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Mar 2, 2008 21:55:34 GMT -4
Post by btexpress on Mar 2, 2008 21:55:34 GMT -4
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ID Help
Mar 3, 2008 11:32:06 GMT -4
Post by rs on Mar 3, 2008 11:32:06 GMT -4
Very nice rifle , a real piece of history , as far as the name i would think it would be the gunbuilders name.
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Mar 3, 2008 11:40:42 GMT -4
Post by firefightnlife on Mar 3, 2008 11:40:42 GMT -4
great looking gun
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Mar 3, 2008 15:40:13 GMT -4
Post by Twowithone on Mar 3, 2008 15:40:13 GMT -4
btexpress I beleive that was the gun makers name. Go to traditional muzzleloading.com and post it there with the pics you,ll find out for sure.
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Mar 3, 2008 15:45:39 GMT -4
Post by starsnstripers on Mar 3, 2008 15:45:39 GMT -4
very nice gun, worth checking out )
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Post by zimmerstutzen on Mar 4, 2008 9:50:24 GMT -4
That's a nice piece and has an odd shaped cheek piece. There's a regular columne in MuzzleBlasts (The NMLRA) magazine that answers questions about gunmakers. Chuck Dixon might be able to ID it right off. It doesn't have the roman nose butt stock, which means it may be a later gun. by later, I mean from what is called the "golden age". about 1760 to 1810. One of my great great etc. was a fella named Angstadt that made guns in eastern Berks county in the 1740's, before the golden age. There are folks and reference books that can tell you when and where a maker lived and worked, who they apprenticed with and pretty much by look even when it was probably made.
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Mar 4, 2008 20:19:44 GMT -4
Post by greybearjr on Mar 4, 2008 20:19:44 GMT -4
The maker S. Smith is unknown as far as I can tell. There is a Gamaliel Smith and a Peter Smith working in Huntingdon County between the 1850's and 1870's. The sister to your rifle is on page 346 of Henry Kaufmann's book, "The Pennsylvania Kentucky Rifle". Kaufmann attributes your gun's maker to Huntingdon County in the post Civil War period. The heavy barreled "chunk" guns came into popularity at that time. The gun pictured in Kaufmann's book has the same pin style trigger and three part patch box with very similar lines.
Chandler and Whisker in the book, "PA Gunmakers" go into a lot more detail about Peter Smith ( also a Peter the II and III). They ran substantial operations for that type of gun from 1850's until about 1876. If I had to venture a guess, S. Smith is a relative that worked in their shop and they allowed to sign his own guns, but that is only a guess. I will try to dig up more if I can but it does seem to be one of these Huntingdon County guns.
GBJ
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