I’m glad to see Joe Puleo join in, as he is on a unique perch at Man at Arms magazine to observe the big picture of the business of antique guns. Particularly interesting is his comment on long rifles being the most tampered-with guns. He is right. No doubt that has put off many potential collectors. Unfortunately, the simplicity of the construction of our earliest firearms lends itself better to being “mucked” with than many other guns, particularly foreign guns of the same period, leading to so many questions of condition. Joe knows that and therefore has stayed in a safer zone of collecting. His point of the lack of writing extended to long rifles in his magazine is also well-taken. This ties into Scott’s comments about peer reviews, etc., and the challenge to write any kind of opinion, waiting for the critical onslaught. Writing anything in any kind of complete form to make a point is hard work and I wouldn't expect any scholar to do so without some kind of payback. And IMHO if you are going to write anything for peer review or the general public you gracefully take the flack - or you shouldn’t be writing.
If you look at the literature on the American long rifle, you would be hard-pressed to find any of it from the hand of a professional historian. Almost all of the long rifle knowledge in print or online comes from amateur writers, gun guys usually talking about their favorite regional area of study or their own personal collection. Nothing wrong with that, as a lot of good information comes from such sources. The current danger is the sole reliance on the use of the internet, without a foundation of historical knowledge, but I digress. Ironically, the easy “mucking” of long rifles is the same basic reason it's just as easy to write about them – who will know? Pity the poor newbie collector who doesn’t know who to believe. And since there is no central source of knowledge to dispute an amateur opinion, one has to believe it, therefore more misinformation is perpetuated.
Joe Kindig, Jr. wasn’t a professional writer, and his book isn’t about the American rifle, it is about his collection, with no mention of guns in other collections. Henry Kauffman was the major researcher of the Kindig book – the files in the Lancaster Historic Society prove that out and he claimed (to me) to have written most of the text. In his book, Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle, he doesn’t talk about his collection, he talks about the history of the gun. Ever wonder why Kauffman’s book came out the same year as Kindig’s?
For fun, go back to that period in the 1960s. Imagine a society of some authority existed to critique Kindig's book and in the process promote the book, nationally in scholarly outlets, those beyond the gun community. This effort would soon be followed by a similar review and promotion of Kauffman’s book and further national recognition of the contribution of the long rifle to America’s culture. Now imagine that this theoretical national society, unbeholden to anyone, was free to criticize any book/article as being historically inaccurate, self-serving, or lacking in some other deficiency. Beyond a simple mention of a new book, have you ever read such a balanced review in the KRA, Bulletin, or the ASAC Bulletin? To its credit, Man at Arms Magazine did some “friendly” reviews, but I think they lost their book critic, maybe Joe can address that.
Not long ago, members of this Forum expressed strong opinions criticizing a recent rifle exhibit’s catalog/book. Much of the criticism was merited, but wouldn’t it have been helpful to hear honest opinions from a cadre of qualified historians who have studied the period's history and arms?
Possibly, I’m putting too much emphasis on the value of such a society and its unique ability to nationally promote long rifle history, but my instincts say the question of acceptance of the long rifle would be a whole lot easier had we had an unbiased platform, upping the standards of study and further defending the perception of the long rifle as more than just another gun, as Winterthur calls it.
Patrick Hornberger
