TN Mountain rifle ( or N. Carolina?)

[Longknife]

I just purchased this TN mountain rifle at auction out of Vonore TN. This rifle was supposedly owned by "Sam Burchfield veteran moonshiner of the Appalachians" (1840-1917) and was offered up by his descendants. I was provided with a copy of a picture of Sam holding a rifle but I am sure the rifle he is holding is not the one I purchased. The rifle is clearly marked on the top barrel flat  " L F * L E C C * 1886 " . This long slim rifle has a .36 cal. 48 inch barrel that is 15/16 across the flats and weighs a full 11 pounds.......
 http://s246.photobucket.com/user/Longknife1776-photo/slideshow/Tenn%20rifle

[WadePatton]

Thanks for the pics.

Yes nice pic of Sam and a good dog, different rifle.


particularly love the entry pipe and simple cap.  wondering about the "blob" on the trigger bow?

[jamesthomas]

 It always beats me on how they do that curved buttplate!  . That's a off the shoulder rifle fer sure.

[Shreckmeister]

I think I need to start beating the bushes a little harder.  Nice rifle and congrats on
adding it to your collection.  We never see southern rifles up here in PA.  I did find one about
a year ago and sold it to a guy in Alabama.  Regretted it ever since.

[WadePatton]

Heck i never heard of "Vonore", but i has heard of Monroe Co.   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vonore,_Tennessee

[B Shipman]

They were making these things in 1920 with a pick up in the Depression. And there's little difference from 1840. This is pure history.

[Collector]

I love these old photos and have been collecting a few, to file.



Another photo of Sam (possibly from the Riser's Blog) with his 'Bean rifle and cow's knee.'  Same as this latest photo?  



On another note, being born in 1840, he would probably have been a CW veteran.  

[JBJ]

If you  enjoy old photos check out this link http://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=C42743FD-1DD8-B71C-07A2DCCEF65CCF33  Scroll down to Boy with Rifle.

J.B.

[Longknife]

Thanks for the pics.

Yes nice pic of Sam and a good dog, different rifle.


particularly love the entry pipe and simple cap.  wondering about the "blob" on the trigger bow?

Wade, That "Blob" sure looks like it was put there when the guard was made. Possibly lap welding the front ext. to the bow. It is filed very nicely with evenly spaced grooves on each side I see a similar but much smaller "blob" on a Soddy Daisy rifle in the museum.
 I was sure hoping someone could decipher the barrel markings...LF LECC... The thing that strikes me as being the most unusual is the large flat on the cheek piece and the way the comb tapers into the butt plate...never seen that before, add in the "blob" and we have a very unique rifle....Ed

[imghttp://][/img]
[/URL][/img]
[imghttp://][/img]

[imghttp://][/img]

[Longknife]

Just thinking out loud " L F * L E C C * 1886 "....L F should be the maker and the makers location should be  " L E C C "....then 1886 is the date it was made... who is L C and where the heck is L E C C or what is it the abbreviation for??? ???Ed

( or what was it the abbreviation for in 1886? )

[Longknife]

Heck i never heard of "Vonore", but i has heard of Monroe Co.    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vonore,_Tennessee

I had never heard of Vonore either but it is on the border between Monroe Co. and Blount Co. Sam Burchfield was born in Yancy N. Carolina but was married, lived, died and was buried in Cades Cove, Blount Co. only a 40 minute drive from Vonore,,,still seraching......Ed

[BobBean]

As a descendent of the Bean clan I am always amazed with the old photos.  I have seen one Bean rifle, other than the ones I've made, over the years.  I was 12 at that time and I hope to come across one again some time now that I am old enough to appreciate it.

[WElliott]

Bob, that is a great heritage for a contemporary maker to have  Which Bean maker(s) are you descended from?

[BobBean]

I'm Robert, my father was William R Bean, his father was Theodore Bean, his father was William R Bean and his father was Robert M Bean.  Robert was from Alabama around Auburn.  We believe that his father was John Bean but we are not documented for that. 

[timM]

Catching up on reading some old posts and seeing your rifle Ed,  I remembered this rifle in the ALR Library and thought it might be of  interest.  tim


 http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=o2h1dd8fb34so339co2hehgh43&topic=22665.0

[T.C.Albert]

Not sure, but I think that second image of Sam Burchfield (standing) first came from the book
"Lure of the Great Smokies" by Mason???
tca

[Longknife]

Tim, thanks for the heads up, there are a lot of similarities there. A little research indicates J Wishon worked in Henderson Co. N. Carolina. Hmmmm,  Maybe have a N. Carolina piece here......Ed

[gibster]

I looked at the rifle a few times while it was at auction, even contacted the owner with an offer . I thought that there were lots of similarities to the Wishon rifle.  I happen to own the Wishon rifle and even though he is listed in Henderson County NC as a gunsmith in the 1850 census, I'm not sure that he made the rifle there.  He is listed in 1860 in Kentucky as a blacksmith (same guy with same wife and kids, just 10-years older), and he died in 1862 in Pea Ridge Arkansas, about 10-miles from where I am sitting right now.  I bought the rifle about 30-miles from here and it had been i the same family for over 80-years.  So I don't know if the rifle was made here, there, or somewhere in between.  If made here in Arkansas, he kept making the same rifles that he had learned to make in NC, as I am sure that most gunsmiths did when they moved from one area to another.

[Longknife]

Gibster, Thanks for the info. It sure appears that these two rifles may be from the same school but made 25 to 35 years (and 800miles?) apart. Still trying to decipher the barrel markings   L F * L E C C *....Ed

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Vonore is of Highway 411 on the way from Atlanta to Knoxville. Ft Loudon (blockhouse) is very near. Its a small town like many in the hills. pretty country!!

[Hungry Horse]

 In 1968 I was 18 years old, and was driving my grandparents through Arkansas, and Missouri, seeing their childhood homes one last time. At my grandfathers childhood home in Bakersfield Missouri the guy that currently owned the old Casey homestead, showed us a couple of rusty old rifle barrels that he discovered in the rubble after the original house burned down. My grandad snatched up the little .32 cal. barrel and told us all about the gun it once was. He said it was a poorboy built in Arkansas by a gunsmith named Wishon. When we visited my grandmothers old home in Newton County Arkansas, we found that the Wishon's arrived in Arkansas in 1859 with the forge and tool to do blacksmithing and gunsmithing.

             Hungry Horse 

[Hungry Horse]

 My grandad who was a deadly shot even after his eyesight had failed, always said, the best shot that he ever made, was as a boy, in Missouri, with the little Wishon rifle. Hunting one morning he jumped up a tom turkey, quite by accident. The bird flew straight away from him, so in spite of being told by his father, and his older brothers, never to take a running shot, he swung the sights through the bird, and as the sights passed through the birds shoulders, he touched of the little .32. The turkey folded up, and never moved a feather.
 His brother Roscoe bore a scar on his ankle all his life from a hot ball, freshly molded in the Wishon mold provided with the rifle. The mold was a hinge forward type, that was easy to flip the fresh balls out of by releasing one handle, and slinging half of the mold forward. Roscoe did just that, but the ball hung up and dropped out on the return. He had on a pair of old brogans, with squirrel hide laces, that didn't go all the way to the tops. The hot ball dropped into the top of his shoe, and got down below his ankle. He always said a strong man can't break squirrel hide laces, but he ripped those laces out like they were made of straw.

                         Hungry Horse