I still want to

[hotfxr]

Check with Track of the Wolf. They have full size plans for several different rifle styles at a real reasonable price. I am sure that some of the other major muzzleloader parts companies also have plans.

[gunmaker]

Any of the stock suppliers should be able to come up with a pre-carve that has no wedge hole.  Look around at Track wolf, Pecatonica & others.   

[beowulf]

he does beautiful work , but he`s pricy . lol I`d do what gunmaker and hotfoxr suggest first , and if you cant find what you`re looking for , I`ll give you his phone number . pretty sure he still has the replicator . 

[mongrel]

Although since they claim its a J. Dickert, I could start with that?

What you will find in the way of "Dickert" precarved stocks are representative of Jacob Dickert's earlier work. He built guns in Lancaster County from the 1760's till his death in 1822. I've seen a couple of signed Dickert guns of his later production that have "roman nose" combs of somewhat the same shape as on this rifle being discussed, but by and large Dickert stuck to the classic Lancaster pattern of a sturdy, straight-combed butt, and it is possible (not proven but very possible) that signed guns of his with the curved comb are later-period restocks, since the barrels are what are signed and restocking is a very old and practical way of re-using good parts off an otherwise broken or worn-out gun. For something more similar to what you have in mind, a stock with the roman-nose profile would be the thing. It wouldn't have to be a specific "Lancaster" pattern since the rifle we're discussing really doesn't follow Lancaster styling as was most common prior to the 1820's or even 1830's.

BTW, the mixture of brass and silver inlays was quite common, particularly on guns with a fair number of inlays.

Cappers were in common usage in the eastern United States by the 1820's, and a gift gun presented by a group to a celebrity (which was what Crockett in many ways was) might very well have been ordered with what was then the state-of-the-art ignition system. Though Crockett was a frontiersman, particularly in his younger years, by this point in his life he would seldom have been so far out on the fringe of things that cap supply would have seemed much of a potential problem. He might have personally preferred flinters just on the basis of familiarity, but on a gift gun I doubt he would have turned his nose up at one of the newfangled capguns. It might never have been his primary rifle of choice but he would certainly have appreciated it both as a gift and as a cool new toy to try out.

[Hawken50]

  I read somewhere that the good folks that got the gun for Crocket paid the princely sum of 250.00 for said rifle. That would have been some serious moolah back then.

[Micanopy]

Thanks Mong, great information. I think we should go for it.

[Micanopy]

I like this stock for starters;
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/900/1/STK-JVI

[Micanopy]

Indeed mongrel, Crockett was a "Screamer" in his time. Kinda of like a rock star is now. Facinating individual, even if couldnt catch a canon ball, or spell... so we have a lot in common...

[Micanopy]

Digging thru some old boxes I found a complete CVA lock for a kentucky or something along those lines. Now I need a stock and barrel to get started on.......

[gunmaker]

walnut 1/2 stock cut for 15/16 bbl. and nothing else on ebay right now..  If you want to make your own from a block this guy has 30,000 yes 30,000 blanks in stock--I've been in his warehouse--but didn't count 'em, walnut starts at 30 bucks 1/2 stock and goes to 4-5 thousand.  Cecil has wood....www.gunstockslasvegas.com     Tom

[Micanopy]

aint got no where near that kinda talent.... lol! I'll leave that to you guys!

[Micanopy]

Found this in a box in the work shop, its close enough.........

[Micanopy]

I have found in my research about this rifle that is really interesting. I found a copy of a letter written in 1910 from a man that owned the rifle to a relative of Crocketts. In the letter he explains what the original configuration of the rifle was and how in 1887 it came to be what it is today. He explains that the rifle was so badly rusted that he cut off both ends of the barrel, replaced the breach with a patten percussion breach and lock, restocked it with American walnut, used all the original fixtures, etc., I'll be posting a copy of the letter in the historical documents section. It did start out as a very long rifle built by a Jas M. Graham, which I'll have to research some more on.

[Micanopy]

I found him, James M. Graham,,
http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/2013/05/james-m-graham-gunsmith.html, now the mystry remains, was it restocked or did he maintain the original wood chopped to a half stock?

[mongrel]

As I read the article and particularly the quote from W.H. Barnett (or Barnet or Barrett, his name is given all three ways in just two paragraphs), he was the owner of the rifle who in 1886 "renovated" it to halfstock configuration. In the second paragraph of the article it is stated that the original gun was fullstocked in walnut, with extensive silver inlays and the patchbox seen on the halfstock. In his description of the work he did to salvage the gun, Mr. Barnett indicates he modified the original stock to its present configuration, and the same is stated in no uncertain terms by the writer of the article.

IF this was originally a Dickert rifle, built by Jacob himself, it was one of the very last pieces he ever did, since the article states that the rifle was commissioned in 1822 and presented to Crockett in May of that year. Jacob Dickert died on February 27, 1822. Even if he was in perfect working health up to the moment he passed, that is a very small window of time in which one of the most famous gunsmiths in the United States could have not only accepted a commission for a very fancy, time-consuming rifle to build, but to have completed it before his death.

This time frame isn't necessarily the "kiss of death" it might seem, to the idea that this is a Dickert gun. Jacob Dickert even before 1800 had broken from the mold of the master gunsmith working alone in his tiny shop, assisted only by a handful of fortunate apprentices and perhaps a journeyman or two. Records indicate that Dickert, instead, employed a number of skilled gunsmiths (journeymen) and general shop laborers, fulfilling among other things a number of contracts with the United States Government, and that many "Dickert" rifles and smoothbores were in fact only marked by him -- products of his establishment and meeting his standards of quality and style, but not actually built by his hand. Since the output of smoothbores in particular, from his shop, was in the hundreds, it wouldn't have been humanly possible for the master himself to have single-handedly created each and every firearm that was sold bearing his name. Therefore it's perfectly reasonable to guess that the Crockett rifle was a high-end commission given the Dickert establishment in very early 1822, and that it was completed and presented on-schedule by May of that year, despite Jacob Dickert's death three months earlier. Additionally, since there are at least a couple of surviving Dickert-signed rifles with roman-nose butts, and at the tail-end of his career Jacob Dickert was making a small fortune accommodating customers ranging from individual buyers to the United States Government, it's entirely possible that the Philadelphia-commissioned Crockett rifle was ordered and delivered with a stock of that configuration.

So do you re-create the original rifle as best you can, in fullstock, or the halfstock that originally caught your eye and is the reason for this entire discussion? My guess is you'll want to go with the halfstock, since it's what you like and it's what you have to go by so far as duplicating the rifle. Doing it as a fullstock would involve a lot of guesswork and "maybes" and leave you with a rifle that would always only be what it MIGHT have looked like, originally.