Which long gun for fireplace décor?

[BlueHeelerFl]

So...I have a traditional mason fireplace with stonework facade and wood beam mantle. The stonework is flanked by shiplap wood paneling (vertical) with a medium-dark stain. (So that will be the back drop behind the displayed long gun.

What is going to be the right long gun to display over that mantle that will evoke the spirit of America (and of Alaska)? I could go with any of my vintage Winchesters, but, to be honest, I don't want them left out to be stolen; I'm more interested in a reproduction that I might artificially age to give it that antique look. I'm thinking about some sort of flintlock or percussion rifle or musket, but a SxS or lever gun might work, too.

What are your thoughts?

PS: I also plan to display a white tail 9 pt rack (antlers only, with velvet over the skull cap) immediately above or below said long gun.

I like your idea.

I actually did something similar. I had a nice glass door gun rack that was tucked away unused. I moved it to my living room and put my broken Marlin M60 in the case so I'll finally have something to look at.

The working parts are not in the gun, so it's just a nice looking wall decoration right now

 

[theotherwaldo]

The options are endless.
For example, I've got a dummy Remington 700 with no moving parts, an original stock, a plastic barrel and receiver and chromed bolt that I kept on display by the front door for sucker bait... until I realized what a wonderful club it would make for an intruder .

 

[wally]

So...I have a traditional mason fireplace with stonework facade and wood beam mantle. The stonework is flanked by shiplap wood paneling (vertical) with a medium-dark stain. (So that will be the back drop behind the displayed long gun.

What is going to be the right long gun to display over that mantle that will evoke the spirit of America (and of Alaska)?
What are your thoughts?

Unless you expect you most of your visitors to be firearms and history nit-pickers, I'd go with a reproduction flint-lock Blunderbuss. Cool looking and is (incorrectly) associated with the Pilgrims in the popular psyche.

Heck our shooting club logo is a guy in knights armor holding a blunderbuss, they certainly knew better in 1966 when the club was founded, but it looks pretty cool and kind of epitomizes generic firearms in the public's mind.

 

[Kleanbore]

'd go with a reproduction flint-lock Blunderbuss.

A short range defensive weapon to evoke the spirit of an Alaska that was wilderness and where the taking of game was the main objective?

It sure wouldn't fir with the wood stove.

 

[AMraider]

This a movie prop from the TV series "Sleepy Hollow" which aired for 3 seasons. 2 seasons too long IMHO. I picked it up at auction for $50 with authenticity papers. Built or sold by Denix Reproductions in Spain. Up close it is kind of cheesy but from a short distance it looks pretty good and if it gets stolen...who cares.

 

[P5 Guy]

An Arisaka type 38 or 99?

 

[D.B. Cooper]

This a movie prop from the TV series "Sleepy Hollow" which aired for 3 seasons. 2 seasons too long IMHO.

Three seasons too long.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

An Arisaka type 38 or 99?

Such a gun, especially if it had a verifiable Alaska provenance (e.g. captured at the battle for Attu Island/brought back by one of Castner's Cutthoats, etc.) would be pretty cool, and I'd throw out my my more traditional ideas for that, but such a rifle would be prohibitively expensive, at least to the point that one wouldn't want to leave it hanging on the wall. Also, such a gun really should be in the Anchorage Museum rather than on my wall.

 

[herrwalther]

Being in Alaska, something useful in a pinch while traditional would be what I would recommend. Maybe a modern muzzleloader like the model 700 UM.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Being in Alaska, something useful in a pinch while traditional would be what I would recommend. Maybe a modern muzzleloader like the model 700 UM.

I've got "useful in a pinch" covered. Besides, I'm not sure how much even a "modern" muzzleloader would be up here. We don't even have a muzzleloader or primitive weapon hunting season up here. The average distance at which I take caribou is 200 yrds. (Although I hear most folks take moose at much shorter ranges.)

 

[Hokkmike]

So...I have a traditional mason fireplace with stonework facade and wood beam mantle. The stonework is flanked by shiplap wood paneling (vertical) with a medium-dark stain. (So that will be the back drop behind the displayed long gun.

What is going to be the right long gun to display over that mantle that will evoke the spirit of America (and of Alaska)? I could go with any of my vintage Winchesters, but, to be honest, I don't want them left out to be stolen; I'm more interested in a reproduction that I might artificially age to give it that antique look. I'm thinking about some sort of flintlock or percussion rifle or musket, but a SxS or lever gun might work, too.

What are your thoughts?

PS: I also plan to display a white tail 9 pt rack (antlers only, with velvet over the skull cap) immediately above or below said long gun.

Saw a nice Confederate States marked Civil War rifle for $1,600 at a Maryland gun shop. I deal for display - not for shooting. Pricey - but worth it to the right person.

 

[Iggy]

Not abpve the fireplace.. On the wall in the office..

Northwest Trade gun and assorted other mountain man accoutrements.

This painting,IN THE VALLEY OF THE TETONS is over the fireplace.

 

[Kevin Rohrer]

So...I have a traditional mason fireplace with stonework facade and wood beam mantle. The stonework is flanked by shiplap wood paneling (vertical) with a medium-dark stain. (So that will be the back drop behind the displayed long gun.

What is going to be the right long gun to display over that mantle that will evoke the spirit of America (and of Alaska)? I could go with any of my vintage Winchesters, but, to be honest, I don't want them left out to be stolen; I'm more interested in a reproduction that I might artificially age to give it that antique look. I'm thinking about some sort of flintlock or percussion rifle or musket, but a SxS or lever gun might work, too.

What are your thoughts?

I would not hang a gun over a fireplace if fires are burnt there, unless it would be removed first. As I have fires in my fireplace each winter, my wallhanger goes over the entrance-way to the front door.

This is a Pedersoli, 1765 (?) model Brown Bess Short Land-Pattern, which was a common firearm seen in American homes from the American Revolution onward.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Not abpve the fireplace.. On the wall in the office...Northwest Trade gun and assorted other mountain man accoutrements.

I saw the picture before I saw your description and thought "Dang that looks like a trade gun from the French and Indian War."

 

[Iggy]

Yup, one of the last ones Curly Gustomski built.

 

[Kleanbore]

Flintlocks in Alaska? Darn few.

"Russian America", as it was called, was essentially a fur trading resource. Don't visualize Russians hunting seals--they preferred to let, or force, the indigenous peoples to do that for them.

Don't imagine any significant numbers of Russian "mountain men". The Russian presence was largely coastal--theirs was a maritime mercantile enterprise, along the mainland and in the Aleutians.

American sea-going traders competed with the Russians for the fur trade. The US acquired Alaska, in 1867, after the Civil War. Americans started trickling in very small numbers starting then.

The influx dame with the gold rush, at the end of the 19th century. Firearms brought in would have been American--rifles and shotguns, breechloading, single shot and repeating.

Just a little timeline perspective.....

 

[theotherwaldo]

-Don't forget the trade guns... .

 

[Kleanbore]

-Don't forget the trade guns... .

The Alaskan natives did acquire some smoothbore muskets, both flint and percussion, from Hudson's Bay Company.

The ydid so to defend their villages from attacking Russians.

They were short range weapons that were not very useful in the taking of game.

I suppose it is possible that a post-gold-rush American might have kept one near his wood stove just for grins, had he come upon one.

More likely, I would think, would be something more useful.