December71919 
645 
R E S T A’ N D STREAM 
'exactly fit the snoulder, not just a half 
round as in modern “Swiss” butts, not 
at all bald flat, as with many of our mili- 
tary rifles and their sporting copies. In 
the stock is a patch pocket of chased 
steel, the cover 1% inches wide by 4% 
inches long, holding two hundred round 
patches of waxed linen, very tough and 
thin, and about % inch diameter. On the 
Inside of the stock is a cheek piece 5 
Inches long, 2% inches from the butt and 
thinning away to the tang, which tang has 
no pistol grip but is well checked. The 
breech block screws into the end of the 
barrel, and carries a percussion nipple 
and a square projection on its rear end, 
which fits into a recess in the stock, of 
plate steel. Two lugs, on the under side 
of the barrel, are engaged by rectangular 
German silver bars passing through 
mountings in the fore end, which can be 
pushed out by the thumbnail so that the 
rifle can be dismounted as quickly as one 
takes down a breech loading shot gun. 
The ramrod is of hickory, 31^,4 inches 
long, and is tapered from the top end to 
about 3-16 inch diameter at the lower end, 
where it terminates in a steel screw 
socket, which carries a worm for swab- 
bing out the barrel. The rod is stained 
dark red and polished, and is shod at the 
big end with a collar of German silver. 
The rifle shoots 65-round balls to the 
pound, and uses I”! drams of powder per 
charge. 1\'e set out with two of these old 
rifles, almost identical in design, the 
Tryon, and a Krider. Simon carried a 
small, flat, white powder horn, with a 
snap measure and brass base. It held 
about forty charges of powder. To load, 
after the powder charge is poured in, the 
butt of the rifle is rested across one’s moc- 
casin to keep it from being scratched and 
soiled, and a patch is taken out of the 
butt pocket and centered over the muzzle. 
The round ball is next put in place, with 
the casting tit facing up. It is then 
started down the bore with a small 
wooden bullet starter, a short stick of 
black walnut, with a round ball at the 
upper end to take the blow of one’s palm. 
The bullet can, of course, be started with 
the ramrod, but it is rather more awk- 
ward. After driving in with the starter, 
the ramrod comes into play and the bul- 
let is forced down with one stroke, or else 
with a series of shoves if the rifleman is 
not strong enough, and then the bullet is 
driven home on the powder. When the 
ramrod bounces out an inch or so, it is 
home, and this generally occurs at the 
third blow. Do not seat too hard, lest 
you flatten the bullet. A percussion cap 
is then put on, and the rifle is ready. 
N aturally I concluded from the 
performance of such rifles as our 
I modern .44 calibre and .32-20 black 
powder, with their 3U-iuch mid-range rise 
at 100 yards, that the trajectory of the 
Kentucky rifle would have a high mid- 
range elevation. Such is not the case. 
Testing it out with a rest, I found that 
the rifle hit where held at virtually all 
ranges up to 100 yards. At 50 it made a 
1%-inch group, the shots being one above 
the other in a vertical line, due to slight 
^Yariations in drawing the sights. The 
Comrades three. 
reason for this flat trajectory is the large 
charge of powder, 1% drams, driving a 
round bullet of about 120 grains. Simon 
has made 3%-inch groups, frequently, at 
100 yards with Krider, Tryon, Derringer 
and Piper rifles alike. 
The sights of the old-timer consist of a 
hard brass, long, whaleback, front sight, 
mounted on a movable slot, and a steel 
V-notch bar sight, placed well forward 
on the barrel sixteen inches from the 
eye. The focus of both sights and the 
mark are remarkably clear, and the rifle 
hits were held when the point of the front 
sight cone is level with the bar of the V. 
The rear end of the front sight slants 
back, so as to reflect overhead light back 
into the eye, and a bright bead shows at 
the top of its cone. It does not shoot off 
the light, but it does show one side of the 
cone dark and the other light, in cross 
sunlight, which is apt to fool the begin- 
ner. Naturally the personal equation of 
such a sight is high, one man shooting 
low and the other high with the same 
holding, but it gives very fine definition 
on dim marks, such as game or a small, 
weathered block of driftwood, set up on 
a rusty bar sticking up out of a wreck, 
which was one of our marks. A worse 
sight, for a white paper target with a 
black bull, could hardly be imagined. A 
faint luminosity seems to edge the front 
sight, making it stand out sharp on dim 
marks, but when held on white paper, 
even at thirty-five yards, the mirage was 
so strong that the bull seemed to roll 
over the sight, and again it would disap- 
pear altogether in a swirl of air current 
through which one could not see. This 
was in rest shooting, when the sights 
hung perfectly still under the bull and 
it seemed to move. But, for game it made 
a fine sight combination, and a mark like 
a bobbing tin can on the waves could be 
picked up quickly and showed well. I 
personally found I did best when I held 
well under and fired as the can slid down 
a wave onto the sights. 
After each shot Monsieur Simon swab- 
bed out the barrel with a rag on a worm, 
which he kept in his pocket and screwed 
into the small end of the ramrod when 
used. We had several pleasant after- 
noons shooting a match with the old 
rifles, more fun and far less expensive 
than a like holiday with the modern rifle, 
for there was time between hits, when 
loading, in which to chat and yarn over 
hunting experiences, and, once loaded, 
you were careful to do your very best with 
the one shot that you had at command. 
And, a finer shooting, more accurate tool 
I never used on a mark, than these prod- 
ucts of the gunsmiths of the great game 
hunting epoch of our country. 
After the match, the rifles were taken 
home and cleaned. This was no longer a 
process than one would take with a 
breech loader. In a few moments the bar- 
rel was off, simply pushing out the hold- 
ing bolts under the barrel in the for© 
end. A can was filled with hot water, and 
the barrel set in it, nipple end down. A 
rag on a cleaning rod made a sort of pump 
plunger when run down the barrel, and, 
after a few vigorous strokes, black clouds 
of water shot out of the nipple. The bar- 
ffhe tools of the pioneer — rifle, pistol, wd powder honx. 
