Flintlock Northwest Trade Gun by Leman of Lancaster, PA

Fur Trade Period

.56 caliber (pistol bore). 36" pinned three-stage octagon to round barrel. SN: NSN. Blued finish, iron and brass furniture, hardwood full-length stock. Single shot flintlock muzzleloading smoothbore trade gun. Lock remains in original flint and is marked in an arc at the rear H.E. LEMAN and with Leman's {Tombstone Fox}/PA trademark forward of the cock. Primary internal lock parts are all numbered 52, including the pan, tumbler, sear and bridle. The lock has an integral fenced and bridled rounded iron pan and a rounded swan neck cock. Barrel markings are not visible due to a very old sinew-sewn leather wrapped repair at the wrist which also covers the lock mortise and a couple of inches forward of the lock. Lock and barrel remain in original flint. Traditional "North West" gun features include a flat brass buttplate, secured by two screws, a large iron triggerguard and corrugated brass ramrod pipes. The gun is equipped with a fixed notch rear sight and a blade front sight sight. The gun is decorated with a large number of old, all brass construction square shanked tacks. They decorate the butt of the gun along the buttplate and are also found on the forend. A cross was tacked into the butt on the obverse, but the heads are all missing now, leaving only the shafts. An old brass tipped wooden ramrod is frozen in the ramrod channel.

Henry Leman was the largest maker of "Indian Guns" (aka North West Guns) for the US government, delivering some 9,000 of them between 1842 and 1860. The large majority of the guns were flintlocks, although many were no doubt later altered to percussion by their users. Of 410 Native American used guns recovered and studied from the Little Bighorn battlefield by the US Government, 160 were muzzleloaders and of those 92 were made by Leman. His reputation for quality arms made them quite popular and highly coveted by the native dwellers on the Great Plains. Overall a very solid and great looking Northwest Gun by Leman that has the earmarks of being a real Native used piece with a wonderful look.

Collection of John Baldwin