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MID-19TH CENTURY
TRADE RIFLE SHOWING STRONG EVIDENCE OF INDIAN OWNERSHIP
AND USE – WONDERFUL APPEARANCE FEATURING VERY OLD
RAWHIDE REPAIR AND GENUINE TACK DECORATION – A
SPECTACULAR FRONTIER PERCUSSION RIFLE:
A classic
example of the mid-19th Century heavy
barreled guns that were carried on the Western Frontier,
this Plains Rifle presents a number of unique and
fascinating features, and displays many of the classic
characteristics of the guns that were carried by the
Indians. 
Despite the inaccurate
impressions presented by Hollywood and modern
literature, the historical record of the American
Frontier confirms that the majority of long guns carried
by the Indians were single shot muzzleloaders. Army
records include an inventory conducted in 1879 of the
firearms that had been collected from the Indians at the
Quartermaster Depot at Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory. Of
the total 410 guns inventoried, 69% - 284 – were long
guns, and of that 284, 56% were single shot
muzzleloaders. Many of the guns collected from the
Indians on the frontier were eventually sent to, and
held in a collection at, the Rock Island Arsenal. An
excellent sampling of this collection can be found in
Dorsey’s Guns of the Western Indian Wars (highly
recommended) and the style, condition, and decoration of
this rifle is remarkably alike to the examples of Indian
owned single shot rifles shown in that sampling. Save
for documented provenance, there is little room for
doubt that this Plains Rifle was owned and carried by an
Indian on the frontier.
Weighing over 10 pounds,
the rifle is mounted with a 26” octagon to round
barrel. The octagon section beginning at the breech is
13” long and measures a full 1 1/8” from flat to flat.
The barrel transitions to the round section with a
single “wedding band” treatment and measures just over
1” in diameter at the muzzle. There are two decorative
silver inlayed bands at the breech. The muzzle end of
the barrel is secured to the stock with multiple wraps
of a hand-spun waxed flax cord. The way in which this
wrap has shrunk to the stock and barrel, the color, and
polished surface all indicate this wrap has been on the
rifle for a very long time. There is only one screw
through the barrel tang, situated under, and visible as
an impression in, the rawhide wrap around the wrist.
The bore measures just shy of .50 caliber, the rifling
is well defined, and the bore appears to be reasonably
clean with no severe pitting. The exterior of the
barrel has a smooth, rich brown patina with no
significant pitting. The cone in the bolster breech
plug appears to be original to the rifle and has seen
many hammer falls as the top of the cone is peened
down. There are a few dings on the corners of the
barrel flats, evidence of the hard use to which this
rifle was exposed.
The barrel was almost
certainly shortened during its period of use, perhaps
removing as much as 10-12” from the original length.
Whether to remove excess weight or a portion of the
barrel damaged due to overloading or an obstruction, or
to reduce the length to make the rifle more manageable
on horseback, shortened barrels on frontier-used rifles
are quite common and well documented. The muzzle was
cut and polished smooth, however the face of the muzzle
has a slight crown around the bore, sloping out to the
outer edge of the barrel and the face of the muzzle has
a slight angle, not exactly square to the barrel wall.
While surviving rifles that were shortened by practiced
frontier gunsmiths display square, flat muzzle faces –
evidence that such work was well within the skills of an
experienced smith - the sort of variance in the angle
and finish of the cut of the muzzle on this rifle
suggests it was executed by an amateur gunsmith with
limited experience and a small selection of very basic
tools – the sort of work known to have been accomplished
by Indian gunsmiths.
The front sight is a hand
fashioned silver blade mounted in a copper base which is
dovetailed into the top flat. There are two dovetail
mortises for rear sights, one of which is filled with
lead or pewter and the other is empty, the rear sight
having been lost or discarded some time long ago.
The rear mortise – where
the rear sight was relocated after the barrel was
shortened – was cut through part of the maker’s stamp
which appears to have included his name and location.
What is legible is a large capital block “J” followed by
“OGDEN”. Another word follows the “ODGEN”, but it
appears the first and final letters are worn away or
obliterated in the process of cutting the mortise,
leaving “_ _ OWN _ _
The lock is a standard
mid-19TH Century percussion lock with no
markings on the front of the lock plate. The hammer
moves back and forth with no tension indicating one or
more of internal components of the lock were broken in
use. The lock is held in place with one handmade bolt
passing from the lock, through the stock from the right
side and anchors with a nut on the left side of the
stock, and the rawhide wrap around the stock wrist which
covers the rear of the lock plate. The way in which the
peened headed bolt holding the top of the lock is
utilized contrary to the normal “left to right” in which
the lock screw would ordinarily engage the threaded hole
in the lock pl;ate, suggests that either the person who
fashioned the bolt was not familiar, or concerned, with
how the lock screw was normally oriented, or more likely
he was affecting a repair for which he did not have a
screw with threads which fit those in the hole in the
lock plate. Such unusual, but quite effective repairs
are commonly found on Indian used guns and testify to
how well the Indians mastered the technology of the
European Americans. When this repair was new, the lock
bolt could be removed and the lock could then be slipped
out from under the rawhide wrap for servicing, however
to do so now would require an experienced and skilled
gunsmith familiar with such efforts so as not to damage
the valuable patina present on the rifle. So, should
you elect to have the internal workings of the lock
repaired, you could do so, but the accepted conventional
wisdom encourages leaving these guns as you find
them.
The iron furniture - toe
plate, trigger guard and nose cap – all show a nice
patina with minimal pitting consistent with what you
would expect to find on such a rifle, and the two ramrod
pipes are of brass and they too, have a naturally aged
patina.
The double set triggers are
both present and fully functional, the rear trigger
serving to set the front trigger, and the front trigger
releasing properly when pulled.
The wrist is enclosed in a
very old rawhide wrap sewn with sinew along the left
side of the lower tang and bow of the trigger guard.
The rawhide covers more than half of the barrel tang,
the lock plate area behind the hammer, the entire
trigger plate, and captures the front of the trigger
guard bow and the finger rest on the lower tang of the
guard. The manner in which the wrap is situated
indicates that the Indian who applied it intended the
rawhide to secure all of these key pieces to the stock
and to support the stock’s wrist. The consistency and
wear of the rawhide confirms that it is
old and it shows the
appropriate wear for the period of use of the rifle.
Further, the rawhide was applied where it was necessary
to support the wrist and secure the elements of the
rifle as described above, and definitely is there to
serve as a genuine repair - not, as is so often
seen on spurious "Indian guns", a modern addition with
no discernable purpose other than to enhance the
appearance of the rifle.
The wood surface of the
stock is worn smooth through use and has an excellent
patina which through the years has imparted a rich color
to the grain. The stock is not marred, nor is there any
damage beyond what one would expect to see. The toe of
the stock – often found chipped away - is surprisingly
intact in spite of the missing butt plate.. The edges
of the barrel channel have suffered some minor loss, but
again nothing that is not commensurate with the age and
use of the rifle. Between the two bands of tacks
forward of the lock, the bottom of the forestock is worn
down from being rested across the pommel of a saddle or
the neck of a horse. This is a very desirable and
key feature that collectors look for on these frontier
rifles. Considerable time on the back of a horse is
necessary to affect such wear and it is a testament to
the years this rifle was in use.
The
comb of the butt stock, the right side of the butt
stock, and the forearm are decorated with brass headed
tacks. The crest of the comb has a continuous line of
tacks and there is a dramatic serpentine pattern of
tacks on the right side of the butt stock – a pattern
that is known to have been popular with several of the
tribes. In particular, on the southern plains it
was a design favored by the Comanche. There are two
bands – three tacks wide – on the forearm between the
breech and the entry pipe for the ramrod. It is
significant to note that the bands around the forearm do
not continue around the bottom of the stock, rather
there is a break on the bottom of the stock between the
bands on each side of the forearm. Through the years I
have noticed that on a significant number of genuine
Indian tacked firearms, quite often the arrangements of
the designs or placement of the tacks were done in such
a way so
the
heads would not interfere with the use or the carry of
the gun. While the tacks were a favored decoration,
they were not used in such a manner that was a detriment
to the utilitarian purpose of the rifle. Not only did
this make perfect sense, but this practice can also
serve to provide modern collectors with another way to
differentiate between genuinely tacked guns and those
that have been “sweetened” through the years. In this
case, omitting the tacks from the bottom of the fore
stock would keep the tacks from snagging in the mane
hair when the rifle was rested on the horse's neck, and
wouldn't interfere with the grip of the stock.
The
small low profile, irregular shaped tack heads are worn
and deeply seated in the wood. The tacks are brass
heads attached to wire sized iron shanks, one of the
variations of tacks known to have been carried into the
West by traders. A number of the soft brass tack heads
are worn to the point that the iron wire shank is
visible in the center of the head, and in a few cases,
the brass heads have been completely worn away leaving
the shank in the wood. There is wear to the wood around
the edges of the tack heads and the heads have the
appearance of being imbedded in the wood, evidence that
the wood has swollen around the edge of the tack heads
through time. This is one of the characteristics
that knowledgeable collectors look for to determine if
the tacks are original to the period of use of the gun,
or have been recently applied. Where the few tacks are
missing from the forearm, the wood that was beneath the
tack heads shows appropriate coloring and the imprint of
the tack head. This is not a recently tacked gun where
someone attempted to “sweeten” an old, worn out rifle,
rather these tacks were certainly applied during the
period of the rifle’s use and show the same wear and
character of the rifle.
The overall impression of
this rifle is that it was assembled during its period of
use from parts gleaned from other rifles. The octagon
to round profile of the barrel is a late 18TH,
early 19TH Century style that had fallen from
use by the time the Plains Rifle emerged on the market.
The barrel is slightly oversized for the barrel channel
of the stock – most noticeable along the side of the
rear section of the barrel where the entire side flat is
exposed, the barrel appearing to sit high in the
channel. The lock is well inlayed into the stock, but
it seems smaller than a lock that would normally be seen
on a heavy plains rifle. The trigger guard and toe
plate are of the style seen on the early 19TH
Century long rifles that were made in the Appalachian
and Smokey Mountains. The ramrod pipes are very nicely
fashioned from brass with decorative detail, while the
balance of the furniture is plain functional iron with
little, if any, decoration. The stock must have come
into the hands of the owner in a finished form as there
is a decorative bead along the ramrod channel that is
very well executed and is the work of an experienced
stock maker. The butt stock has been hand carved to
reduce the thickness and fashion a cheek piece, and
to lengthen the wrist to provide additional room for the
rawhide wrap. The stock was originally fitted with a
butt plate evidenced by the screw hole in the face of
the butt and the worn iron screw that would have secured
the butt plate tang on the stock comb. From the wear to
the butt plate tang screw head and the face of the butt
that would have been covered by the butt plate, the
rifle was used for some time after the butt plate was
removed.
For what it is worth, I
have seen several of these Indian used rifles that have
been assembled from a collection of parts, and in fact,
one of the most compelling Indian rifles in my own
collection is just such a rifle which is assembled in
much the same way as this rifle. Were it not for having
to make a choice and limit how much I allow myself to be
my own best customer, this rifle would probably never
see the light of day.
This Rifle shows all the classic characteristics of hard
use and decoration in the hands of an Indian. It is
almost a certainty that this one was on the frontier
prior to 1860 and may have passed into the Indian's
hands well before the Civil War. Having a great
appearance that literally talks to you as you hold it,
there is no doubt this rifle is a veteran of fierce
determined and desperate battles, and untold numbers of
buffalo kills in the hands of a warrior.
I am confident enough that
this gun was indeed used by Indians, that I have enjoyed
this gun in my collection of Indian used guns and am
only now offering it for sale as it is a duplicate to
others in my collection.
Guns that have not been
sullied or ruined by the addition of upholstery tacks,
modern leather wrappings and other enhancements, have
never been common, and as more collectors recognize
their important historic value, Indian guns of this
quality are becoming increasingly difficult to find on
the market. This is an opportunity to obtain an honest
Indian gun that has not been tampered with since the day
it passed from the Indians into that first collection.
If you
hesitate and miss this one, for many years to come you
will regret it as one that got away.
SOLD
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