15 Facts About Long rifle

Long rifle, known as longrifle, Kentucky rifle, Pennsylvania rifle, or American longrifle, was one of the first commonly used rifles for hunting and warfare.

Long rifle is an early example of a firearm using rifling, which caused the projectile to spin around the axis of its motion.

Until the development of the Minie ball in the middle of the 19th century, the main disadvantages of a rifle compared to a musket were a slower reload time due to the use of a tighter fitting lead ball and greater susceptibility to the fouling of the bore after prolonged use - such fouling would eventually prevent loading altogether, rendering the weapon useless until thoroughly cleaned.

Long rifle was made popular by German gunsmiths who immigrated to America, bringing with them the technology of rifling from where it originated.

The accuracy achieved by the long rifle made it an ideal tool for hunting wildlife for food in colonial America.

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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.

Long rifle was developed on the American frontier in southeastern Pennsylvania, in the early 1700s.

The name 'Dickert Rifle' was considered a 'brand name' and the name 'Kentucky Long rifle' was not coined until much later in history and became the "nickname" of this Long rifle.

The Great Wagon Road was a bustling frontier thoroughfare, and Long rifle shops traced this same route - from eastern Pennsylvania, down the Shenandoah Valley, and spilling into both the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and the Yadkin River area of North Carolina.

In that war, the long rifle gained its nickname the Kentucky Rifle, after a popular song "The Hunters of Kentucky, " about Andrew Jackson and his victory at the Battle of New Orleans.

The plains rifle combined accuracy with portability in a more compact package than the extreme long guns from which it had evolved.

The Hawken rifle evolved from the long rifle for use against larger, more dangerous game encountered in the American West.

Artistically, the long rifle is known for its graceful stock, often made of curly maple, and its ornate decoration, decorative inlays, and an integral, well-made patch box that was built into the stock.

Long rifle is said by modern experts to have a range of 80 to 100 yards for the average user.

Dueling pistol sets in the long rifle style were made, sometimes in a cased set, for wealthy gentlemen.