Revisiting My Original “First Time” Carvings and Brass Inlays, I believe there is nostalgic beauty in Rococo floral carvings in Pennsylvania Flintlock Rifles of the Revolutionary War era by Lancaster Counties Jacob Dickert.
I earnestly desired to build my own flintlock rifle several years ago and was quite successful. Maybe you can too!
I used Jim Chambers Flintlock kits with a premium curly maple stock to begin my Flintlock build. These kits look like ABC and voila you have a flintlock? Not a chance! You will have to earn it!
I went on-line and researched chisels and studied sharpening and chisel techniques.
The opportunities to make chisel cut mistakes abound, yet I persevered to put chisel and hammer to wood. Chisel Fitting the 43 inch barrel, trigger, trigger guard and lock to the stock needs another article.
Below is my first and only Rococo C scroll carving on raw wood. I made a template from drawings of Jacob Dickert 1770’s flintlock rifles, then put chisel to wood.
Below is my first Rococo C Scroll Jacob Dickert made on his era rifles. “Not half bad”, I thought.
At the tang below, I added this Jacob Dickert floral design.
To be sure, I was and still am a novice at carving but for me, I was “pleased as punch” for a first. My success asked for more carving however I stopped scroll carving and began to chisel and inlay my already assembled daisy brass patch box and other brass lock plate and brass star accoutrements. I purchases and fitted a second brass patch box, as I damaged the first one and used inappropriate oversize mounting screws. Drilling the big holes in the stock below was a bit scary.
In fact, I sent the brass to an hand engraver familiar with the Jacob Dickert’s work to engrave as Dickert would have done for a top-of-the-line Flintlock. Below is the engraved and inlayed patch box. Can you say stunning!
Below, the engraved Lock Plate!
My finished rifle below and it shoots very well.
Just recently, I took my Pennsylvania Flintlock to Pennsylvania to hunt Red Stag with patch and round ball. A doe below taken at 65 yards, full penetration and exited the offside shoulder. She fell in a few yards.
Why make an authentic Lancaster County Pennsylvania Rifle from a kit? The word Kit, some would infer, that it is a cheap knock off, and easy to put together. Nothing could be further from the truth as it pertains to authentic Pennsylvania Flintlock Rifles. Today’s kits are made of the finest woods, finest barrels and as accurate as all get out! Really!! To my eye, the Lancaster County Rifles from original makers such as Jacob Dickert and Isaac Haines among others are a thing of functional beauty. I built my rifle from a Jim Chambers Ltd Lancaster Rifle Kit with Tiger Maple stock, Siler Lock, 44 inch Rice Swamp Barrel. The kit looks like this… Granted the stock looks like it is ready for parts to be dropped in but its not. The stock is roughed out and the brass is sand cast with cast marks. Every part must be inlayed or chiseled into the stock.
A good kit will cost only around $1000 dollars like mine. But you will need an array of hand tools and carving chisels and sand paper that can run in $200 dollars or so. I know that is a lot of money but they don’t come cheap.
I am a student of history, In particular the American Revolution and the Pennsylvania Rifle was a key part of winning the Revolution because it had a rifled barrel and longer range. The Pennsylvania rifle, some know as the Kentucky Rifle was not as easy to load as the smooth bore Brown Bess musket (or French made Charleville). Bess had accuracy good to 50 yards but not much more. The Pennsylvania rifle earned its keep on the frontier for accurately dispatching wild game and as a sniper rifle at long distances to 200 or more yards in the hands of a Marksman.
Men like General Daniel Morgan and Morgan’s Rifleman were hired for their skill as woodsman and crack shots at long ranges. One such hero under Morgan was Tim Murphy who during the battle of Saratoga took out a horse riding British General beyond 200 yards, some say 300 yards.
The patch box on the stock was often made of wood however upscale Lancaster Pennsylvania models were lavishly embellished with brass and often a signature of its maker. My patch box below.
But if you want to purchase an authentic Pennsylvania rifle (not the kit) the cost can be significant. Often prices are in the $3000 to $5000 range. The art work is spectacular! See the brass patch-box below from this John Bivins Style Flintlock. http://www.custommuzzleloaders.com/bivins.html
I think the hardest part of making a Pennsylvania Flintlock rifle given that the barrel and lock is roughed-in already , is carving the stock and in-letting the barrel into the stock. Today’s kits have roughed-in the stock too so that this major hurdle is lessened to a great degree. If you are not good with your hands though, I do not recommend building from a kit. Trust me, it is not easy and it is fraught with danger of major errors using chisels to inlet the stock for barrel and trigger assembly. But if you are good with your hands, then this rifle can be your signature work to pass on.
My Jacob Dickert brass patchbox below was purchased with the daisy elsewhere. I spent hours just to cut, drill and chisel to inlay the patchbox flush with the wood, create the spring door lid.
I liked my finish inlay work so much that I hired a master engraver to copy Dickert’s design seen far below for the box and lock side plate.
Below is my first ever novice attempt at carving a double Rococo C scroll as Dickert would have done, before staining. I was very happy with it!
Below is the Dickert Floral I also carved at the Tang.
Watch the Sparks Fly from this Flintlock below. My slow motion clip displays the spark power to ignite the charge in the pan.
To make your build easier, better kits come with a DVD and take you step by step though the process. I needed the DVD, It was excellent.
Well, 3 years ago the Lancaster Kit below with tiger maple cost 950.00 The master engraving on the box and side plate cost me $300 more.
It took me more than 100 hours to carve, cut, and fit and stain, perhaps nearer to 150 hours. Thank God it shoots really well after all that effort!
Yesterday I took my rifle to the range and shot close range, to 25 yards. It was fun. See below. Shot number 1 Upper Hit clipped the dead center box. Shot number 2 lower right was nearly in the same spot. Shot number 3 was a off to the right a bit but I think that was me and not the rifle. I use 70 grains FFG powder and there is very little recoil. I was very pleased with the accuracy check.
My Jacob Dickert Lancaster Pennsylvania Flintlock shoots flat to 75 yards and drops a few inches at 100 yards and 16 inches at 150 yards with 90 grains of FFG powder. For deer, I will stay within the 75 yards.
Recently, November 12, 2025 I harvested a Red Stag Doe at 65 to 70 yards and got full penetration/exit with a 490 inch patched round ball and 100g FFG. Nice!
The ubiquitous Flash-in-the-pan or No-Flash-in-the-pan was coined perhaps around the time of the American Revolution or likely earlier. For me, as a hunter, this is intolerable. Here in New Hampshire, Deer are not as plentiful as our southeastern states, so having a flash- in-the-pan no fires in the deer woods is no fun!
But it need not be so!
My fix was simple after tons of internet research, changing my flint grip from leather to lead helped but it was to drill the touch hole to 1/16 inch or 0.0625. This is slightly larger than the original touch hole. See the website below. Also do not cover the touch hole with priming powder! My shot groups at 75 yards are around 4 inches with open sights. I don’t expect to exceed 50 yard in the local deer woods but a steady rest bipod or tree branch will help.
My Flintlock (Cricket) is a true Lancaster Pennsylvania Rifle of Jacob Dickert fame, some call it the Kentucky Rifle of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett fame.
Here, after a shot it looks a bit dirty, like this but you can see the touch hole larger to 1/16 inch which appears to have cured the ignition problem. Others instruct to run a spit (spit saliva) patch after each shot and then a clean patch. That works for me. Black powder residue is very dirty and cruddy but works the best in a Flintlock and patched round ball. Save the Pyrodex for your in-line muzzleloader.
I built this rifle from a very high end kit from Jim Chambers Flintlocks Ltd. My Flintlock came with a threaded device called a threaded touch hole liner and named White Lightnin’ to improve ignition by which the flash of powder in the pan would ignite the main charge in the barrel. The original hole itself is smaller than 1/16 of an inch.
My Flintlock is basically new (70 rounds fired) and had as many ignitions as I did of flash pan misfires. Cleaning the barrel and vent hole was done at every shot and even then had misfires. If the hole itself if not placed correctly with the pan, it is a problem but can be resolved. My touch hole was placed correctly, as far as I can tell but still misfired so I drilled the hole to 1/16 inch and basically cured the ignition problem to a large extent. Every rifle is different. Some experts open the hole right away to 1/16 inch others shoot it till it widens over time. As a deer hunter I want it all the time. The touch hole can be opened further, see the website above but if too large will cause loss of pressure and slower ignition time, delaying the ignition. The great thing with a touch hole liner is that it can be replaced.
I am fascinated by the stories of the American Revolution and the rise of the common man to greatness in the face of Tyranny at that time. Perhaps you are as well!!
It was my undertaking to build a 1770 Revolutionary War Flintlock Rifle that I learned about Tim Murphy (1751 – 1818) and his marksman skills that aided greatly in winning the War.
Born in 1751 near Delaware Water Gap in northern Pennsylvania, Tim and his family relocated to Wyoming Valley of Northeast Pennsylvania now known as Scranton-Wilkes Barre metropolitan area, then it was frontier says the below website. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Murphy_(sniper)
On June 29, 1775, Timothy Murphy enlisted in the Northumberland County Riflemen, as part of Captain John Lowdon’s Company. This was a prestigious and select outfit of marksmen who had to prove themselves capable of long range shooting with a Pennsylvania flintlock rifle, patch and ball out to 250 yards.
According to accounts, To qualify, Murphy had to fire his Pennsylvania Flintlock Long-Rifle and repeatedly score hits on a seven inch target at 250 yards. Capt. Lowdon’s men and others were ordered to march to Boston under the command of Daniel Morgan, a legendary officer who again was pulled from the common men of the time. Morgan was a large man with “thick broad shoulders and arms like tree trunks” and a marksman in his own right (another story).
The men under command of Morgan were called Morgan’s Rifleman. They marched 600 miles to the Siege of Boston in 21 days. The Siege began on April 19th 1775 where New England Militiamen, some my cousins, and Morgans Rifleman and snipers like Tim Murphy boxed in the British Army in Boston forcing them to depart by ship to Nova Scotia where the British military were headquartered.
It was shortly after when Tim was ordered as part of Morgans Rifleman to march north to find General Burgoyne’s troops and snipe British artillery officers and gunners so successfully that they were ineffective at best at the first Battle of Saratoga. The followup, called the second Battle of Saratoga, equally call the Battle of Bemis Heights where Major General Benedict Arnold fearing a British flanking maneuver galloped up to Morgan and said that the British General Fraser, on horseback, was “worth an entire regiment.” Morgan then called for Sergeant Timothy Murphy, his finest sharpshooter (sniper) to climb a tree and kill the General from 300 yards, and some say as far as 500 yards, though 300 sounds more plausible. Shortly Fraser’s aide-de- camp would fall to Tim’s exacting fire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Murphy_(sniper) quote; “Morgan called on Murphy and said: “That gallant officer is General Fraser. I admire him, but it is necessary that he should die, do your duty.” Murphy scaled a nearby tree, took careful aim at the extreme distance of 300 yards, and fired four times. The first shot was a close miss, the second grazed the General’s horse, and with the third, Fraser tumbled from his horse, shot through the stomach. General Fraser died that night. British Senior officer Sir Francis Clerke, General Burgoyne’s chief aide-de-camp, galloped onto the field with a message. Murphy’s fourth shot killed him instantly. Murphy also fought at the battle of the Middle Fort in 1780.)
Murphy, according to this fascinating article states https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/4786 that Murphy continued fighting until the very end of the war. Further it quotes that; “He spent the winter of 1777-78 with the Continental Army at Valley Forge and survived the arctic temperatures and near- starvation of that winter camp.” In the spring, Murphy led small parties of rifleman in harassing attacks on British troops withdrawing from Philadelphia. Murphy’s crack shots dropped British soldiers from great distances and spread panic through the ranks.”
More on Tim and his Revolutionary sniper legacy. Photo from Wikipedia.
I thought this man, Tim Murphy, embodied each of us as the common mans Call to Duty for Freedom and worthy of your knowledge of him.
The Pennsylvania Rifle with its unique spiral grooves, called rifling, has been credited with being an essential firearm in winning the American Revolution. Without this rifle in the Battle of Saratoga, and many other battles, we would have been forced to play on a level playing field with superior British forces in a toe to toe battle and surely lost.
Elegant Brass Daisy Patch Box – with original Dickert Engraving pattern by a master engraver.
Engraved Brass side plate completed by a master engraver – side plate used to hold the lock in place. Note the original trigger design
Double C Scroll Carving in Dickert style above and floral below. Not bad for my first try with new hand carving tools.
42 inch “Swamp” Barrel – thicker at each end and thinner in the middle.
The first known Pennsylvania Rifle, also known much later as the Kentucky Rifle used to settle Kentucky, with spiral grooves in the bore, was created by Martin Mylin (1690-1749) in the year of our Lord 1705 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. All guns in the 13 Colonies of that period before 1705 were smooth-bore muskets where the projectile, a round lead ball, did not spin. Accuracy of the musket beyond 50 yards was a hit or miss proposition, pardon the pun, but could be easily reloaded. The rifle on the other hand had accuracy far beyond the musket, out to more than 200 to 300 yards in expert hands, but was more difficult to reload. Each of them, the rifle and musket had earned a place in battle.
The Pennsylvania Rifle, with its 42 inch rifled barrel, an excellent long range hunting rifle, was in fact, our first American Revolution – Sniper Rifle.
To a large degree in particular, a now legendary German Immigrant named Jacob Dickert of Lancaster, Pennsylvania created the most quantity and quality of these rifles in the 1770’s and 1780’s under contract to the Continental Congress.
Above is an exactly carved and fitted 50 caliber working replica of the famed Jacob Dickert Rifle build by Edward R. Hale – Member New Hampshire Sons of the American Revolution, and will be on Display this July 2018 at the American History Museum in Exeter, New Hampshire.
The rifle is based on a custom Lancaster Rifle kit from “Chambers Flintlocks Ltd.” and took over 100 hours for Mr. Hale to create. The barrel exterior in its final assembly phase was intentionally rusted and polished to give an antique patina as it would have been seen in the 1770’s. An exact model such as this was created by Dickert for Col. David Crockett.
French and Indian War
The Pennsylvania Rifles first use in the America’s was in the “French and Indian War” also known as the “Seven Years War” (1756-1763). Our American Revolution leaders such as General George Washington and many other leaders in the 13 Colonies fought in the “French and Indian War” and had knowledge of the Pennsylvania Rifle as a long range weapon that could take out the enemy from behind trees and rocks from long range by sniping enemy officers and American Indian scouts.
Siege of Boston
This rifle made its debut in the American Revolution at Boston where legendary General Daniel Morgan, appointed by General George Washington marched 600 miles with his contingent of Morgans Rifleman to fight alongside the Minutemen. They laughed at the Pennsylvania rifle when they saw that it had no bayonet. But the Minutemen leadership paid attention when Morgans Rifleman, perhaps such as private Tim Murphy gave a marksman demonstration at 200 yards or more. It has been said by some accounts of Tim Murphy that to qualify to be a rifleman he had to fire and repeatedly hitting a 7 inch target at 250 yards.
Battle of Saratoga
It was during the Battle of Saratoga that General Morgan had his best marksman, Tim Murphy, climb a tree and shoot British General Simon Fraser off his horse from 300 and other accounts say 500 yards. Murphy is said to have rested his rifle in a notch on a branch, and adjusted for wind and elevation and fired. Other accounts say it took more than one shot, never the less Fraser fell at the shot and was mortally wounded thus ending the flanking movement that the British desired. We won the battle and without this rifle and marksmen we would have surely lost.
There were many other battles such as the “Battle of the Cowpen’s” where the Pennsylvania Rifle won the day with leadership of General Morgan and marksmen like Tim Murphy so numerous that you can take a few days of reading just to catch up on how guerrilla warfare and the Pennsylvania Rifle won the day.
In my research on the Pennsylvania/Kentucky Rifle, (America’s first Sniper Rifle) I learned that Continental Congress leaders learned warfare tactics by Native Indians et. al. during the French and Indian war of 1756 also known in Europe as the Seven Years War.
“Riflemen played an important role in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, wars characterized by irregular combat in woodland battlefields. By the eve of the latter conflict, several patriot leaders believed that American woodsmen armed with Pennsylvania Rifles could easily defeat stodgy, musket-wielding redcoats. In 1775 George Washington recruited rifle companies as the core of his new Continental Army. The Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment and units from southern colonies answered the call.”
The British had the 13 colonies and wanted expand north and west. The French had Canadian land in Quebec and wanted to expand south and west. It was the native Indians of different tribes that aided both sides in battle.
It was George Washington who learned battle tactics during this time frame.
And in New Hampshire, General John Stark learned his new colonial battle tactics under the New Hampshire Provincial Regiment led by Colonel Nathaniel Meserve under British leadership in the French and Indian War as well.
Accordingly, the British won the French and Indian war and concluded with the Treaty of Paris but because Britain’s Secretary of State William Pitt who managed the money, borrowed heavily to win. Accordingly the British taxed the colonist’s too heavily for it and resulted in rebellion. Thus making British leadership and its military unwelcome in the colonies and itching for a Revolution to kick the British and its King George driven monarchy out.
Meanwhile, the German trained, Pennsylvania gunsmiths such as Jacob Dickert, were busy making the Pennsylvania Rifle many know as the Kentucky Rifle (to settle Kentucky) with grooves (called rifling) in the barrel to spin the bullet. Thus making that rifle a superb long range rifle, out to 300 yards, in the hands of a marksman, hunter or soldier. General Washington created Rifle Regiments…and Brigadier General Daniel Morgan
A master of the Pennsylvania Rifle and one the most brilliant battlefield tacticians of the Revolution and trusted by General Washington.
And today we get to honor those men and reenact with that Rifle and Hunt with it.
My rifle article has the shooting world by the tail and read by tens of thousands around the world from New England to Alaska, and in South Africa. They just can’t get enough of it!!.
The first rifles of the American Revolution were made in Pennsylvania by Swiss and German immigrant gunsmiths based on a German hunting weapon. The most prolific of these gunsmiths was Jacob Dickertborn in Europe and built these rifles in Pennsylvania. The barrel usually 45 and 50 caliber (1/2 inch) and over 40 inches in length was grooved (rifled) to impart spin to the ball as it left the barrel and was far superior in accuracy to the Brown Bess below in long range accuracy.
The Brown Bess musket was first imported from Europe, a smoothbore (no rifling) of .75 caliber (3/4 inch) which was used by local settlers and militia men in New England. The Brown Bess could be fitted with a bayonette and was good in traditional head to head battles of short range but it was the Pennsylvania rifle and guerilla tactics that won the war.
These are, I believe, “the first snipers” and armed with the Pennsylvania Rifle, originally made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and vicinity.
The above rifle is a replica of the Lancaster style Jacob Dickert Pennylvania Rifle recently this reproduction in kit as a Lancaster Rifle by Jim Chambers Flintlocks LTD of North Carolina was purchased and built by yours truly. The daisy patchbox was engraved by a master engraver using a Dickert design. This is one of America’s first Sniper Rifles and used to provide game and to later settle Kentucky. I will use it to deer hunt and do reenactments.
Recorded in the article, The Rifle in the American Revolutionby John W. Wright states in the American Historical Review of 1924 vol. 29, no.2 that “the best American Rifleman (sniper) could, in a good light and with no wind, hit a mans head at 200 yards and his body at 300. We are told that the rifleman (Morgan’s Rifleman) when they joined the army near Boston in August 1775, gave an exhibition, in which a company on a quick advance, placed their shots in seven-inch targets at 250 yards. It was during the battle of Saratoga where General Morgan and his rifleman ended the war by sniping the native Indian scouts and British officers in the Battle of Saratoga. The British soldiers were left leaderless and without scouts, they were lost. In the battle of Saratoga below, the British lost 1000 men and the Continental Army lost only half.
“From the 1760s, Jacob Dickert and others were known both as a military contractors but Dickert more than others perhaps earned more respect as a Lancaster County gun maker. As an arms contractor to the Continental Army and for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, he made and sold rifles to the government, and repaired muskets and other firearms. http://www.customflintlock.com/dickert_history.php
An unnamed military writer in 1811 said “where the musket ends, the rifle begins”.
The History Channel you tube clip goes on to further document in other you tubes the total Battle of Saratoga and is very much worth your time.
Ed’s 50 Cal Flintlock Build. Note the Tiger Maple stock.
Some of us know the rifle as the Kentucky Rifle built in Lancaster Pennsylvania and surrounding towns by German Immigrants like Jacob Dickert for those mountain men aiming to settle Kentucky. The rifled barrel is 44 inches long, made famous by David Crockett and Daniel Boone. It is the first long range rifle with rifling in its bore to accurize and spin a bullet fast enough to stabilize it in flight. The rifle was made for hunting! In the right hands it was an essential part of winning battles in the American Revolution and our first sniper rifle seen here in the Battle of Saratoga at a range of 250 to 300 yards.
It was a proven performer for mountain men hunting game before its service in the American Revolution and a thing of beauty and balance when carved and shot.
I don’t have a forge and foundry nor a lot of exquisite Tiger maple, but there are, I have discovered, a dedicated group of folks who are craftsmen at forging the authentic locks, stocks, and rifled barrels for this flintlock rifle. The rifle, as I said, is basically a diamond in the rough.
A high end craft kit can run from say $900 and up. I have pulled the ticket on my bucket list to make one of these at the higher end out of the finest curly maple. My kit from Jim Chambers cost is $1200. Crazy Huh! I have to be out of my mind! Right? Maybe so, we shall see. http://www.flintlocks.com/
It has not arrived and will not for a few weeks. Some of my skills are there already. I have made queen pencil post bed out of solid cherry from scratch and did the mortise and tenon by hand with a chisel and I have made several self-bows of Osage and Hickory so I have the basic shaping skills except for wood carving, and brass inlay.
My first job is to inspect and verify the parts are correct as ordered. Second is to realize that the build of this rifle will take around 100 hours or so and to plan lots of time alone in my workshop.
I have a video coming and will purchase another video soon. One of the best books to purchase they tell me is entitled “The Gunsmith of Grenville County” by Peter A. Alexander. I received it yesterday and am very pleased with it.
A well built flintlock of highest quality can be worth thousands of dollars. I just want one made by yours truly. I will report back when I receive and inspect my purchase. If all is in order I will proceed and when finished, I will hunt with it and display it on occasion along with the powder horn and pouch I will also create.
Today while we are all going crazy for the next best and greatest rifle to enter the marketplace, there is a quiet following hearkening back to the grace and lines of the Pennsylvania Long Rifle and a resurgent interest in both hunting with them and proudly displaying them as works of art. The word “Rifle” refers to the lands and grooves placed in the barrel to impart spin and stability to the bullet. It was the frontier rifleman that was a key part of the Revolution but could not be the crack shots they were without the inventive engineering of those Pennsylvania German immigrant gunsmiths who understood the physics behind stable bullet flight and repeat accuracy. Armed with hand tools and improvised lathes these craftsmen created a rifle of precision and beauty. The most common calibers were 45 and 50 cal and shot round ball with precision.
There were several Pennsylvania Rifle-makers and one of the best was Jacob Dickert my research tells me.
I am no expert here just a lover of fine craftsmanship and history when I see it.
Jacob Dickert’s Pennsylvania long rifle making was prolific enough as to arm frontiersmen in the American Revolution with many Dickert Long Rifles. It is news to me that he was a Military Contractor to the Continental Army making his famous Dickert Rifle.
A thing of great beauty, isn’t it, but a weapon that could kill out to 250 or more yards in the hands of a crack shot Frontiersman and Continental Army soldier.
“Its nickname was “Kentucky long rifle” and was carried by the “Over Mountain Men,” who most every member of this little army was equipped with a Deckard rifle, a tomahawk, and a scalping knife, in which they were experts. Giving good account of themselves at the battle at King’s Mountain, North Carolina, in which backwoods hunters defeated Major Ferguson’s professional British soldiers. This being a major turning point in the Revolutionary War. Most of these men came mounted and armed with their Deckard rifles and no bayonets. This rifle was to play a significant role in many upcoming battles. The Dickert/Deckard rifle was also used in defense against the Mexican infantry who surprised the outnumbered Texans in a pre-dawn assault against the Alamo fortress walls in 1836 and one is on display in the Long Barracks Museum in San Antonio. It is said that Colonel David Crockett used a Deckard rifle in combat at the battle of the Alamo.” Unquote.
These rifles were great for hunting game like deer and bear as well as making a great squirrel gun. More to come…
