Guns, Dogs and Blades QnA

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Mattax said:
Sorry I missed your post last night.
I am not familiar with them in particular.
My knowledge tapers off after 1783 and also when it comes to non-military rifles (which is most of flintlock era rifles).

In addition to the book you mention, there are three Gillespie rifles shown on the American Long Rifle forum. Two have detailed explanaitons of their characteristics.
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In general I don't think you'll find original long rifles before the 1790s with the deep curvature in the butt.
Compare with 'Jacob Bower's rifle made in the 1760s, probably by George Schroyer in Reading, Pa.
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WV64Signet's question about the family migration story is a good one. There was a strong connection between the Southern Appalachian region through the Shenendoah to the Lancaster Pennsylvania area and on to Philadelphia. A lot of commerce (cattle for example) and migration along the Great Wagon Road as it was sometimes called. So yes they could have moved inland the tidewater, or had connections from much further north.
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Things to look into for the Gillespie rifles might be their sources of parts and materials. It took a pretty big investment to get into making barrels and locks. To get all the parts made under one roof required tremendous knowledge, equipment and raw material. As the description indicates a water powered mill, that suggests to me they were running a trip hammer or some other equipment that needed serious power.

Besides Colonial Williamsburg, I'm not sure of where else you could go to see barrels forged and rifled the way they were in the 18th century. If you go, check ahead to find out what they are working on. They don't have a begining to end in one day demonstration, but I do beleive they have a schedule or some way to follow the processes from raw materials to finished rifle.
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The guy making reproduction parts for them responded to my email. Now I just need to see if it’s something I can afford.
 
doogievlg said:
Eh, black powder stuff typically is priced very fair. I have a kid coming in May though so I need to be smart about my purchases. Wife is on board with the idea of this gun though.
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congrats...first one?

my oldest loves shooting but the girls dont seem to care too much
took me a while to get the wife to understand guns are a tool and certain situations call for certain tools
(given her background she is a little skittish...cant hardly blame her, after hearing her dad talk about having to walk through Santiago during a coupe. the army had taken over and installed a curfew, anyone caught out passed curfew was considered a government sympathizer and could be shot on sight. he had to pick up his oldest son from where he was staying and have to walk past the bodies of those deemed sympathizers)

but since you're wife is on board, have at it
 
diymirage said:
congrats...first one?

my oldest loves shooting but the girls dont seem to care too much
took me a while to get the wife to understand guns are a tool and certain situations call for certain tools
(given her background she is a little skittish...cant hardly blame her, after hearing her dad talk about having to walk through Santiago during a coupe. the army had taken over and installed a curfew, anyone caught out passed curfew was considered a government sympathizer and could be shot on sight. he had to pick up his oldest son from where he was staying and have to walk past the bodies of those deemed sympathizers)

but since you're wife is on board, have at it
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It is our first kid and we are super excited. My wife enjoys hunting and shooting and has never really pushed back on buying guns but she is a fan of this one.

This was when we were building her first AR. I obviously couldn’t pass up the chance to build another one with her.

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I am setting up the range and classroom for our Companies inaugural Defensive hand gun class for red dots only. We teach red dot and we teach defensive handgun. Myself and one of the other red dot instructors decided to roll it up and do a red dot only defensive pistol class, we had a lot of conversations on the merits of such a class internally with our teaching cadre. Suffice to say many of our fellow instructors felt we would be alienating the majority of folks wanting to learn defensive handgun skills By making it solely red dot equipped pistols. In the end I followed my gut and decided to play the Boss card and hold the class anyway. Myself and my instructor partner combined and developed what we think should be an excellent curriculum and a good hard day of training. Tomorrow we go live! We have tested it on ourselves, and ran thru the different stages, we have tweaked modified, deleted and morphed till we can’t tweak it no more. Let’s do this thing! On plus side the concern over lack of attendance was unmerited. We have a full class! We are just seeing more and more folks show up to our defensive hand gun classes with red dots. After classroom segment we will hit the range and verify zero. Nothing makes a day more miserable than an incorrect zero.
 
WV64Signet said:
:lol: :poke:

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Lol, reminds me of "The Far Side", specifically remember 1, there was 2 Brown Bears, and the one bear looks at the other bear and says "Thunderstick,, No, that's a 30-30 Winchester!" I remember when my dad bought one of them brand new off the shelf for about 124 bucks in the early 80s
Ps, Edit due to voice to text.... Sorry All
 
Ironracer said:
Lol, reminds me of "The Far Side", specifically remember 1, there was 2 Brown Bears, and the one bear looks at the other bear and says "Thunderstick,, No, that's a 30-30 Winchester!" I remember when my dad bought one of them brand new off the shelf for about 124 bucks in the early 80s
Ps, Edit due to voice to text.... Sorry All
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Always remember the best “Bear gun“ is a small 22! Not for the Bear of course but for your buddies knee. Then you can out run him For sure! This last month me and a buddy went to the Black Bear Bonanza in Bentonville Ar. It was very interesting.
 
Sublime one said:
Always remember the best “Bear gun“ is a small 22! Not for the Bear of course but for your buddies knee. Then you can out run him For sure! This last month me and a buddy went to the Black Bear Bonanza in Bentonville Ar. It was very interesting.
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Yep that's why I always stop and kick my combat boots off.... then grab my track shoes out of the backpack!
 
That joke is older than dirt.
Sorry SLO.:poke: I cant get used to acquiring the dot on my new sig. Man I'm old school.
 
WV64Signet said:
It's a wonderful piece.

So this is the piece pictured in this image.
Note the headgear of the regulars in the background. It is the bear-crested round hat I showed earlier in my collection.

Reubin Field - Discover Lewis & Clark
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The rifle looks beautiful.

Small world. The historian mentioned was an interpreter when I started. IIRC GS-4 permanent with furlough, but might have been a 5.
I knew he had got an historian at the Arch but not what he actually worked on.

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Mattax said:
Small world. The historian mentioned was an interpreter when I started. IIRC GS-4 permanent with furlough, but might have been a 5.
I knew he had got an historian at the Arch but not what he actually worked on.

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Very Cool

Somewhere on my computer I have my notes and references... but I'm pretty sure that those rifles that were modified for the Corps of Discovery came from the long rifles issued to the Kentucky volunteers that marched with Washington in response to the Whiskey Rebellion. They were turned in when the Kentucky troops mustered out and were stored in a local arsenal in Virginia (can't recall the name). When the Harper's Ferry Arsenal was established they were moved to HF until the were picked out and modified.
 
Found some oldies cleaning out my dad’s estate. There’s two full boxes of his .257 reloads but not sure if I’d dare shoot them, not knowing what the loads are. Guessing there 50 years old or more!!!

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Bodyperson said:
That joke is older than dirt.
Sorry SLO.:poke: I cant get used to acquiring the dot on my new sig. Man I'm old school.
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I can help you with that! We just got done teaching a whole class of noobs with red dots today. And I mean noobs. Showed up, not zeroed, sights falling off pistols due to incorrect install. Hour plus to acquire zero. Loose optics. You name it I encountered it today. Holy Crap what a long day. Pix of my fellow instructor.

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pauly said:
Found some oldies cleaning out my dad’s estate. There’s two full boxes of his .257 reloads but not sure if I’d dare shoot them, not knowing what the loads are. Guessing there 50 years old or more!!!

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That Robert’s load is a classic. Man what a caliber. One of my favorites, totally under rated.
 
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