like two cheek pieces.  Just never say NEVER.
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Offline Gaeckle

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #13 on: May 01, 2014, 04:22:45 PM »
Most old guns sans cheeckpiece were those of the percussion era....I've got a few originals that do not have a cheeckpiece. Mostly half stocks, working man's gun, nothing fancy.

omark

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Re: cheek pieces
« Reply #14 on: May 02, 2014, 05:08:34 AM »
I want to thank you all for your replies.    Mark