looking to make a half stock rifle,but!

[sonny]

looking to make a halfstock rifle from a 1989 story in muzzleblast.I have the book with pictures of the gun but have never seen any other half stock rifles in books.42" barrel/45 cal/flinter/.......not with roman nose but more lancaster shape stock..........I thought all new england guns have a lehigh shaped stock?.........did they have nose cap on half stock guns???.thanks.....sonny

[ronward]

 there were some, but not very commonly built. half stocks didn't show up with any frequency untill well into the percussion era. i'm not yet real well educated on all of the specifics about that, but there is a commonly named "pennsylvania half-stock" style of gun that was built in the flint era. i'm sure others with more knowledge will chime in and probly set us both straight!

[Swampwalker]

I think the half stock started showing up on guns in this country after 1815 or so, probably copying the trend in european sporting arms, and yes, many New England rifles were half-stocked (often with very straight or gently curved butt-stock architecture, and sometimes using wooden under-ribs), but they were made elsewhere as well-I've seen pitures of half-stock Bean rifles, Whisker shows several half-stock Virginia rifles, and of course many of the western rifles were half-stocked.   I believe the Steel Canvas book shows a few half-stocked flint rifles.   And yes, they mostly used a cap on the end of the forearm.   Probably your best bet is to peruse the literature  and see what you can find.

[Stophel]

New England rifles 1800-on (maybe 1790's...) are often half stocked with wooden ribs.  Barrels are not usually that long, though.

[Dave B]

Sonny,\
The half stocks coming out of New England tended to have architecture similar to Lancaster Co. rifles, straight but with a lower comb. As Swampwalker pointed out they mostly had wooden under ribs. Several that I have see had ebony or black horn end caps. There are a few examples in the Merrill Lindsay book  The New England Gun. There are several pages of examples in profile in Kentucky Rifles and Pistols 1750-1850 by  James R Johnson through the KRA. The only similarity to the Lehigh rifles to my eye is the two piece patch box they tended to use on these.

[Stophel]

Here's one I found with just a quick search:

http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/admin/product_details.php?itemID=33721

A later percussion gun, but the form is pretty well the same.