Grease holes on Piedmont rifles

[scottmc]

At the Baltimore gun show, I broke down and bought the Ivey book on Carolina rifles.  $100 well spent!  But I was surprised to see a good many rifles from the deep river and bear creek school have grease holes.  I always thought that was exclusive to the mountain rifles but i should know by now that there are always exceptions.  But I'm wondering do you think this idea trickled down from the hills to the flat lands or did it trickle up to the mountains?  Sounds trivial, I know, but interesting in a way as typically, this feature appears to be restricted to the mountain rifles.

[Tanselman]

The use of grease holes is probably more related to the cost of the rifle, rather than to an either/or between mountain vs. flatland people. In lower income areas where cash was scarce and moderately priced rifles were made without patchboxes, grease holes at times were used as an alternative...and low budget rifles were made everywhere. West of the Alleghenies, that could occur almost anywhere and was apparently a more accepted practice than back East.

Hill-county people in general were in poorer areas and often had plainer rifles...so there were probably more grease holes used on their rifles. But I have seen plain rifles from other areas, well removed from the hill country, with grease holes. One example is Joseph Blair of Russellville, KY, out in the western part of the state. He was a major gunmaker with a large shop, but made mostly plain, iron mounted rifles. Great stock architecture and molding lines were his primary enhancements. I have seen several Blair rifles with rectangular grease holes in the butt...but have yet to see a patchbox on one of his guns.

A related question of similar interest is....how many gunmakers actually put original grease holes in their new rifles, since I believe most were added later. The Gillespies of NC and GA come to mind with their attractive, egg-shaped grease holes of uniform size and location in the butt. However, I think the number of gunsmiths who put grease holes in their new rifles is rather limited...can't think of any others right now...what about the rest of you?  Shelby Gallien 

[scottmc]

Interesting analogy, Shelby, and it makes sense.  Thanks for your insight. 

[Dennis Glazener]

I agree with Shelby and think that grease holes probably started showing up on mountain rifles. One thing I find interesting with The Gillespie grease holes is that the two earliest rifle I have seen had large grease boxes shaped like an old time mortar box. Later they evolved into the oval, egg shaped grease holes that Shelby mentioned. Not sure what that means but I have seen one or two other mountain rifles with that early style grease box.

Another note, Over the years I have found several rifles with nice 4 and 5 piece PA style patch boxes and one or two cap boxes still filled with what appeared to be beeswax/tallow patch lube.
Dennis

[scottmc]

Dennis, your evolutionary observation makes sense, too.  Went from a rectangular hole as found under a patchbox and evolved into a simpler and much better looking oval or egg shape to a perfect circle.  I was just surprised to see outside the mountain region but all explanations  make perfect sense.  I need to get to Knoxville one day and further educate my northern mind😁

[Marcruger]

Interesting discussion. How does one go about determining if a grease hole is original to a rifle, or cut out at a later date? God bless, Marc

[oldtravler61]

  Great here we go with the square before the round egg design....lol
  Oldtravler

[Hungry Horse]

My theory is that early wooden sliding patchboxes had a propensity for losing their lids. So in the very early days, some poor southern woodsman lost the lid to his patchbox, and being the minimalist that most Southern backwoodsman are, quickly discovered that he really didn’t need a lid, because a square hole in the stock worked just fine. It didn’t take long for Southern gunsmiths to figure out the it was faster, and easier, to bore a round grease hole, than to chisel a square one, and the round grease hole was born. I think they also kind of became an emblem of Southern manufacture, that quickly identified the region where the gun was made.

  Hungry Horse

[scottmc]

 I love it!  Evolution in action.  Those finches dont have nothin on the southern mountain rifle!😁🐦