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Early Mecklenburg N.C. gunsmiths And Other Books By Michael Briggs

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Tim Crosby:
  The Longrifle Makers of Guilford County NC By C. Michael Briggs

Review by T. D. Glazener September 16, 2016

 The Longrifle Makers of Guilford County NC is much more than the typical Longrifle book listing makers along with photos of their work. Michael has been a Guilford County historian and NC longrifle collector for most of his adult life. In this book he gives the reader a detailed history of the makers along with color photographs of their work. This book has 215 pages filled with information that you normally would not see in most Longrifle books.

Collectors today recognize nine different regional schools or styles of gunmaking in early NC. Eight of these schools were located in the Piedmont area of NC. Guildford County gunmakers normally fall into one of these two schools. The first was the “Early Deep River” school which started circa 1760 and continued until circa 1810. The second school, the Jamestown school, evolved from the Early Deep River School starting around 1810. Michael has identified 85+ makers that worked in the Jamestown style.

There is an alphabetical listing of known Guildford County Gunmakers along with a good Bio for each of them. Most of the Bio’s contain far more that the cryptic born, died, location etc. that is the norm in many longrifle books.

There are 81 pages of good quality color photos of Guilford County rifles. Then we are given another 4 pages of Jamestown Rifles made outside Guilford County. Most pages contain three views of the featured rifle.

Guilford County gunsmith’s made a few pistols. Michael included 7 pages of color photos of some of these Guilford County made pistols.

This book also contains many articles, early newspaper stories and gunmaker family genealogy reports. Michael includes modern photos of gunshop locations and many of the grave sites of the Guilford County gunmakers.

This is not your normal longrifle book, Michael spent over 36+ years studying the Longrifle culture in Guilford County NC and graciously shares it with the reader. In my opinion it is well worth the $40.00 price.

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