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......Mtflat – one rifle original and one contemporary. You’ve a good eye, the rifle on the right is an original Berk’s Co. rifle and the other is a poor boy, both serious shooters. Kentucky rifles are another rabbit hole of mine.....
Nothing like the smell of black powder. There is a well used copy of "The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle" by Henry J Kauffman in the bookcase next to flathead manuals and books.
I used to build them and have studied the PA gunsmiths. I've spent more money than I want to admit at Dixie Gun Works buying parts. When living in Ohio I had the privilege of repairing, cleaning and inspecting several original rifles by local smiths. A full-stock flintlock by Biddle from the Sugarcreek area and later a half-stock percussion by his son Levi who was a school teacher ca.1870. Bores were septagon (not round as far as I could tell) and both were 36 cal. Another rifle was a heavy-barreled percussion by Wm Rife from the Cincinnati area.
I also hunt with them. My first buck was harvested with a 58 cal Hawken rifle that was purchased as a kit from Green River Rifle Works, Utah.
Didn't mean to ramble on - next to Ford trucks It's another passion. Prayers that your family emergency is being resolved!
Tim
Daniel Boone was born in Berks County near Birdsboro in the Oley Valley in 1735. There is a public school in Birdsboro called Daniel Boone HS. So Boone used the Pennsylvania rifle and took it with him when his family moved to Kentucky.
Many historians believe that Martin Meylin made the first long rifle. Meylin , a Swiss/German Mennonite, arrived in what later became Lancaster County in 1710. His son, also named Martin, became a gunsmith. There are guns with 'MM' engraved on them but experts are not sure if Sr or Jr made them .
This building is believed to have been Meylin's gunshop... or at least his blacksmith shop located in Lampeter Township in Lancaster. There is a middle school there called Martin Meylin Middle School.
Daniel Boone was born in Berks County near Birdsboro in the Oley Valley in 1735. There is a public school in Birdsboro called Daniel Boone HS. So Boone used the Pennsylvania rifle and took it with him when his family moved to Kentucky.
Many historians believe that Martin Meylin made the first long rifle. Meylin , a Swiss/German Mennonite, arrived in what later became Lancaster County in 1710. His son, also named Martin, became a gunsmith. There are guns with 'MM' engraved on them but experts are not sure if Sr or Jr made them .
This building is believed to have been Meylin's gunshop... or at least his blacksmith shop located in Lampeter Township in Lancaster. There is a middle school there called Martin Meylin Middle School.
Thanks Abe, for that little piece of "the early days" history as my grandmother used to call it. I hope that building is in the National Registry of Historic Buildings.
