Who's up for some speculation?

[looper]

Last night, I was sitting in my shop, drawing up some plans for some of my future builds. One of which is to try to duplicate this gun:

Here's a link to a thread I did about it for those interested: http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=42473.0

I plan on using a flintlock for the recreation and maybe a piece of plain red maple. I'm hoping to be able to duplicate the same "strawberry blonde" look of this stock.

At any rate, as I was sitting there, with that 200 year old original gun in my hands, I couldn't help but wonder what if someone had asked old Mr. Peden to build a companion piece to this gun, only it being a smooth bore; something light, quick-shouldering; good for quail, ducks, pigeons. What characteristics would make it immediately recognizable as a gun built by his hands?

I can't imagine he wouldn't have made a fowling piece. Heck, smooth bores might have been the bulk of his business.

Any thoughts?

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

  ... would be interesting to see your D T Peden Carolina rifle made as a smoothbore .... Old Jackie Brown down in Mississippi started building his guns based on a S. Carolina mountain rifle that came west over the mountains with his family .... It was an octagon to round 44" barrel fullstock smooth rifle that balanced and handled nicely ....looked great too .... post pix of progress ......

[rich pierce]

The original pictured seems kind of generic, so I’m not sure what would identify a smoothbore made by the same hand as distinctively made by that smith.

[looper]

Plain, yes, but not generic. A Thomas Peden gun is readily identifiable, if you recognize the subtleties.

[Hungry Horse]

Hard to tell, rifle too plain, background TOO BUSY. Rock piles, wooden fences, and wood piles, may be a great backdrop for some photo subjects, but longrifles aren’t one of them.

  Hungry Horse

[axelp]

I'd guess it would look like that one, only have no grooves in the barrel.

[54ball]

 Looper,

 What an interesting Rifle. It has a lot of interesting features, a mix per say.

 Personally I think it is much later than 1820.... by a couple.of decades. Many percussion guns were built with flint plates. Lock plates that were made into percussion locks new and the locks themselves were never assembled as a flintlock. Stylistically the rifle looks straight out of the percussion era. The erosion of the wood, lockplate and barrel breech are characteristic of fulminate of mercury caps. Again the style of the rifle appears later than 1820. So I think this rifle was always percussion.

 I will not get into the speculation story other than to say I have seen some rifle stock Smoothbores from the period.

 Here is what I would do.

 Start with a Cherry Blank.
 Have a custom barrel built by someone like Tim Burton....Personally I would use a tapered round barrel. The Rifle stocked Smoothbore I have seen used a round barrel. I would likely go 28 gauge....20 being the largest....
 I would use that stock as the pattern...
 In percussion I would use a Goucher or Mountain lock....In flint a Chambers Ketland or Davis Late Ketland
 It would have a rear sight.

 There is a rifle stocked Smoothbore in the same period as your rifle in the museum. This one uses an octagonal barrel.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=12875.0

[looper]

54ball, I'm fairly certain that that rifle dates from the 1820s. It was bought new by my 4th Great Grandpa before he had any children, the oldest of which was born in 1827. The story was that he bought it while on his way from Montgomery County, NC to Pickens County, SC, where he was given a piece of land by his new father-in-law.

I'm also confident that it was, at one time a flintlock. My great, great uncle (Hovie), who is still alive and thriving, confirmed the story (without prompting) that the rifle was converted to percussion soon after or possibly during the civil war. Evidence of where the cock rested on the side plate is still evident. There is a slight deformation in the steel. The substantial corrosion occurred from use over the next several decades.

I imagine it wasn't cleaned, stuck in closet somewhere, and brought out occasionally. The humidity down here would make fast work of any neglected iron.

At any rate, thanks for all of the replies. I enjoy getting a lot of different perspectives.

[Levy]

I don't mean to hijack the post, but a friend of mine moved back to Tallahassee recently and brought some guns to the house for me to keep for him.  He said, " I brought the old Peden rifle back".  I pulled it out of the case and the stock looks exactly like the one pictured here.  The buttplate, toeplate, sideplate, triggerguard are all the same.  The lock is back action with only "Warranted" on it.  the barrel has the snail bolster welded to the barrel.  The barrel is swamped and about .41 cal.  The breechplug tang is longer with a step in it.  The barrel is signed the same way, " T. Peden".  the buttstock has a capbox which is unique looking.  Lastly, the toeplate looks to have the number 4 engraved into it or if you read it from the other way, possibly a 7.  I think the triggers are very similar, but not quite as ornate filing.  It was purchased 30 years ago from a friend who's family was from the area of manufacture.  I can try to get some photos of it.  James Levy   

[looper]

I'd love to see some pictures. I'm guessing it probably looks just like this one:

[Levy]

Looper,  It looks just like that except it's a halfstock.  the two rr pipes soldered to the underrib are iron, but the entry pipe is brass with the raised band around it.  I guess it might have been a fullstock at one time.  James Levy

[looper]

There's a half stock Peden rifle in the Confederate museum in Greenville SC, too. I'll see if I can get some pics of it.

[Dennis Glazener]

I don't mean to hijack the post, but a friend of mine moved back to Tallahassee recently and brought some guns to the house for me to keep for him.  He said, " I brought the old Peden rifle back".  I pulled it out of the case and the stock looks exactly like the one pictured here.  The buttplate, toeplate, sideplate, triggerguard are all the same.  The lock is back action with only "Warranted" on it.  the barrel has the snail bolster welded to the barrel.  The barrel is swamped and about .41 cal.  The breechplug tang is longer with a step in it.  The barrel is signed the same way, " T. Peden".  the buttstock has a capbox which is unique looking.  Lastly, the toeplate looks to have the number 4 engraved into it or if you read it from the other way, possibly a 7.  I think the triggers are very similar, but not quite as ornate filing.  It was purchased 30 years ago from a friend who's family was from the area of manufacture.  I can try to get some photos of it.  James Levy   

[Levy]

Thanks Dennis for adding the T. Peden photos to the discussion/thread.  James Levy

[looper]

Very cool.