Architecture by schools of gunsmithing was and is the definition of longrifle design. Each school has characteristics it is known for. Buttstock architecture includes an intense education in each school. Points of importance include: butt stock shape, height & width, shape & line of comb at the heel to the nose and the way it enters the wrist, upper and lower molding features, and furniture. These features can help determine whether an unmarked original gun is of early or late origin, school of design and the maker. Details like run depth of wrist into the buttstock, width, height and thru shape of wrist, type and width of nose termination are a few of the features demanding attention to correctly portray each school. For instance, earlier rifles exhibit thicker butt styles but I have never personally seen an early gun with a plate wider than 2.” I’m sure they may exist, I just have not seen one. The later the period, the thinner the plates became. The toe of the earlier guns were usually a bit wider, but narrowed to accommodate the shape of the rear rail plus a small reveal on either side of the triggerguard. It is my observation that the thickness of the underside of the buttstock was determined by the width of the triggerguard rail. Original Jaeger rifles, Germanic in origin, were short heavy hunting guns with wide, thick features. Our first gunmakers here were originally of Germanic origin, mostly. It makes sense they followed their experience. French made smooth bore Fusils were heavy in the buttstock but became highly sought after by the Indians for their inherent accuracy due to their barrel length. Remember your history! It was the Indians who provided the bulk of the deer meat! Our guys were farmers and the only one gun a family could typically afford was one that did everything. So, the demand became hot for longer barrels by both the Indian and the farmer. England quickly followed suit with their fowlers in competition with the French. These guns were our first models and the demand for the more accurate long barreled gun outweighed the shorter Jaeger, even though the Jaeger had a rifled bore! Thus, we saw what has become known as the “Transitional Rifle” style; the child of the Jaeger and the American demand! It didn’t take long for these smoothbore small caliber rifles to exhibit their inherent accuracy with the longer barrel, so lengthening and rifling started quickly. By the late 1780’s rifles had become a slimmer more artful thing of ferocious beauty. Lancaster, Pennsylvania became the heart from which the longrifle emerged and branched out to the ever increasing frontier. As slimming was taking place with later styles this caused of course, the slimming of all furniture to oblige style. What would determine a school would be quickly determined by the furniture and architecture of the rifle. I’ll mention only one interesting builder since I could go on for many pages. This builder has a unique characteristic.
One very famous master, J.P. Beck, produced rifles of strong Lancaster School design but has become labeled Lebanon School. What is now Lebanon was part of Lancaster until 1813 when it then became its own county. His father was Johann Christian Beck who was born in Germany, moving here in 1749 at the ripe old age of 37! He settled in Lebanon Township as a powder maker. Johann had two sons, John Phillip who became a gunsmith, and John Christian who became a powder maker like his father and ultimately perished from this trade in 1806. The rifles produced by these men are therefore listed as Lebanon School but are actually Lancaster. Interestingly enough, though who J.P. Beck apprenticed under is unknown, he married a woman by the name of Anna Maria Lauck, who is generally thought to be the daughter of Simon Lauck who was working in Lebanon Township at the same time. Nice coincidence. This tends to explain the similarities of the early style of Lancaster daisy seen on early guns and those like we have featured in our Virginia patchbox section. It figures that if you like Lancaster School features you would like York, Lebanon, Reading and those rifles of the Virginias as well!
Susanne Warren-Bicio, President Muzzleloader Builder's Supply, LLC