Pennsylvania Combination Guns

[Seth Isaacson]

Combination guns out of Pennsylvania, particularly the Bedford, Somerset, and Fulton county region, often have one barrel rifled and one smoothbore. They tend to be fairly small caliber and often both the same caliber. Around .40-.45 caliber seems to have been fairly standard. What do you think the purpose of these was? Small game primarily I presume, but why do they tend to be much smaller than other combination guns from elsewhere such as the upper Midwest where they more often have the smoothbore barrels closer to normal shotgun ranges. Would shot out of a smoothbore that small be of much use? If mainly for round ball, why not rifle both barrels?

[OLUT]

Seth, I've collected this type of gun for over 60 years and have amassed a sizable  collection. Unfortunately I'm currently in sunny Portugal and can't refer to my material. However a combination gun using a rifled barrel and a smooth rifle barrel was fairly common on early combination guns, with the smooth rifle being usable with either ball or shot. They were also frequently made in eastern Pennsylvania. These typically had octagonal barrels. Later combination guns starting in probably the 1850's typically had round barrels with one being rifled and the other being a shotgun bore size (both in the East and the Mid-West). This is a gross over-simplification with many exceptions. If you have more questions, please contact me at WGLOWE@TDS.NET and I'll reply after returning to snowy New Hampshire... (the shot load coming out of the smooth rifle would match or exceed today's .410 shotgun for small game, as I've loaded some guns of this type fairly heavily)

[Seth Isaacson]

The examples shown on the left there are exactly what I'm used to seeing from the Upper Midwest and as you aptly stated later percussion combination guns from back East too, but it seems like a lot of the Pennsylvania combination guns, particularly the side by side examples from around Bedford, are much smaller caliber. I was wondering if they were actually mainly intended for balls from both barrels given both barrels are often the same caliber (at least from what I've seen) or if there is any indications they were regularly using shot in them as well which is certainly an option from the smoothbore barrels.

Here's one of the type I'm currently thinking about:
https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4091/1283/thomas-oldham-attributed-t-o-signed-bedford-county-combo-gun

Compared to the larger bore ones from New York and the Upper Midwest:
https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4091/1281/ar-davis-new-york-percussion-overunder-combination-gun

[jdm]

Bill Paton has made an extensive study of these . He has gone all over the country photographing and taking measurements for his upcoming book.  I hope he see's this topic and chimes in.

[Hungry Horse]

 Multi barreled guns were fairly common in California. They were usually called  buggy guns since the barrels were short, and with a shot barrel and a rifle barrel you were pretty much ready for what ever came along. You must also remember that a muzzleloading shotgun has no chamber, so other than stringing the shot, you could shoot an enlarged powder and shot load.
 I have even seen a drilling configuration or two, and even a three barreled rifle, and a four barreled rifle. But the combination buggy gun is by far the most common.

Hungry Horse

[OLUT]

Aside from regional building traditions, much of the differences in barrel configuration was due to changing tastes and hunting game availability over time. For example that dandy looking Davis over under gun is a very late construction, perhaps post Civil War. The Oldham side by side double is much younger. Early side by side combination guns often look like this with two sets of sights for firing the unregulated octagonal barrels . Later guns, from Pennsylvania, New York State and from gunmakers who moved west to places like Michigan are more often made with a rifle over a shotgun barrel. Before California gun making was well established, many eastern made guns were shipped there. As one example, George O Leonard of Vermont and New Hampshire  shipped many combination guns to an outfitter in Red Bluff, California. The latter convinced Leonard to move there in the 1870's, but a major lawsuit then followed. I've got Leonard signed guns from Vermont, Keeke, NH and California having similar characteristics. Bill Paton has a gun similar to the Oldham as well as samples of virtually every other configuration; his photography is exemplary . By comparison, here is a poor image that I took that is  currently with me on my computer.

[Daryl]

Ned Roberts (The MuzzleLoading Cap Lock Rifle) wrote of his William Reed double and his uncle Alvero's Billinghurst double rifles, in use on black bears in the blackberry patches.

[WonkyEye]

Entirely speculation on my part, and viewed throu a modern perspective, but I just wanted to offer a thread to pull on.  I know of a few modern small caliber 410/22 or 16ga/243 combination guns in friends cabinets.  Most of them are prized  for the versatility they offer during mixed hunting seasons.  Often modern hunters are after a target game animal, but for early Americans I think it was about supplementing their diet with fresh meat, no matter whether it came from rabbit, squirrel, or grouse which were/are more frequently  encountered or larger game when possible but less common.  A .40 round ball would I think still pack plenty of punch for whitetail with a well aimed ahot up to 100 yards although PA requires .45.

[Shreckmeister]

Here’s my absolute favorite combination gun

[Seth Isaacson]

Fascinating beast of a gun there Schreckmeister.

Nice collection OLUT.

[jdm]

Here’s my absolute favorite combination gun







[/quote] 

Rob ' Who made that thing? 
Jim

[Bill Paton]

Hello Seth,
You have good questions about these types of guns that interest many of us. There has certainly been an evolution in this country over time as has been discussed by OLUT (who has the largest, most complete, as well as heavily documented collection of percussion O/U American rifles that I know of). WonkyEye and Hungry Horse present good points, too.

I think the small caliber smooth rifle is under appreciated as a small game getter. As already mentioned, the large powder and shot loads they are capable of handing are more potent than modern 410 cartridge loads limited by chamber length. These smooth rife bores are also satisfactory for medium game when using patched round balls at relatively close ranges. They are potent back up loads when combined with rifle barrels. They were practical farm and homestead food providers.

Not yet mentioned in this thread is the fact that many combination guns of this period in both America and Europe had straight rifled barrels combined with  twist rifled bores. Straight rifled barrels handled bird shot like the smooth bores, and also handled patched round balls a bit more accurately than smooth bores as indicated by Dillin in his early book on the Kentucky rifle.

My impression from studying many of these from the flint through percussion eras is that, in general, the smooth and straight rifled bores gradually enlarged over the decades and barrel lengths decreased. I think the interest in targeted species moved from mostly medium game and defense early on, to deer and small game combined, and then on to mostly small game in the late 19th century. This is conjecture and I have not tabulated the statistics on the 250+ Kentucky double rifles studied to date to objectively document those thoughts.

Thanks for bringing up this thread, and I hope others will put forth their ideas too.

Bill Paton, Kentucky double rifle student, Anchorage, Alaska 907-230-3600 (currently in “Eclipse Country”  :-)

[Shreckmeister]

Bill, I think you meant to say the bore Size decreased And barrels shortened?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I have a John Manton s x s 15 gauge smoothie (percussion).  I like to hunt with it in thick cover, one barrel loaded with shot for grouse and the other with round ball in case Bullwinkle steps out in front of me, as is often the case with moose.  So far, grouse are all that it has harvested...we live in hope.

[Bill Paton]

Shreck Rob,
You bring up a good point of confusion. Indeed, twist rifle bores shrank as the percussion years advanced and barrels shortened. My impression from studying a lot of these combination guns is that the straight rifled bores along with the smooth bores tended toward INCREASING in size as the decades progressed in the percussion period and the twist rifled bores got smaller. It is fairly common to see those late percussion shot-capable barrels with bores in the modern shotgun range, paired with smaller rifle bores. As OLUT pointed out, there are many exceptions, and my observations are not yet looked at statistically.

Thanks for bringing up this point, Rob.

[Avlrc]

Here’s my absolute favorite combination gun

I guess so.  Now that is a serious piece.