single bolt flintlocks ?

[jdm]

I seam to see more southern guns with single bolt flintlocks.  I know some may have been converted to flint when they should not have. However there are quite a few when compared to Penn. guns.   Any ideas or thoughts on this?

[rich pierce]

I just think it’s the timeframe rather than a regional preference.  Any lock with a rounded tail is likely to have just one bolt, it seems. 

[Big Wolf]

I seam to see more southern guns with single bolt flintlocks.  I know some may have been converted to flint when they should not have. However there are quite a few when compared to Penn. guns.   Any ideas or thoughts on this?

I agree jdm, one screw flintlocks seem a lot more common in the south, haven’t seen many that I would consider legit in the north.

[Tanselman]

I've seen guns from Kentucky with original single bolt flintlocks beginning in the mid-1820s and going forward. While I believe more southern guns used single bolt locks than rifles made east of the Appalachians, perhaps another reason we see more single bolts on southern guns was the continued use of flintlock ignition for some years into the percussion era in many southern states. Eastern states that were more settled seemed to make the transition more cleanly when percussion locks became available. Shelby Gallien

[hanshi]

A Southern style flint lock is fine with one lock bolt.  Penn rifles often have longer, larger locks and generally have two bolts instead of one.  But the forces on a flint lock differ from percussion and only need one bolt in most cases.  I've never owned an original; but every Appalachian style rifle I've owned or have seen so far have only one on flintlocks.

[Bob Roller]

Just what kind of tools were used in a shop over 125 years ago did a shop have
to drill accurate holes with? One could be a chore and two could be a burden plus
threading them. I am thinking of shops that might have been in a lean to/shack
or attached to a pig pen.

Bob Roller

[Pukka Bundook]

As Rich P. said near the top,

One sidenail is later, two sidenails means earlier.  Three means earlier still!

[Dan Fruth]

The Dickert rifle in RCA 1, rifle #50 is a single lock bolt, Pa built, 18th century piece.  Whether by design or mistake, there it is.