Guns International #: 102604846
Seller's Inventory #: 226106

Category - Kentucky Rifles - Antique Rifles - 1500-1850

Category
Kentucky Rifles
Antique Rifles - 1500-1850

NEW ENGLAND Made JOHN MASON Antique PERCUSSION Full Stock .54 c. SMOOTHBORE ENGRAVED & SILVER WIRE INLAID Smoothbore Long Rifle

Description:
NEW ENGLAND Made JOHN MASON Antique PERCUSSION Full Stock .54 c. SMOOTHBORE

ENGRAVED & SILVER WIRE INLAID Smoothbore Long Rifle

Here we present an antique John Mason American Full Stock Percussion Long Rifle made circa 1840 in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Mason was born in 1775 in Sherborn, Massachusetts and moved to Shrewsbury in 1797. He started his own business making smoothbore guns and rifles. He had been an apprentice of Thomas Holbrook, an accomplished gunsmith living in Sherborn, Massachusetts. Mason was known for having a thriving business and had several apprentices and journeyman gun makers in his employ.

Mason worked from 1797 to 1843 between these two locations. These long rifles were the order of the day and were essential tools for providing meat for the table, pest control for the crops and livestock, and protection against beast and man for the homestead. Rifles/Fowlers in this caliber were used for taking medium to large-sized game on the frontier to include elk and even buffalo. Frontiersmen, homesteaders, pioneers, trappers and traders would have used a rifle like this for all of the above.

The American Long rifle, more commonly, but less correctly, known as the 'Kentucky rifle', was described by Captain John G. W. Dillin in the dedication to his seminal 1924 book, The Kentucky Rifle:

“From a flat bar of soft iron, hand forged into a gun barrel; laboriously bored and rifled with crude tools; fitted with a stock hewn from a maple tree in the neighboring forest; and supplied with a lock hammered to shape on the anvil; an unknown smith, in a shop long since silent, fashioned a rifle which changed the whole course of world history; made possible the settlement of a continent; and ultimately freed our country of foreign domination.
Light in weight; graceful in line; economical in consumption of powder and lead; fatally precise; distinctly American; it sprang into immediate popularity; and for a hundred years was a model often slightly varied but never radically changed.”

The overall condition is good. Strong action. The bore is in good shape for its age. Solid stock, contains a stable crack in front of the lock. Clear markings. “LANE & READ/BOSTON” and light engravings are legible on the lock. Wire inlays trace the barrel tang. Atop the barrel “J. MASON” can be read.

Own the original! This is a legitimate antique and not a reproduction.

Barrel is 39-1/2 inches.

Caliber: .54 Percussion

Overall condition as seen in photos.        

Very Fast. Very Safe. FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE. Delivered directly to your door by express mail!
Guaranteed AUTHENTIC & Includes CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY.

ancestryguns

$1750

#226106
 

SOLD

Antique: Yes