This rifle was featured in "American Tradition: The Journal of the Contemporary Longrifle Association" in January 2010 as an example of a bench copy of an early John Bonewitz rifle by Mark Wheland of Pennsylvania who had the original on hand while creating this beautiful rifle. That rifle is No. 78 in "Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in Its Golden Age" by Kindig. Wheland began building rifles in 1992 and apprenticed under Allen Martin starting in 1999. He is an award winning gunmaker and recently served as the president of the Kentucky Rifle Association. The original rifle dates to c. 1780. The rifle features a swamped octagonal barrel with traditional blade and notch sights and "M. Wheland" signed on top, antiqued finish on the barrel and metal, patinated brass mounts with excellent floral and scroll engraving, and a curly maple stock with beautiful relief scroll carving.

Very fine with "antiqued" finish with some intentional light oxidation/pitting and generally only minor overall wear. Mechanically excellent.