Howdy all! Well it was another great week at the auctions. In addition to 6 unopened collectable Jim Beam bottles, (I have no problem drinking some dead guys whiskey) I found a new deer rifle.
It’s a 50-caliber flintlock. With a 39-inch barrel, and a much better than average piece of curly maple, I knew it was a nice gun. Although I had never heard of the gun maker, “Hatfield” (That is name stamped on the lock and barrel.) I bid on it and won.
The barrel is stamped in very small letters, “50 Cal. For Black Powder Only”. Other than that and the name “Hatfield” there are no proof marks, serial numbers or anything else.
When I got it home and looked up Hatfield flintlock rifles on the Internet, I was pleasantly surprised!
It seems the gun was made sometime around 1980 by Ted Hatfield. Ted started a small gun making business in St. Joseph, Missouri. The guns that he made were a close copy of guns made by his Great-Great Grandfather, Moses Hatfield… The Moses Hatfield of the famous “Hatfield and McCoy” feud.
Somewhere down the line, “Missouri River Rifle Works” bought out Ted Hatfield’s business and the rifles were no longer marked with his name. So it is an interesting early piece.
The rifle with the Hatfield at the bottom of the photo is an 1864 Springfield .58 cal Civil War musket. You can see the Hatfield is nearly as big!
If you see any McCoy deer… Tell them I’ll be in the woods waiting for them!
