Who's "J. B."

[bama]

Just pick up a very sweet Iron Mounted rifle that is like no other that I have ever seen. This rifle was mad by J. B. and it has a few different things going for it that are quite different. See if you can pick them out.
 

Inquiring minds want to know - Who is J. B.?
Where did J. B. work?
Why did J. B. build this rifle like this?
What wood is the stock?

Any guesses

[Ken G]

Neat looking rifle.  Looks pretty slim.  Do you know the width of the buttplate? 

[LynnC]

No idea who JB was but he was very creative and artistic.

[mr. no gold]

Jim, that is a mighty fine find! The cheek rest is glorious and I love the way it is molded and shaped. It flows right out of the stock. And, the three quarter/full stocked wood is really wild. Never seen that before. The muzzle marks are very decorative and well done. This is a great Southern rifle and I hope that the mysterious 'J.B.' turns up soon to be recognized for his fine work. Thank you for showing it to us.
Dick
 

[LynnC]

As to wood it does not appear to be Maple, Walnut nor the rare Cherry. Perhaps ash.

[Dan'l 1946]

Chestnut maybe?

[Dobyns]

It is NOT ash or chestnut, both of those look like oak.  If this isn't cherry or another fruit wood, it might be black birch, aka cherry bark birch, aka sweet birch.

[poppy]

wood is not open grain, persimmon possibly, there,s not alot of mark,s or scratch,s ,persimmon is very hard wood.

[LynnC]

I agree. Not ash. I got hung up looking at the buttstock. Everywhere else its a very fine grained wood. Im leaning cherry.

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

  .... Two questions, Jim,... is that a hinge on the front trigger-guard extension ?, and is the fore-stock two piece ...? .... interesting rifle,.. what is the barrel and overall length, and what approximate calibre,.. ??....

[tooguns]

Is it a 2 piece fore stock as asked by Cades Cove Fiddler, or a thick barrel rib? Thanks for sharing! She's a beauty!

[AZshot]

There are a lot of features that should help; the 2-line stock molding, the pointed iron ends, the open front nosecap.  All feel like SW Virginia or even perhaps NC to me.  But the barrel wedge and other features don't.  An enigma.  I have several. 

[bama]

Thanks guys for looking this rifle over. It does have a two piece fore stock which I find unusual. This rifle was first made as a 3/4 stock rifle but then the builder decided to make a full stocked rifle out of it. Why? That is a good question. The wood for the added fore stock appears to be from the same piece of wood the stock is made from. The finish and the iron fittings on the fore stock appears to be from the same time period as the rest of the gun. So if the fore stock was not added at the time the rifle was built then it was added soon afterwards. The fore stock is attached to the barrel with lugs and pins just like a regular full stocked rifle. I may pull the fore stock to see if I can see any evidence of an earlier rib that was in use before the the fore stock was added.

Dana, the barrel is 40" long, 1" across the flats and is about 36 caliber. That is not a hinge at the front of the trigger guard finial, just a little roll of wood that has been pushed up. The butt plate is another unusual feature of this rifle, it is 3/4" at it's widest point and 5/16" at the toe.

The wood looks to me to be a light colored Walnut but I really have no clue, I am pretty sure it's not maple.

It is very apparent that whoever J.B. is he was a talented builder and I am sure this is not his only gun. This gun is so different from the style of most Tennessee guns that one would have to reason that it was made either in the Carolina's or possibly in Kentucky but I also think that it could originate in the New Orleans area. I have seen some guns from the New Orleans area that differ in style compared to the rest of the southern states. Who knows, it could be one of them "Bean" boys they liked to use the same style letter engraving to sign there rifles as J.B. used to put his initials on this barrel.

I honestly believe that the fore stock was added by the original builder when he built the rifle. Why would he do such a thing is the question. If anyone would be interested in looking at it at the KRA show I will bring it,

Thanks again for looking. Jim

[RAT]

Let us know what you find out about the wood. From the photos it looks like maple to me. However, photos and in person inspection are 2 different things.

[Dobyns]

"light walnut" or "white walnut" aka butternut?  I see that it also grows down the moutains to about the northern border of Georgia.

[bama]

When I look at the grain in the fore stock of the last photo I posted it looks like maple to me but when I look at the grain in the butt stock the grain looks to be more open than what I normally see in maple. It may be a piece of maple from down south and if so the grain may be a little more course than what I am used to seeing in northern maple.

[Daryl]

Looks to be VERY fine grained/veryfine pores to me. Fore end and end piece.

[alacran]

It is hard to judge woods by photos. As far as to why he added a fore stock goes, the builder may have contemplated an iron under rib. However, he already had a forward heavy rifle. He could have just fitted a thimble towards the front of the barrel. But judging by the aesthetics of the rest of the rifle, he opted for a wood extension to the stock which would weigh very little and looked a lot better.

[flinchrocket]

I’m guessing the forestock was broken during construction and this is how it was repaired. No idea who “ JB” is.

[Eric Krewson]

There is a rifle in the Lenore Museum in Norris Tn with a similar stock that I suspected was chestnut. I grew up just over the ridge from the museum, my dad made picture frames out of the chestnut that we salvaged from the then standing dead snags of these once mighty trees.

Chestnut stocked rifles do exist, here is an ALR discussion abut them.

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=18282.25

The picture barely excluded the above mentioned rifle where it is displayed in the case.