bamaranger
New member
There's a longrifle show in our area this weekend, and a pal and I are going to attend. Got me to thinking though, why the LONG rifle? I've read the material, considered the usual comments, but the longrifle seems to me not a product of "form follows function", because the rifle is in fact so LONG. It did not take much time, with the expansion west, for rifles to shorten considerably. So what led the PA/KY, Appalachian 'smiths to craft these lengthy pieces for the frontiersman? Most of us have spent enough time afoot in the woods, to agree that the shorter a rifle is, the handier it becomes. Consider the typical 'woodsman carbines", the M94, the 336, the Rem 7.
The usual discussion considers accuracy with the longer sight radius, more efficient use of powder (?), ease of off hand shooting (balance?), higher velocity, likely other logic I've not heard. But the rifles were reliant on a long and slender ramrod, and had the long barrels would seem difficult to manufacture and maintain. And getting through any type of cover would be a chore.
I read once where a noted gun scribe thought the long barrels were conducive to resting off a convenient tree limb. Perhaps too, the woodlands of the 1700 were more open and mature and the long rifle was not as burdensome as it seems in the new growth forests of today.
I've shot a longrifle or two, never owned one or spent any time with one. What am I missing, and what other logic is there?
The usual discussion considers accuracy with the longer sight radius, more efficient use of powder (?), ease of off hand shooting (balance?), higher velocity, likely other logic I've not heard. But the rifles were reliant on a long and slender ramrod, and had the long barrels would seem difficult to manufacture and maintain. And getting through any type of cover would be a chore.
I read once where a noted gun scribe thought the long barrels were conducive to resting off a convenient tree limb. Perhaps too, the woodlands of the 1700 were more open and mature and the long rifle was not as burdensome as it seems in the new growth forests of today.
I've shot a longrifle or two, never owned one or spent any time with one. What am I missing, and what other logic is there?