A story: "A rifle from Jim Chambers' table at the KY/TN Rifle Show at Knoxville" or "It is all Wayne's fault!!"

 

Well Tim C. and I went to see the elephant Friday Apr. 30.  They were having the Tn/KY Rifle show at the Jubilee Reception Hall in Powell, TN.  It is 2 exits above Knoxville on I-75 so everyone calls it the Knoxville show. Two good sized rooms of nothing but muzzleloaders and accoutrements.  They serve lunch and supper there with coffee and tea all day long also.  Don't even have to leave to eat.  Call it: Total Immersion"

We took one each of our  Brian Barker rifles for Ric Lambert to photograph for an upcoming article on Brian's work in Muzzleloader Magazine. Plus I took 3 to lay on Wayne's table and Tim took one also.  After dropping off the rifles, Wayne Estes mentioned that Jim Chambers had some very nice rifles on his table.  Good ol' Wayne leads me over there to see what he could coerce me into buying.  Not that I needed much coercion.  When we got to Jim's table, lo and behold there was an unfired .54cal. Mike Gahagan Christian Springs style rifle on the table.  After some discussion and a nudge or two from Wayne.(I gave him first shot at it, but he had another bigger deal going with Jim.  More on that later.), I ended up writing a good sized check for the Gahagan gun.

Mike Gahagan is an excellent craftsman, and I didn't have one of his rifles.  While I choose not to run with the big dogs, I also choose not to stay on the porch. 😀  It has a 37" .54cal. barrel with a walnut stock.  To hazard a guess I would say that it started life as a Chambers Edward Marshall kit.  But all rifles start as a kit(collection of parts) at some point.  The value is added by the builder.