Need some help

[Silvermoon]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the information you've all shared with me, it has been greatly helpful. I gotta say, having been around a whole lot of internet forums this one has far and away been the friendliest and most helpful. Thanks for the ideas Red Badger and Rev, either way could work, though I had been thinking something along the lines of what Rev suggested would work real good.

Yeah William, the more I think it over the more I come to realize that I should take this with a keep it simple outlook to start off. After all I can always elaborate on it later. Wouldn't mind getting together with you and the other hill country fellers once I'm back out there and settled, might be able to learn a bit more and get some better ideas.

One other thing I've been wondering about, being that a rifle goes hand in hand with ones persona, I'm wondering what might be a good choice. I'd be happy to just use what I have unfortunately that does not at this time include any muzzleloaders, so I'll have to buy one. I had been looking at the Lyman Great Plains Rifle but then I ran across the TVM Leman rifle, I believe either of these would be acceptable for the time and place I'm wanting to portray, but wouldn't mind getting a more knowledgeable view. Also what are some opinions on the subject of flintlock vs percussion in this time period, as far as I've heard both were in use at this time so would it just be personal preference?

[old salt]

Coming down out of the Rockies as stated in your first post here you would more than likely have had a flinter. and a better that a 50% chance it would have bee a smooth bore. On the other hand if you took you last catch of furs to St.Louis all bets are off, but still likely a flinter as most of the men form the Rockies at that time where still leary of those new fangled caps.
Just the way I see it.

[mongrel]

Your tentative choices of both the Lyman GPR and TVM Leman are, unfortunately, several years past your stated time period. The style of Hawken rifle that the Lyman is intended to represent dates to the mid-to-late 1840's, maybe even the 1850's. Same for the TVM Leman. Much as I love Leman rifles, Henry Leman didn't begin the manufacture of his trade rifles till 1834, if I recall correctly, and the one TVM markets would be a later product of Leman's factory.

Harry is right on the money in saying that your rifle in the early 1830's would almost certainly have been a flinter. Though the percussion system was coming into fairly common use by the end of the 1820's, that was in more settled portions of America; out where supply issues might mean the difference between life and death, and "supply" might mean only the one rendezvous held each year in various western mountain sites, "new and improved" didn't matter nearly so much to mountain men, Indians, and other frontier folk, as what was readily available and they knew worked.

Unless your persona's back story is that, as Harry suggested, he bought his rifle new at some point after leaving the mountains, rather than a Lyman GPR or TVM Leman you would do well to look at something along the lines of a plain-grade TVM Lancaster or Virginia rifle -- a flinter of course. The long fullstock by virtue of simple availability was probably the default rifle of the fur trade. I say "probably" because there are relatively few authenticated surviving examples of c. 1820's-1830's fur trade rifles; researchers have to go largely on what was available at the time, when trying to determine what was being used; and anyone making statements about pretty much any point in the flintlock era ought to avoid proclaiming much of anything as an absolute certainty. Words like "probably" or "usually" get across what we know or guess to have been most common, while allowing for exceptions.

As far as the rifle versus smoothbore issue, there were an awful lot of trade guns -- cheap muskets, basically -- sold and traded for by both white and Indian participants in the fur trade. As stated, they were cheap, as in inexpensive and also in many cases as in being shoddily-made, though the various contractors who provided these guns didn't fare well if they offered a substandard product. In today's world, though, a PC trade musket will run at least as much as a similarly PC rifle, price-wise. Some don't let the price deter them, and go for the smoothbore on the basis of its being a highly versatile gun for a variety of game. I myself and a lot of other people opt for rifles. They weren't as common on the frontier as many think, but they weren't uncommon, either, and if a rifle suits your modern hunting needs as it does mine then there would be no problem in terms of historical correctness, to choosing that type of firearm. As stated, though, Hawkens and Lemans belong to a slightly later period than you're looking at (and Hawkens BTW were also very expensive guns). A plain, no-bells-or-whistles longrifle correct to the first quarter of the 1800's would be a very suitable choice.

[Silvermoon]

Many thanks to the both of ya, gives me a good bit to consider while I start saving pennies.