Discussion Took Their Rifles Home

A college friend of mine lives in the family 1840’s double pen two story log farm house. The Springfield musket of a returning ancestor hung over the fireplace all his life.

When he became a teenage reenactor he was allowed to handle the family relic. “On a dark & stormy night” he decided to snap a cap because it would be cool.

The resulting bullet hole in the plaster next to the fire place is covered by a photo of his teen self in uniform holding the musket that still hangs there.
 
In that engraving posted, the older flintlock already hung over the fireplace is broken through the wrist and the butt part of the stock is absent.
It could have resulted from a fierce hand to hand combat or (as was the case with the percussion squirrel rifle over my family's mantle) caused by two little boys playing with it and banding it around.
 
In that engraving posted, the older flintlock already hung over the fireplace is broken through the wrist and the butt part of the stock is absent.
It could have resulted from a fierce hand to hand combat or (as was the case with the percussion squirrel rifle over my family's mantle) caused by two little boys playing with it and banding it around.

The folk hero sniper Jack Hanson’s rifle belongs to a college friend of mine. I have taken measured drawings of it for a gunsmith.

When he & his brother were children they played cowboys & Indians with it. Since Hanson never said a word about what he did, a boatload of hooey has been written about that rifle.

If anyone stumbles upon a convoluted interpretation of what some marks on the stock mean, I have an authoritative source for how they got there.
 
The folk hero sniper Jack Hanson’s rifle belongs to a college friend of mine. I have taken measured drawings of it for a gunsmith.

When he & his brother were children they played cowboys & Indians with it. Since Hanson never said a word about what he did, a boatload of hooey has been written about that rifle.

If anyone stumbles upon a convoluted interpretation of what some marks on the stock mean, I have an authoritative source for how they got there.
My cousin and I used cavalry sabers to mock sword fight in great grandfather's attic about 1960 or so, and I suspect the nicks we put into the blades then in 1960 are now explained by whoever owns them as caused by a cavalry duel involving JEB Stuart and/or George Custer in 1865.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top