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Whats the difference between Pensylvania,
montanajoe
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and Kentucky rifle?? Got pictures?? Thanks.
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I think the Penn. rifles have more drop in the stock IMO.
http://frontierfolk.org/ky-lr.htm
and Kentucky rifle?? Got pictures?? Thanks.
according to rand and mcnally the difference is only a few hundred miles...................
quote:Originally posted by montanajoe
and Kentucky rifle?? Got pictures?? Thanks.
according to rand and mcnally the difference is only a few hundred miles...................
[;)][;)][:D][:D]
The term is believed to have been first used in a song called "The Hunters Of Kentucky" commemorating the role of backwoods riflemen at the Battle Of New Orleans in 1815. There was probably earlier usage of the term but to the best of my knowledge there's no written record of it. It derives from the fact that, in eastern America, "Kentucky" referred not to the state but to the widespread Ohio River Valley frontier, and rifles were considered largely the weapon of choice for frontiersmen -- so they were Kentucky rifles. It's not a particularly accurate term but it stuck, particularly after "The Hunters Of Kentucky" became a hit in a nation pumped up on pride at having whupped the redcoats a second time.
"Kentucky" rifles were made in most of the original 13 colonies, with Pennsylvania and Virginia guns the most numerous, and in the 19th century were also produced in Tennessee, Ohio, and various midwestern regions.
I will admit to not knowing a great deal about rifles made outside Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania rifles, I do know. There were several dozen regional "schools" or styles of Pennsylvania rifle in the century or so between roughly 1750 and 1850. Some of these styles are very similar to one another, with many in the central and western portions of the colony and then state having evolved from earlier eastern patterns. Many bear very little or no resemblance to one another. Some, such as the earlier-period Lancasters, feature large but graceful butts with straight combs; a few miles from Lancaster, in the Lehigh Valley, a completely different style with a curved (humpbacked) butt developed. Somewhat to the west, in Bedford County, a straight-butted but almost awkwardly slender pattern evolved in the first quarter of the 19th century. So it goes as you bounce around the state; most counties and quite often individual townships within counties had their own distinct pattern of gunstocks, patchboxes, and carving on the wood. Complicating things even more is that the regional styles evolved and changed with the passing of time -- a Lancaster County rifle built around 1780 will have very little in common with a product of the same area manufactured in the 1830's.
It's basically like walking into the produce section of a store and asking for a piece of fruit. To get a specific item -- or describe a style of rifle -- it's necessary to be quite a bit more precise, and the attempt to nail the subject (of the rifles) with any precision has resulted in quite a few very large, usually very expensive books.
Manufacturers nowadays stick the "Kentucky" or "Pennsylvania" label on whatever they're marketing, with no real basis on anything from actual history. This leads to confusion as to what this, that, or the other style of rifle ought to actually look like. I'm not in any way, shape, or form knocking guns by CVA, Traditions, Pedersoli, and other distributors -- anyone who shoots and particularly anyone who shoots traditional black powder is good to go with me -- but the truth is that such rifles bear only the vaguest resemblance to the work of actual 18th and 19th century gunmakers.
An excellent way to get a quick visual education as to various types of Pennsylvania rifles (and guns of other regions) is to visit Track Of The Wolf's website. They sell parts for people like me to build historically-correct rifles; they also take in the work of the country's best builders, on consignment, and if you link to the "Flintlock Rifles" section of "Guns For Sale" you can have a look at a wide variety of originally-styled pieces.
There is no difference - two names for the same style rifle developed in Pennsylvania. The term "Kentucky Rifle" supposedly came from a poem / report of the 1812 Battle of New Orleans, describing "the riflemen from Kentucky" or something like that.
Hunters of Kentucky
Allen