Gunsmith

No, we make all the parts: lock, stock, and barrel. The term “smith” in our trade name indicates shaping the iron and steel parts by hammering. Gunsmiths of the period sometimes advertised that they were gunsmiths and brass founders. They may have been the only trade in a town that poured high temperature metal.

It was not possible to drill the hole in a gun barrel until the mid-19th century. The barrel was made by welding a flat bar into a seamless tube. The resulting rough undersized bore was enlarged and smoothed with boring bits of increasing size.

The first sketchy evidence for cutting spiral grooves in a barrel to spin the bullet is from the 1470’s. There is firm evidence by 1500. Rifles in Colonial America are part of the culture of the backwoods and frontier because of big game hunting. Rifles lack the versatility for predator and pest control on a farm. Fowling pieces are the dominant firearm of the front country.