There were rifles made with very similar stock architecture & side facings to this one in southeastern Kentucky. They were kind of a hybrid rifle of Kentucky and Tennessee details, and almost always had mixed brass and iron mountings. Usually both the butt plate and guard were iron, while the pipes were brass. Nose caps could be anything...brass, iron, and occasionally cast pewter. They also had the straight comb and toe lines exhibited on this rifle, and a nailed-on iron toe plate riveted to the tail of the iron butt plate. While I cannot say this is a Kentucky gun, I would heavily bet it came from the hill country region where southeastern Kentucky meets northern Tennessee. It was a poor area, and I always thought they recycled "parts and pieces" including old locks to build these guns. The mixed metal mountings seemed to go along with that general idea...heavier cast brass parts, i.e. butt plate and guard, had to be purchased and were more expensive than fabricating out of iron, while the smaller sheet brass pipes were easy to make and less costly than the cast brass parts...so were used on many of the guns. Why the cast guard on this one??? Probably one that happened to be available at the time of the build, for whatever reason. Shelby Gallien
