Doug Wicklund, Senior Curator at the National Firearms Museum, provides NRAblog with a brief history on a true rarity on loan from Mr. Ellis Joubert.

The Isaiah Jennings All-Metal Breechloading Flintlock Rifle

One of the most unusual repeating firearms ever to be manufactured in the United States was Isaiah Jennings’ repeating flintlock rifle of 1821.

Built with a detachable skeleton-type shoulder stock as well as a removable 21-inch octagonal barrel, the Jennings rifle was capable of firing twelve shots without reloading. This multi-shot arm was loaded with a dozen superimposed bullets and alternating powder charges, each placed one on top on another down the bore, and was fitted with twelve individual touchholes, each also being equipped with a swivel cover.

In firing, the first charge towards the barrel was discharged first, and then the movable lockplate was pulled back to the next swivel cover position. The .44 caliber and reduced powder space in this rifle may have meant it was intended to utilize hollowed-out projectiles with the powder charge placed inside the bullet itself.

This intriguing transitional rifle, bridging technology from muzzleloading arms to cartridge repeaters, bears serial number 1.

Boy Scout Troop 555 is based in Manassas, Virginia. On Friday, August 13, 2010, the troop was in for a special treat: an all-nighter at NRA Headquarters, complete with exclusive National Firearms Museum tour and marathon movie watching. Special thanks to NRA employee Cindy Whitley for snapping these photos. Her son is a member of the troop and she chaperoned the tour.

NRA National Firearms Museum's Doug Wicklund reports:

You could tell they were nervous by the way they placed their sleeping bags close to one another.

But the Scouts were excited as well as they spread out through NRA HQ and prepared for a “Night at the Museum.”

Yet this would be an evening for these young Scouts unlike any other at the National Firearms Museum, because it was Friday the 13th....

The special afterhours tour wandered through the quiet galleries, pausing from time to time at significant pieces. The Hollywood Guns gallery gathered the most attention with Scouts gazing in awe at the actual guns from movies like Die Hard or The Outlaw Josey Wales. But the “petting zoo” downstairs was next on the agenda. The Scouts filed slowly into the dimly-lit auditorium, only to halt in amazement at what was spread out on tables before them.

Assistant Curator Amber Lammers had put out an assortment of arms fit to repel any monster. And they were going to get to handle them.

The Scouts had the chance to inspect historic Civil War pieces like an 1863 Remington rifle, classic military guns like the M1 carbine, M16 and AK-47 rifles, as well as bigger ordnance like an M60 machine gun. A particular favorite of the evening was the Steyr AUG, one of the gun models with screen time on Die Hard.

"They all can relate to the different movies from Hollywood Guns," Cindy Whitley told NRAblog. "All in all, the boys had a blast, and they're still talking about the light sabre."

Interested in scheduling a tour of the Museum for your group? Call the NRA National Firearms Museum at 703-267-1620 for information.

Overnight visits are available for Boy Scouts troops, provided the Museum has enough advance notice. "The Boy Scouts experienced a unique “behind the scenes” look at the magic of museums, even to handling pieces of history – it really was a special activity that happens nowhere else," Wicklund said. "We’ve had many Scout groups in the two years we have offered this program and the “word of mouth” advertising is great."

Hailing all the way from Sunnyvale, CA, Boy Scout Troop 466 enjoyed visiting the National Firearms Museum last week as part of a 9-day trip to Washington, D.C. for the Boy Scouts National Jamboree.

Troop 466 was led around the Museum by Senior Curator Doug Wicklund, who had plenty of stories to tell about guns from the Civil War, Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency, and many other historical periods.

NRAblog had the chance to talk with assistant scout master Michael S. Malone, an Eagle Scout and father of two sons who have gained some great life experiences from their Scout activities. Specifically, Malone explained, “We try to do one great adventure every summer, and the goal is for these scouts to have experiences that they’ll remember the rest of their lives, and that help them identify with major historical events.”

For example, Malone said, three years ago Troop 466 hiked across England to attend the World Jamboree, and “Two summers ago we drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail in Oklahoma for 60 miles.” With the bar set so high, simply attending the National Jamboree would not be adventurous enough, so while they were in the Washington area, the troop took time to explore various Civil War sites: “We’ve been restoring Ball’s Bluff Battlefield and Cemetery for the last three days, and later we’ll go up to Gettysburg and Morven State Park.” More...

For those of you interested in the historical aspect of firearms, and particularly muzzle loaders, Gary Yee’s Sharpshooters 1750-1900: The Men, Their Guns, Their Story is an invaluable resource. At over 800 pages, it functions as an excellent sharpshooting reference book, with chapters divided under many different headings for easy access to subjects.

Although Civil War buffs will love Yee’s meticulous attention to detail in covering everything from the Peninsula Campaign to the Siege of Mobile, the first few chapters delve into sharpshooting’s earlier roots in the French-Indian War, the American Revolution, and the Napoleonic Era.

NRAblog had the chance to ask Doug Wicklund, Senior Curator at the National Firearms Museum, why he enjoys Yee’s approach to firearms history:

"This is a reference work long-overdue for collectors and historians on the art of sharpshooting that truly captivates. Yee continues to bring man and machine together in a voluminous, well-written Civil War section that reveals the differences in arms and tactics of Confederate and Union marksmen. From riflemen armed with crude telescopic rifles, perched in trees overlooking the battlefield, to skirmishers armed with repeating Henry rifles, the evolution and deployment of armament in the conflict that divided America is carefully related. The lessons learned then, in battles ranging from Antietam to Appomattox, still provide insight for modern land warriors in foreign lands. If I had to choose one outstanding reference dealing with sharpshooting this year, Gary Yee’s book would be it."

As the book’s jacket cover says, sharpshooters have shaped history “like an unseen hand that plucked life from among the unwary.” If you’d like to learn more about this rich history and the amazingly skilled sharpshooters who determined the fate of the Civil War and many other historical events, then visit the National Firearms Museum store here at NRA headquarters or call Store Manager Benjamin Van Scoyoc at 703-267-1608.

The NRA National Firearms Museum is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, but the Museum’s talented staff travel to a wide array of events -- and North Dakota's Cowboy Hall of Fame is glad to be welcoming Senior Curator Doug Wicklund back to Medora, ND, next week. 

The "Gun Road Show" visits the Cowboy Hall of Fame the weekend of June 12-13, and Wicklund isn't coming alone - he's bringing the famous Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum revolver Clint Eastwood used in his films Dirty Harry and Magnum Force. 

Wicklund will be evaluating firearms from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and 12 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Hall, located at 250 Main Street in Medora. Organizers will enforce a one-firearm-per-person limit, and participants need to have their firearms checked at the door. "The last time I was in Medora, some fantastic guns came in for me to review,” Wicklund said. “I'm looking forward to seeing more pieces of Western history."

On Saturday, Wicklund will present a free seminar titled “Guns of the West” at 7 p.m. Learn about famous guns of outlaws and lawmen as well as more modern Hollywood guns that won the cinematic West, many of which are on display at the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, VA.

The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame is the interpretive center for the history of Native Americans, ranching, rodeo, and the western lifestyle of the plains and Badlands. 

Learn more about the programs of the NRA National Firearms Museum.

Every day at the National Firearms Museum is filled with possibilities. Possibilities that come in the form of new guests who visit, new inquiries for the curators to research, or – as was the case Tuesday – a new donation to prepare for display.

What we have here, according to Senior Curator Doug Wicklund, is a .60 caliber flintlock pistol. A cursory examination suggest it was made somewhere between 1770 and 1780. Thanks to the surviving engraving, we also know that the gunsmith was a man named Andre from Nancy, France.

“There was a gold wash embellishment that disappeared due to use over time,” Wicklund told NRAblog. “There also appears to be a coat of arms on the stock that has also worn away.”

Wicklund went on to theorize that the gun came from a set of dueling pistols made for someone in the French nobility. “Given the amount of detail, the remnants of gold, that would be my guess.”

This donation also marks the first appearance of the work of the gunmaker Andre in the National Firearms Museum. “It’s a real rush. There’s always a touch of excitement when we have the opportunity to display the work of a previously unknown gunsmith. Especially with such a fine piece as this.”

If you're unable to visit our world class Museum here in Fairfax, Virginia, check out the official National Firearms Museum website for a virtual tour! 

When you ask people if they know the name Theodore Van Kirk, "Dutch" to his friends, most will respond with a puzzled look. But when he was introduced by Wayne LaPierre at the Celebration of American Values Freedom Experience Event on Saturday night, the crowd responded with thunderous applause.

Dutch was the navigator and is the last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb known as "Little Boy." Along with Commander Tibbets and the rest of the crew, Van Kirk trained in Utah for seven months before their flight on August 6, 1945.

At the Annual Meeting, Dutch autographed The 509th Remembered, spoke at the American Values Freedom Experience, shared stories from World War II, and provided a touch of insight at the "U.S. Pistol, Model of 1911: Trials & Combat" seminar, which also featured our own Phil Schreier.

When asked about his impression of Van Kirk, National Firearms Museum Senior Curator Doug Wicklund said:

“I briefly spoke with Dutch at the Nation's Gun Show in Chantilly. There he showed me a photograph taken from a private camera aboard the Enola Gay moments after the bomb was deployed. It was an elegant image from the dawn of the atomic age.”

Whitney Dillon lives in Ashburn, VA with her husband and two children, ages 7 and 11. She was a teacher before her children were born, and she now homeschools the two.

“I prefer to guide my own,” she said of the family’s decision. “They learn so much more with me, one on one.”

After completing a section on Civil War history, the Dillon family took a trip across the United States, seeing landmarks and museums on the way.

This past Friday, the family visited the NRA National Firearms Museum for the very first time.

The National Firearms Museum visit was planned by the homeschool group the Dillons joined in Loudoun County, VA. “Each mother organizes one trip, and the whole group gets to enjoy all the trips,” Dillon explained, adding the NRA Museum has been a popular stop for several consecutive years. “We’ll be back!”

Susan Sykes, a homeschooling mother of 6, was the organizer for this trip. “It’s best to get out in groups,” she said. “We get to socialize that way, too.”

Senior Curator Doug Wicklund and his two Curatorial Assistants, Bill and Jerry, led the group of children and adults on a 30-minute tour of the Museum before getting to the “good stuff,” as Wicklund said. “We’re going to give the kids the chance to actually get their hands on some of these firearms.”

Above, smiles lit up the room as Wicklund passed around several long guns, explaining each firearm’s role in American history.

“You can’t find kids any more polite,” Wicklund said of the group. “It’s the best tour I’ve had in a while.”

The NRA National Firearms Museum (NFM) hosted the first night of the 61st Annual Meeting of the Company of Military Historians (CMH). Consisting of collectors, curators, and academics with an interest in military history, CMH was founded in 1949 to study "the uniforms, equipment, history, and traditions of members of the Armed Forces of the United States worldwide and other nations serving in the Western Hemisphere."

The evening included a welcoming ceremony emceed by CMH President Stephen M. Henry followed by a tour of the museum. On hand to provide specialized tours of the museum was NFM Director Jim Supica along with Senior Curators Doug Wicklund and Phil Schreier.

As one attendee put it, "You guys really rolled out a hands-on, first-class event."

Special thanks to National Firearms Museum Senior Curator Doug Wicklund for the following scoop:

This month's upcoming Nation's Gun Show will be a real blockbuster - in more than one sense. The NRA National Firearms Museum will be bringing famous guns from the movies. That's right -- guns you last saw on the silver screen will be there at the Dulles Expo Center April 23-25.

Ever wanted to see that strange silenced Remington shotgun from No Country for Old Men or perhaps a Star Wars blaster?  (John Popp from NRA News models the silenced Remington, right.) They’ll be there at Chantilly, along with one of Audie Murphy’s Colts, used in several of his cowboy films. Maybe you’re hoping for another Murphy – like Eddie Murphy’s Browning pistol from Beverly Hills Cop? Or you know you’ve always wanted to see Hans Gruber’s H&K P7 pistol from Die Hard or Ernest Borgnine’s Winchester 1897 shotgun from The Wild Bunch. You need to come by to see these actual Hollywood treasures in person, direct from film studio collections and prophouses. Remember, these are the actual guns that were used in the movies!

The National Firearms Museum’s newest exhibition, Hollywood Guns, just opened and if you like what you see at Chantilly, plan to come by the NRA headquarters building to see much, much more. Dozens of cinema guns, from rubber “Hero” versions used to avoid damaging actors and actresses in close action sequences, to a Gatling gun used in the classic film Gunga Din, to an impressive selection of John Wayne guns covering his entire film career.

If you like the movies, and more especially movie guns, this is the exhibit you’ve been waiting to see! Want more? – how about more films – Serenity, Pulp Fiction, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, The Hurt Locker, Book of Eli, Botany Bay, McQ, Fair Game, Edge of Darkness, The Untouchables, Tightrope, Joe Kidd, We Were Soldiers and many more.

Hollywood Guns will run in the museum’s William B. Ruger Changing Gallery from April 2010 to March 2011. The National Firearms Museum is open daily 9:30 am to 5 pm. For more information, email nfmstaff@nrahq.org or call (703) 267-1600. 

Many thanks to Doug Wicklund, Senior Curator at NRA National Firearms Museum for the following:

The National Firearms Museum holds thousands of firearms, but sometimes the juxtapositions associated with non-firearm items in the collection can be very interesting. As the old museum prepared to move in 1993 out of Washington, DC, one of the treasures packed away for transit was the finely engraved silver Schwarzkopf Cup, an object present at the first and second of these NRA-affiliated shooting events in 1991 and 1992.

Move forward to 2010, when a call from Florida member Mariano Macias resulted in the donation of a Remington Peerless shotgun. What is special about this 12 gauge is that it was engraved for the 1998 Schwarzkopf Cup, the last of these events to be held. The shotgun was even personalized by General Schwarzkopf himself, who signed its buttstock. Macias, who requested his four sons received recognition for the shotgun donation, also contributed a shooting vest he wore as President of the Club de Cazadores Cubanos while volunteering at the 1998 event

With these two once distant artifacts coming together in the National Firearms Museum, the story of the Schwarzkopf Cup can also be revealed, from beginning to end. Museum staff plan to add both the shotgun and the Schwarzkopf Cup to the shotgun competitive shooting exhibit in the galleries shortly.

Thanks, Doug! More stories about from and about our talented Museum staff are available here. Don't go away! 

The National Congress of Old West Shootists aims to promote "safe Western Action Shooting including the re-enactment and promotion of the historical Old West heritage of the United States in all its ethnic, social and occupational diversity."

The Shootists are gathering in Kansas City, Kansas, beginning March 19 for their National Convention and Victorian Sale. Doug Wicklund, a Senior Curator here at the NRA National Firearms Museum, is a featured guest.

At 11 am on Saturday, Wicklund will present a seminar titled "The Right Arm of the West – Handguns on the Frontier."

At 11 am on Sunday, Wicklund will present a seminar titled "Long Range Gun Slinging – Single Shots that Won the West."

Stay tuned for a recap from Doug! 

Last year, local Boy Scout Troop 1995 enjoyed an exclusive opportunity -- a supervised overnight lock-in at the NRA's National Firearms Museum, complete with a guided tour of the galleries. 

This year, the scouts returned, even after January's blizzard forced organizers to reschedule. "The boys enjoyed their 2nd annual visit to the National Firearms Museum immensely," NRA's Bill Poole told NRAblog. Poole, the Director of NRA's Education and Training division, serves in several capacities for this troop, but the most important is Scout Dad.

"We had 14 scouts and 5 dads take the tour, participate in the hands-on demonstration, and spend the night on the atrium floor," Poole continued. "Make that 'the hard atrium floor.'"

Senior Curator Doug Wicklund, pictured above on the far right, led the Scouts on the tour. To arrange a tour of the NRA National Firearms Museum for your organization or group, call 703-267-1600.

While on the road with some of the finest firearms the National Firearms Museum's (NFM) has to offer, Senior Curator Doug Wicklund often runs into a number of fans. They are constantly asking for autographs, begging for pictures, and simmering with questions about what the NFM has on display back home. No where was this more apparent then when he traveled to Westminster, Maryland for the NRA's Great American Hunting & Outdoor Show with a few American Hunter classics. While there, he filmed tonight’s segment of Curator's Corner – Matthew Quigley’s 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle.

Not only is this a classic rifle from the Old West, it's the one used by NRA Boardmember Tom Selleck in his 1990 movie Quigley Down Under. As Selleck says in the movie:

"It’s a lever-action, breech loader. Usual barrel length’s thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It’s converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred and ten grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred and forty grain paper-patched bullet. It’s fitted with double set triggers, and a Vernier sight. It’s marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further. "

Though Doug's delivery might not be as moving as Quigley's, he promises to have a few more secrets to share – at least more than what was revealed in the movie. But for that, you'll have to tune in tonight at 10:20 p.m. for this week's segment of Curator's Corner on NRANews.com or on Sirius Patriot channel 144.

Tonight's Curator's Corner again features a live to tape segment from the floor of NRA's first annual Great American Hunting & Outdoor Show in Westminster, Maryland. Sitting in for this session is Senior Curator Doug Wicklund with one of the three guns the National Firearms Museum put on display at the three-day show. Following last week's firearm, owned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Wicklund will present Teddy Roosevelt's Double Rifle.  

"This gun was one of his favorite hunting arms," Wicklund tells NRAblog. The .450 caliber Fred Adolph double rifle, an arm he used on several safaris and later presented to one of his American hunting guides, was presented it to the NRA National Firearms Museum by Roosevelt's family.

Fitted with the finest Krupp steel barrels, this double rifle was once featured on the cover of Adolph’s business catalogs and a photograph of it proudly resided in the front window of Adolph’s gunshop in Rochester, New York for many years.

Even more details will be shared by Doug tonight at 10:20 p.m. EST as Curator's Corner hits the airwaves on NRANews.com and Sirius Patriot channel 144.