Good point Sean.
Most times however there is some mention of that in the museums information.
So far and granted I have not researched this rifle very far , past what you see here . There is no mention of a conversion. That however doesn’t mean much when you consider also the regularity of museums getting it wrong
Also The possibility of a conversion is a two way street .
While sometimes caplocks were converted to flint . Its far more probable to find a flint that’s converted to cap .
While sometimes that conversion is noticeable by the lock plate on the converted rifle . A quality conversion , done by a gunsmith is not as noticeable / many times taking a hands on approach to even discern the conversion .
Then we run into the same old topic we have had many times before .
HOW PREVILANT WERE PRECUSSION RIFLES PRE 1840.
Comes back to the same things .
Yes there are large amounts of caps showing up on inventory lists . However when you get down to it those numbers are still small
We also can document cap lock pistols . Again relatively small numbers .
The number of accounted for rifles
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I think you see where im going with this .
So why don’t we see more original flint rifles
?
Well for now , we have to speculate .
Myself though I hold the opinion that very few of the original half stock cap locks that survive today , ever saw actual hard use by the trappers we so often attribute them to .
Those we can attribute and connect cap lock rifles two , Bridger , Medina , and the like , are recorded very near that 1840 line .
Then we come down to the Hawkens rifle and its holly grail flintlock half stock .
To assume that the Hawkens Bros. did not produce such a rifle .
The Hawkens produce relatively small numbers of rifles compared to many of the other gun companies out there . They also came from a family line of gunsmiths that date well back into the early 1700’s
So IMO we have to go on the question of why so many Hawkens half stock caplocks
1) eather the cap lock was very prevalent in the pre 1840 dates . In all environments. Of which that’s hard to prove with today records or they were producing rifles for a market where the ignition system was prevalent . Which we can document . IE urban areas
2) the rifles we see are later rifles . Which IMO is more then likely . They system by its very need , has to be re supplied . As times changed and more and more trading posts began to pop up . Those supplies were more readily available .
This also leads us to the 1840 date . What is the 1840 date ?
Simply put nothing more then the date of the last major fur company rendezvous in the rocky mountains.
Its not the end of the fur trade . In fact its not the end of the rendezvous.
What im getting at here is that today we have a tainted picture of what the western trappers actually looked like .
In so many words ist a man with a full beard . Wearing a big skin hat , holding a half stock percussion rifle . And sitting atop a fine horse .
that’s a picture painted by dime store novels and Hollywood .
As steve mentioned . The prevalence of half stock flintlock sporting rifles . In Europe is fairly prevalent . Not really so here . But the reason could simply be that do to their environment of use , far fewer survived in their original form
