Jefferson County Longrifles

The Jefferson County Longrifles are now on Facebook!

2011-07-17T19:58:00.002-04:00

If you have a Facebook account, or someone in your family has one, please go to "Jefferson County Longrifles" and join the page. This format is much more user-friendly and will allow members to post their own comments and photos without having to send them to a page administrator. We will continue to post schedules and announcements on this page, but most of the photos and event information will be available much faster on the Facebook page. Come join us!

FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT VISTS THE LONGRIFLES

2010-04-19T10:57:00.011-04:00

Joomart "Jooma" Mirbekovich Aitakunov of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, enjoyed an afternoon with the Jefferson County Longrifles on Sunday, April 18th, spending his time doing his best imitation of an American Colonial. Jooma also had a lot of fun shooting muzzleloaders, and did well in his first tries with the rifles.

He also really enjoyed learning to start a fire with flint and steel, and even though he'd completed his stage of the competition, he wanted to keep getting better at it and tried it several more times.

When he returns home to Kyrgyzstan in June, we hope he will be taking a bit of Jefferson County culture with him.

Jooma is here in the USA as a Rotary Exchange Student, and is hosted by the Emporium Rotary Club and Rotary Member Ron Luckenbill, who is a member of the Longrifles.

MEET THE BURKETT TRIPLETS

2010-04-15T12:10:00.005-04:00

Gunsmith Ron Luckenbill recently completed three copies of a Brookville rifle by Abraham Burkett for various members of the Burkett family. Two of the rifles are .50 caliber, one a flintlock and one a percussion.

Considering the era in which Burkett built his rifles (very late percussion era), the flintlock version is very unusual, but the owner wanted to be able to use it in the PA flintlock season. The other is a .36 caliber, as was the original from which it was copied.

The barrels are 28" long and are 15/16" across the flats. The guns are German silver mounted with the exception of the wear plate under the forearm, which is brass. Each of the flowers at the bottom of the butt plate has a mother of pearl center, exactly like the original.

This is probably the last time you'll see all three of these beautiful guns together at the same time. Nice job, Ron!

SCENES FROM THE WINTER RENDEZVOUS, February 20 & 21, 2010

2010-02-23T12:24:00.001-05:00

Just click on each image to view a larger version of it.

Headquarters of the Jefferson County Longrifles, founded in 1976 as a Bicentennial project. The cabin was started in 1975, and completed the following year.

Dave Rossey and Kevin Johns inside the clubhouse at the end of the day on Saturday.

Shooters along the Trail course, late afternoon on Saturday.

More shooters along the Trail course, late afternoon on Saturday.

If anyone in attendance has more photos they'd like to see posted, please forward them (with any captions or information you'd like added) to the email address located here, and then click the Email link.

MARK THE DATE ON YOUR CALENDAR FOR THE SUMMER RENDEZVOUS

2010-02-21T12:44:00.001-05:00

The Jefferson County Longrifle Summer Rendezvous will be held July 3rd & 4th, 2010. The hours will be Saturday 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, and Sunday 9:00 am to 12:00 noon.

Traders are welcome!
Campers welcome. Camp fees apply for both primitive and modern (no hook-ups)
Wood and water are available
Cash targets: Men, Women, Juniors/Youth & Aggregate categories
Paper targets, Mountain Man & Trail competitions
Saturday "evening shoot"
Pets welcome, but MUST be on a leash at all times (no exception).

OTHER MONTHLY SHOOT DATES for 2010 (All monthly shoots start at 1:00 pm):

March 21
April 18
May 16
June 20
July 18
August 15
September 19, JCL Members Annual Meeting, Picnic & Blanket shoot
November 14, Turkey Shoot, 11:00 am

JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY TO RAFFLE ANOTHER RON LUCKENBILL RIFLE

2010-02-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

This year's raffle gun is a reproduction done in the style of Nicholas Shennefelt, a Clarion county gunsmith who worked in Huntingdon County, PA, before moving to Clarion county. He began his career at the dawn of the percussion era, somewhere around 1830. As the years passed, his later guns were more reflective of the percussion era, but his early guns showed the "Golden Age" influences.

Shennefelt wasn't known as a great carver, and anyone who knows Ron Luckenbill knows that he is. The challenge in building this gun was to recreate the look and feel of the original, forcing Ron to "dumb down" his own superlative skills to match those of Shennefelt.

This year's gun is a reproduction of one found in Harriger's "Longrifles of Pennsylvania: Jefferson, Clarion and Elk Counties," (Shumway, 1984), pages 182-183. The gun in the book is a percussion, but Ron built this copy as a flintlock.

Tickets will go on sale sometime this spring for $5.00 a ticket, or you can get a 20% discount by purchasing lots of 5 for $20, or 10 for $40. Tickets will be available at the Jefferson County History Center, Dead Center Arms, and Lloyd-Smith (see Dave Rossey).

If you have any questions about this gun, please talk to Ron at the monthly Longrifle shoots, or call the Jefferson County History Center (814-849-0077) and ask for Ken Burkett.