GRRW Leman Indian Rifle
I found this Leman Indian Rifle for sale online and purchased it from a sense of nostalgia. I remember these rifles well from my days working at Green River Forge/Oregon Gun Works in Springfield, OR. Green River Forge (GRF) was our mail order, national outlet and manufacturer of NW Trade Guns, flint and percussion rifles as well as clothing patterns and a host of other ML specialty items.
Our retail locations, Oregon Gun Works was next door, on Main Street in Springfield. We sold finished guns by GRF and Green River Rifle Works (GRRW). We sold many GRRW Leman trade rifles mainly half-stock percussion rifles, I bought one a .50 caliber as my first ML rifle and shot it until I could build myself an Oregon Territory Rifle. These GRRW and our house made GRF guns all used GRRW barrels that proved to be wonderfully accurate patched round ball shooters.
My favorite of the GRRW Rifles was the Leman Indian Rifle and we had just a couple of them for sale while I was employed there. They were full stocked in Maple with 30" barrels with the odd size of 1 &1/16" across the flats. All Indian Rifles were single trigger, percussion and brass mounted using the same ramrod thimbles, trigger guard and buttplate as regular GRRW Leman rifles. They had the same simple open iron barrel sights as the Leman Rifles. I don't remember the specific calibers of the 2 or 3 Indian Rifles that I saw but .50 and .54 calibers were the most popular for any ML rifle of the time.
(There is a page on the
www.grrw.org the Green River Rifle Works Collector site concerning this rifle. All the info matches this rifle to a T.
http://grrw.org/leman-indian-rifle/ )
This rifle I have shown very little if any use with seven (7) sharp lands & grooves, deep cut rifling, no firing corrosion around the nipple or the lock. In weighs 8lbs. 14 oz. The nipple is slightly tarnished and the iron blade, copper base front sight may have been slightly filed. The stock has a few small dents, the ramrod does not show signs of use. I never call any used gun "unfired" but my guess is that this one was sighted in and put-up. It has an almost plain maple stock with a bit of fiddleback figure and the identifying greenish colored wood. This color is a product of the stain used in those days. Initially stained brown, after exposure to sunlight the stocks lightened and turned slightly green. Most all GRRW maple stocks show this color and identifies them from that era.
There are no markings of any kind that I can find on this rifle except the initials BKC and 1987 scratched on the back side of the lock. The fellow I bought the rifle from said there was a GRRW stamp on the bottom of the barrel.
I'm curious if anyone knows any more about these rifles or the initials BKC? or specifically this rilfe.Im surising that this was a GRRW kit assembled, finished and sighted in years later?
Steven Dodd Hughes
