Kentucky Flintlock Rifle

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Kentucky Rifle - .36 caliber.

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Pennsylvania Rifle - .40 caliber

Kentucky Plains Flintlock Musket

The Kentucky rifle, sometimes also known as the "Long Rifle" or "Pennsylvania Rifle" is famously known as the first American-made long-arm with a rifled barrel, featuring lands and grooves causing the bullet to spin as it leaves the gun, making it far more accurate than the smoothbore muskets of the time, including the British Brown Bess Flintlock Musket.

The Pennsylvania or "Kentucky" rifle was perfected by dozens of gunsmith shops large and small centered around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was popular with the American pioneers venturing into the land called Kentucky over the Appalachian Mountains in the late 1700s and early 1800s.<ref>Joe Kindig, Jr., "Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in It's Golden Age", Nyatt 1960, Shumway 1964, Bonanza, LCC 61-23719.</ref> In the newly settled over-mountain areas local copies such as the Tennessee Poor Boy were made by gunsmiths and blacksmiths.

The colonists during the Revolutionary War favored Kentucky Rifles since they had used them for hunting and when fighting the British, they definitely knew how to use them. The gun is also well known as being the first true sniper rifle, based on how an experienced marksman could shoot a redcoat off his horse at up to 250 yards. The gun was used all the way up to the War of 1812 before the Scottish Percussion design slowly phased the flintlock design out. Some Percussion models of the rifle were made, but by that time the rifling had become so common, the gun became obsolete as a frontline weapon after the Mexican American War.

Specifications

• Weight: Variable
• Length: over 65 in.
• Barrel length: 35 in. (889 mm), to over 48 in. (1220 mm)
• Cartridge: none
• Caliber: 0.500 in, approximately, .36 cal to .45 cal also were common
• Action: Flintlock
• Rate of fire: User dependent, Usually 1+ rounds a minute
• Muzzle velocity: Variable
• Effective range: Variable, 80 to 100 yards typical, to well over 250 yards by an experienced user
• Feed system: Muzzle loaded

The Kentucky Flintlock Rifle has been used in the following films:

Film

Title	Actor	Character	Note	Date
Sergeant York	Gary Cooper	Alvin C. York	1941
Sergeant York	Dickie Moore	George York		1941
Sergeant York	Ward Bond	Buck Lipscomb		1941
Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier	Fess Parker			1954
The Alamo	John Wayne	Davy Crockett		1960
The Alamo		Alamo defenders		1960
How the West Was Won	Jimmy Stewart	Linus Rawlings		1962
Ten Little Indians			Seen on the gun rack	1965
The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming		A townsman		1966
Bad Company		A trapper		1972
The Headless Horseman			Seen in Maurice Gerald's house	1973
Police Academy			Seen on Lt. Harris' gun wall	1984
Pale Rider		A townsman		1985
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!	Ricardo Montalban	Vincent Ludwig		1988
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear		Trappers		1991
Last of the Mohicans, The	Daniel Day-Lewis	Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Poe		1992
Tombstone		A townsman		1993
Maverick	Paul L. Smith	Russian Grand Duke		1994
Maverick	Graham Greene	Joseph		1994
Tom and Huck	Eric Schweig	Injun Joe		1995
Tom and Huck	Lanny Flaherty	Emmett		1995
Almost Heroes	Chris Farley	Bartholomew Hunt		1998
The Patriot	Mel Gibson	Benjamin Martin		2000
The Patriot	Trevor Morgan	Nathan Martin		2000
The Patriot	Chris Cooper	Col. Harry Burwell		2000
The Patriot	Leon Rippy	John Billings		2000
The Patriot	Donal Logue	Dan Scott		2000
The Patriot	Hank Stone	Rollins		2000
Wonderland	Val Kilmer	John Holmes		2003
The Alamo	Billy Bob Thornton	David Crockett		2004
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins			Seen on Christine Lord's gun wall	2004
The Brothers Grimm		A villager		2005
Life of Crime			Seen in Richard's collection	2013
Mad Max: Fury Road		Vuvalini women	Traditions Kentucky Rifle	2015

Television

• Used in an episode of The Unit

• R. Lee "Gunny" Ermey in Mail Call

Video Games

• Trophy Hunter 2003: Legendary Hunting