Made in Italy: Adams County Pennsylvanian Longrifle by Paolo Bondini

[Dutch Blacky]

Today I´d like to ask you for your expertise.

About 40 years ago I bought a percussion longrifle made by the italian gun manufactury "Paolo Bondini" (the company was sold in the 1990ies to Euroarms/Utaly) This longrifle has been advertised and described as a copy of an american longrifle originally made in the Adams County PA. In these times there were available only a few informations about American Longrifles in Europe. In Germany Dieter Stifter was the dealer of the "Hatfield Rifle", which has been considered as a high end product.


My Adams County Pennsylvania Longrifle has a total lenght of about 145,5 cm (57").
Barrel length 103,5 cm (41"). Caliber .45
The stock ist made of european walnut
There are some carvings, but I think, they are not really authentical.

My question: Is the style of this replica rather authentical or is ot more or less a produckt of fantasy, a mixture of style elements?




Thank you for your comments.

[Dutch Blacky]

More pics

[Mike Brooks]

It resembles nothing made in America.

[Dutch Blacky]

So it is a gun like these "Hawken Rifles" made in the 1970s, for the European marked for people, who did not know anything about American Longrifles, except the rifles they saw in Hollywood movies?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(miniseries)#/media/File:Fess_parker_crockett_disney_television.JPG

[smallpatch]

Yep!

[FALout]

That is a Fantasy rifle, without any doubt being Italian/Spanish made.

[Dutch Blacky]

You are absolutely right.

This fantasy rifle  was made in Italy by Paolo Bondini in S. Carlo di Cesena, not far from the Pedersoli factory. and has been produced until 1982. (i found this infornation on Paolo Bondini: "Bondini was an upper echelon Italian gunmaker, currently out of business. Their guns were imported by Hoffman in NH, House of Muskets in CO and Austin-Sheridan in NY. They made some interesting single shot pistols, including an underhammer design, plus a Schuetzen rifle and a shotgun. .......... )

There has been an article in the DWJ 8/1983 (Deutsches Waffen Journal, the leading gun journal in Germany in this time). This rifle has been  described there  as a typical American Longrifle.


In the 1980 I bought several Bondini replicas, and they all are more or less fantasy guns, like the "Napoleon Le Page" single shot pistol or the so called John Manton or the Hawken pistol

[smart dog]

Hi Dutch,
Bondini made fine pistols and their Manton and Lepage were pretty good examples.  They were fairly close to the originals except in the details.  For example, on the Manton pistols you see the barrel keys are placed with the heads on the lock side.  English firearms always have the heads on the side plate side. There are other details as well such as the steel ramrod, brass mounts, full stock on percussion pistol, etc.  Despite that they were well made.  American long rifles are just as difficult and in some more so to get right.  There are many regional styles but they all tend to be slim and elegantly shaped, features that are hard to accomplish in mass production.  On your Bondini rifle, it appears they borrowed carving ideas from some 19th century German or Bohemian guns.  You should browse our internet library of original guns at the bottom of our main forum page.  There you can see many examples from different regions and get an idea what American long rifles actually look like. None of the mass produced versions of American long rifles regardless of manufacturer are very good representatives of the actual rifles.

dave

[Dutch Blacky]

It´s out off topic, but I´d like to  answer.

The Bondini  "Napoleon le Page" pistol is imho not a Le Page a pistol replica. It is more ore less a  repro of the type of sporting pistols made in Liege, Lüttich.
But this pistol has a good barrel, akthough the lock  of my pistol is  not very good. The main spring is too strong and the parts are pooly hardened. With a load of 14 grains it is theoretically possible to get a good precision. But not for me. I am shaking too much. Old white man, you must know.

[hanshi]

I've never seen any American longrifle that remotely resembled the one you posted.  The carving is, IMHO, a shock to the eye.  Nonetheless, it appears extremely well made and attention to detail is about as good as Italian "replicas" get.

[Bob Roller]

DWJ means DeutscheWaffenJournal and for those who read little or no German the pictures are in English

Bob Roller