Last of the Mohicans

[TheWall]

I just started reading James Fennimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" -- I had read it as a teenager, so it's been a while.

I was wondering what kind of rifle Hawkeye would have likely employed. In other words, what rifle would a backwoodsman have used in Colonial America circa 1757?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[ArmedBear]

AFAIK, what is commonly known as a Pennsylvania longrifle.

The movie was probably pretty accurate. A rifle was commissioned for it. For a while, a craftsman or two would make one for you, but it appears they have quit making Killdeer.

This guy made the one in the movie: http://www.waynepwatson.com/index.html

See also: http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo10015.html

It would have been a fullstock flintlock, with a barrel 42" - 46" long. Something like this, maybe:

Killdeer was a gift, so it was probably more ornate than Natty's first rifle (given to Uncas at the end of LotM).

See http://www.longrifle.ws/

 

[nicholst55]

Actually, probably something more like this:



This is an Edward Marshall-style 'transitional' rifle, popular during the 1750s. This was when rifles were transitioning from the German Jaeger-style rifles, to what would ultimately become the Pennsylvania rifle. Barrels were shorter, around 37", and calibers tended to be larger - around .50 or larger. Many PA rifles were in medium bore calibers like .36-.44 or .45.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Remember that the American longrifle was evolving from the German Jager of the period. It would have been bigger bore than the Revolutionary War rifle, somewhat shorter barrel and with a flatter buttplate, somewhat akin to the military buttplate. The crescent shaped buttplates really started becoming used sometime after the Revolution. George Shumway has a 2 volume set on the American Rifle of the Colonial Period.