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A Riffle Gun and What Belongs To Her | Muzzle Blasts Archives

A Riffle Gun and What Belongs To Her | Muzzle Blasts Archives January 2003

An original Muzzle Blasts Article by Wallace Gusler

These articles will be  presenting conclusions and  details without footnotes - the extensive

documentation and more developed analysis will appear in the two volumes.

The first several articles will focus on longrifle terminology.

The technical vocabulary used in modem studies of long rifles ap­pears to have come down as verbal

tradition that was constantly evolving throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.  While the terms lock, stock, and barrel have remained stable, other terms were almost lost entirely. The flintlock

"cock" that is today frequently referred to as "hammer" is a usage that is percussion-period. When the hammer was used in the flintlock period, it referred to the frizzen and /or steel. Terms such as

swamped barrel and wedges ap­ peru· to be of late 19th century or early 20th-century origin. Butt

plate probably developed in the late 19th century with the simple plate without a  top extension.

Accessories also have had names applied to them over time that was not in existence in the pri­mary  time of longrifle production and use. The term butt plug for the wood closure of the large

end of a powder horn undoubt­edly wins the prize for one of the ugliest modem terms

Returning to original terminology is a major change in approach  I am taking, in the belief that

if we know the terms used by the makers and users of rifles to describe these arms and

accouterments we should use their language. The docu­ments that provide details of longrifle

makers and users terminology are scarce and found in obscure sources.  Undoubt­edly

regionalism existed  in terms, thus confusing our under­ standing. The majority of the terms

that follow have more than one reference and when a  lone document has to suffice, it is

presented as such.

Before rifled guns became part of the Virginia frontier and back-country culture (prior to I 730s),

the term for firearms was simply "Gun." After rifles become pa11 of the culture the term "smooth 

bore gun," or  "round bore gun," appears in court documents and other sources apparently to

differentiate the two types. Occasionally, other smooth  bore designations ap­ pear: "Firelock,"

"Muskett," "buckneers gun," "Turkish  guns," and "Pistols." Rifled pistols are rarely cited;

however, the ear­ liest in the Shenandoah is 1748 and was owned by a minister.

And, of course, the mixture of terms -  the rifle style but smoothbore, "A smooth bore rifle Gun," advertised for sale in 1739 in The  Pennsylvania Gazette. This 

term also appears in the Shenandoah  Valley in the 1750s.

The spelling of rifle has great variety,  more than a dozen versions recorded in Virginia

records. Regardless of the spell­ing of rifle, the dual term rifle gun is far more typical than

rifle standing alone. This was especially true prior to the American Revolution. During the war and after, the term rifle gradually replaces rifle gun in the 19th century. From the earliest listing

in 1701/2, "Rifle Gun Iron ramer" in Ralph  Wormeley, Esq.'s inventory, rifle gu.n is the primary

term  used throughout  the 18th century in Virginia.

When referring to a rifle in more personal tenns, the female rather than the male gender is used - 

Henry St. George Dixon, Abingdon, Virginia,  1809 "every time that Saws are put into the gun she is  made tinner and when fired often will play her bullets." This is also seen in the 1759

inventory reference that is used as a title here -  "... Riffle Gun and what belongs to her." Since

the ban-el  is the defining feature of a  rifle gun, the detailed discussion  begins with 

rifling. The interior of the bar­ rel  is occas ionally described (1770s) as  having rifles 

rather than the modern  term lands and grooves. However, the  term most often used by longrifle makers  was lands and furrows . When lands is rejoined  with furrows, the origin of " lands" becomes clear. "Lands and furrows" must have originated as a metaphor for agricultural plowing. While lands survived  until today, furrows has long since disappeared.

Touch  hole is another  term that has remained  consistent over time, while breech  plug and

tang are  in the early  period simply breech  pin, or breech screw; an Augusta  County man in

1808 stated it "six full threads  in the Breech screw is most common,  and approved by one of 

the  best gunsmiths,  I be­ lieve, in America  who resides in Staunton, yet  perhaps four may

be sufficient."

In the mid-18th century well into the 19th the breech refers to the back of  the barrel as it does today; however, the term also doubles for the butt stock.

This account from 1775, "flour­ ished in  the Breech," meaning the butt stock is carved,  is a

somewhat confusing  reference. This reference  from 1808 is clearer in meaning: "from the length of the breech that a man of middle size cannot without much

difficulty extend his finger to the tricker." Another example from the early 19th century: "the

breech of the stock is too short." These are examples of breech referring to the pull and/or length

of the butt stock.


The drop of the stock was simply the bend: "... let the Stock be of  the same Bend, and Substance of the Britch as the old one," as George Washington  put it. A modem might phrase it this way, "make it the same drop and the same thickness as the old  one."


The front of the ban-el was called  the muzzle, the same as it is today, while it  is fitted with

a  fore sight and a  hind sight, "the hindsight fifteen  inches from the breech of the ban-el..."

The octagon  barrel exterior is  referred to as squared  both by users and gunsmiths, and this 

terminology is supported  by many references from the early 18th century through the I830- 40

period. Octagonal and  round barrels are "part squared  and part round" as John Clark stated  it 

in Richmond, Virginia, in 1808; and from Orange County, Virginia,  1768: "a Dutch gun square up

the barrel about a foot..."

The overall shape of early  rifle barrels is well designed, typically  with the weight and 

strength in  the breech with  a taper towards the muzzle and a small flare the last few inches. This produces a strong barrel, the  heaviest section being the breech, where strength is most important - the taper reduces weight toward  the front, giving the rifle better balance. The flare achieves a larger cross section at the muzzle, approxi­ mately the size of the barrel at the hind sight, making  it pos­ sible to

have low sights parallel to the bore. This tapered and flared barrel is differentfrom the 19th and

early 20th century barrels   known as swamped in the southern Appalachians

These barrels of later period are a stylistic holdover from the 18th century. They usually  have breeches and muzzles of the same dimensions with the taper and flare between. Many have the flare(muzzle) larger than at the breech. I first heard the term ·'swamped" barrel from Hacker Martin in  1959 or ' 60 when he was living at Appomattox, Virginia. Perhaps the term is older than Hacker's early 20th-century experience. It is a fortunate circumstance that an early 19th -century descri ptionof a Virginia rifle barrel survives: ''the barrel three feet nine inches long -  the Caliber the size of fifty bullets to the pound - the hind sight fifteen inches from the breech of the barrel - the fore sight one inch and a quarter from the muzzle - the barrel heaviest at the breech tapering a linle to the hind sight, then continuing the same thickness fifteen inches from there a gradual swell to the muzzle so  that the substance at the muzzle will be nearly as thick as the breech - the touch bole made in the barrel close to the end of the breech pin... "

References  to the exterior of the barrel  are rare; however, bluing is documented:  "barrels Bored blued and rifled. " Williamsburg  1751; from store record and advertisements, "London blued  barrels." Charcoal-blued barrels were common on 18th-century  longrifles. For a detailed description of this process of bluing, see  The Journal of Historical Armsmaking Technology. Volume V, pp. 53-62.  

This charcoal  bluing evi­dence is found on  the bottom of the barrels where the finish was

protected by the  stock. A number of longrifle barrels have no evidence of blue, and must  have been finished in the white. In Europe browning replaced bluing in the late 18th century. It is mentioned as new in  the English book, Essay on Shooting, published in 1789, and a 1781 ad in Philadelphia cites "blue" and "browned." The earliest documentary  reference in the Shenandoah Valley is 1808, "also to the barrels colored to a brownish cast to keep them free from rust, as well as to promote their usefulness from the Rais of the sun when  necessary to use them." Some rifles of the 1790s have evidence of browning, although it is dif_ficult to interpret with certainty. This evidence makes it doubtful that longritle guns were browned before 1790. 

Bluing lasted well into the 19th century, overlapping  the use of browning. The fittings on the bottom of the barrel  for stock attach­ment that pins go through are consistently referred  to as loops in both military and sporting arms. The more expensive treat­ment from  the second quarter of the 18th century on is a flat piece of metal (known today as a  key or wedge) that goes through a barrel loop with a rectangular hole. The most expen­sive

of these has a slot in the metal  piece that slides, along with a retainer pin. The pin is

inserted from the bottom  of the barrel channel and its purpose is to prevent the metal  fastener

from  being pulled completely  out, but far enough to release Lhe barrels. The earliest  

Virginia  reference to  the rectangular fasteners comes from George Washington's order in 1767 for a fowling piece, "a false britch and sliding bolts." The tenn "slid­ ing bolts"  may have been  

common,  but with only one reference, it is difficult to know if this is a standard  terminology or particular to Washington. In  

the  post-Revolutionary  period and in longrifle counties  of the Shenandoah, Potomac, and

Monongahela  Valleys, the term  used is draw loop rather than sliding bolts. If inlays are around

the pins or draw loops, they are  described as "silver about the loops."

In summary,  the terms used  to describe the barrel  in the 18th- and early 19th-century Kentucky

rifle making back coun­try are:

Length: Feet and inches: "3  ft 9 in."

Caliber: Balls to the pound

Barrel Shape: "Squared," "part squared  and part round," "breech," "muzzle," "tapered  and flared" 

Barel Interior: Rifled, smoothbore, round  bore, touch hole Lands and furrows

Barrell Fittings: Breech  pin or breech screw, loops, draw loops,  hind sight, fore sight