Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Rifle
    The Rifle
    The Rifle
    Ebook69 pages1 hour

    The Rifle

    By Gary Paulsen

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A treasured antique rifle gets into the wrong hands in this YA novel by the Newbury Award-winning author: “a truly mesmerizing tale, from beginning to end” (Publishers Weekly).
     
    In 1768, gunsmith Cornish McManus painstakingly crafted his masterpiece: a rifle of extraordinary beauty and accuracy. Though he knows he will never be able to replicate it, Cornish is forced to sell it to a man named John Byam, who carried it with pride into the Revolutionary War.
     
    Passed down through generations, the beloved rifle ends up decorating the mantle of a modern-day mechanic and father named Harv. But what happens then is shocking, terrifying, and completely devastating.
     
    Reader’s guide included
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateMar 15, 2016
    ISBN9780544873322
    Author

    Gary Paulsen

    Gary Paulsen (1931–2021) was one of the most honored writers of contemporary literature for young readers, author of three Newbery Honor titles, Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room. He wrote over 100 books for adults and young readers. 

    Read more from Gary Paulsen

    Related to The Rifle

    Related ebooks

    YA Literary For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Double Guns

      Oct 14, 2019

      Double Guns
      5 min read

    • Article

      For The Love Of A Gun

      Sep 16, 2019

      For The Love Of A Gun
      6 min read

    • Article

      More Knife Nostalgia

      Jul 15, 2019

      More Knife Nostalgia
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Special Cape Gun

      Aug 12, 2019

      A Special Cape Gun
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Nov 14, 2019

      I usually enjoy reading contributions from Mike Yardley. He is informative and knowledgable on most shooting matters. He is also a gifted and eloquent defender of shooting on the radio and television. However, I feel I must take issue with him over h

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Thing of Beauty

      Jan 22, 2021

      “A THING OF beauty is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.” These words by the 18th century English poet, John Keats, sprang to mind as I turned over in my hands one of the most impressive rifles I had yet see

      5 min read

    • Article

      Not Just For Looks

      Jun 21, 2022

      Not Just For Looks
      8 min read

    • Article

      MILITARY MAN, Dan-D Fan

      Jun 20, 2023

      MILITARY MAN, Dan-D Fan
      5 min read

    • Article

      Legends

      Mar 22, 2022

      Legends
      6 min read

    • Article

      The outlaw Charles Ross

      Jan 20, 2022

      The outlaw Charles Ross
      6 min read

    • Article

      Pirate Pistol

      Nov 19, 2021

      Pirate Pistol
      6 min read

    • Article

      Two-Two

      Nov 4, 2022

      Two-Two
      8 min read

    • Article

      Gallery

      Jan 22, 2021

      While reading an old Magnum from December 2010 I came across an article by Gregor Woods in Gallery entitled “Forgotten Treasures”. It concerned an article taken from the Cape Argus newspaper dated 18 July 1963, reporting the imminent sale of 32 000 p

      11 min read

    • Article

      When Old Rifles Lament

      Jul 4, 2021

      When Old Rifles Lament
      2 min read

    • Article

      Bowled Over By A Bargain

      Mar 17, 2022

      WHEN the then Editor asked me whether I would like to write this Under the Hammer column, he gave me a steely, old-fashioned look. The previous chief scribe, he explained, had developed a penchant for writing about ancient Chinese and Japanese plates

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Real Long Range Outfit

      Jul 15, 2022

      A Real Long Range Outfit
      4 min read

    • Article

      AMMUNITION (almost) From Scratch

      Jun 21, 2022

      The rifle shown here was made by one of Vienna's finest gunmakers during Europe's Belle Epoch — probably in the 1880s — but many similar were made in England, intended for use in Africa or India. For that matter, many ended up in Africa and stayed th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Goodbye, Old Friend

      Apr 27, 2023

      AS PRESENTS GO, IT WAS A pretty good one. I’d just turned 17 and I very clearly remember the battered leather box being laid out on the kitchen table. My godfather, a devout fisherman and moderately keen shot, had decided to rationalise the contents

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Game Gun For Africa

      Jun 12, 2020

      A Game Gun For Africa
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Double Delight

      Oct 14, 2021

      A Double Delight
      6 min read

    • Article

      An Incredible Ride

      Aug 6, 2019

      An Incredible Ride
      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Aug 11, 2020

      Letters To The Editor
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Rifle

    3.5/5

    55 ratings6 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This book turned out much differently than I originally thought it would. I was interested in the story frame – the following on an object throughout time and places. This is a story frame that I would like to write about as well. The beginning detailed description of Cornish’s work on the rifle is a brilliant example of striving for perfection and the difference between an art and a trade. I did not understand much of the terminology involved, but that did not take away from my appreciation of the details and feelings described. The bits of history were secondary, in my mind, to the author’s point of guns killing people. I think this book, in the hands of the right teacher, would be an excellent resource for teaching about our right to bear arms, the current debate about this right, and the violence and killing that seem to result from guns. This is such a pertinent issue nowadays, and especially relevant, I think, in Texas!
    • 5/5
      The Rifle is about a gunsmith name Cornish McManus that builds a Rifle of such accuracy that he knew he could never build another like it. But McManus has to sell the rifle to make money. McManus sells the rifle to John Byam that uses it in the American Revolution. The Rifle then passes down to other owners until present day. But when the rifle gets pass down to the new owners, none of them check to see if the rifle is loaded.
    • 5/5
      This book is about a rifle that has been passed through George's family from generation to generation. This book is great and shows the main character's hard work to keep the rifle and pass it on one day to his family.
    • 3/5
      First Line: It is necessary to know this rifle.This short little book traces the history of one flintlock rifle from its creation during the American Revolution to the 1990s.The rifle's creation is a months-long labor of love by a journeyman gunsmith named Cornish McManus. When completed, it is most definitely a "sweet rifle" (meaning one of stunning beauty and accuracy). In desperate need of money, Cornish reluctantly sells the gun to John Byam, a sharpshooter in the Revolutionary War who dies of dysentery.The rifle, intended as a gift to a son killed in battle, is tucked away and forgotten as the centuries pass. In the 1990s it is found, and changes hands a few times until it rests above the mantel of a home in Missouri. Tragedy will ensue because-- during all this time and through all the hands it's passed-- no one has ever checked to see if the rifle is loaded.The first part of this book is wonderful. The craftsmanship that goes into the making of this rifle is phenomenal, and Paulsen brings the entire process to life. The rifle's "life" while in the hands of sharpshooter John Byam is also vivid and well done.But the book falls apart in the end. It's obvious that the author wants to teach children how deadly serious guns are, that no matter how beautiful they are or how innocently they are kept, guns are made to kill-- and they will kill. But it strains credulity to the breaking point to believe that a gun loaded in the 1770s will still fire first-time true in 1993.Paulsen does not believe that "guns don't kill people, people kill people," but the tragedy that occurs at the end of the book is due entirely to humans who don't care about simple gun safety. The ending of the book, in particular, bothered me: "And in the meantime the rifle sits in the gun cabinet. Waiting." Guns are not inhabited by evil spirits who lurk patiently until the unwary come within range. (Although all too often they are owned by people who have no business having them in their possession.)Middle school children may well take Paulsen's message to heart, and I hope they do, but for most of the adults who read along with their children, the aim of his story is going to fall short.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Gary Paulsen is an excellent storyteller, and I have read a number of his books about nature and survival. As I started reading The Rifle, I was entranced with his descriptions of early America, and the tale of a gunsmith determined to make the best rifle he could. It wasn't until I got about halfway through this small book before I started seeing some indication that this was not just a tale of a man and a rifle, but I continued reading to the end. I cannot and will not recommend this book, because, unfortunately, the author turns it into a heavy-handed political statement, and ruins the enjoyment of the first part. What a shame.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Everyone should read this book!

    Book preview

    The Rifle - Gary Paulsen

    Copyright © 1995 by Gary Paulsen

    Reader’s Guide copyright © 2006 by Harcourt, Inc.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to trade.permissions@hmhco.com or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

    www.hmhco.com

    The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

    Paulsen, Gary.

    The rifle/Gary Paulsen.

    p. cm.

    Summary: A priceless, handcrafted rifle, fired throughout the American Revolution, is passed down through the years until it fires on a fateful Christmas Eve of 1994.

    [1. Rifles—Fiction. 2. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Fiction.] I. Title.

    PZ7.P2843Rh 2006

    [Fic]—dc22 2006041105

    ISBN: 978-0-15-292880-3 hardcover

    ISBN: 978-0-15-205839-5 paperback

    eISBN 978-0-544-87332-2

    v1.0316

    Dedicated to

    The memory of

    Scott Barrett

    The Weapon

    It is necessary to know this rifle.

    In 1768, west of Philadelphia, a man named Cornish McManus established a new gunsmithing business. He was thirty-five years old and had been an apprentice and then an assistant to a master gunsmith named John Waynewright for nearly fourteen years. Waynewright had spent much of his life perfecting the concept of rifling—putting a set of spiral grooves down the bore of a rifle to spin and thereby stabilize the patched ball as it sped on its way—and it was said that his rifling was unique. He used a twist of one turn in forty inches, slightly faster than others who made rifled barrels, and this slight increase made the ball spin faster and become more stable, or fixed, on its trajectory.

    Because rifling of a bore was, historically speaking, a relatively new concept—less than a century old—most rifles were not as accurate as they could be. But compared to smoothbore guns, which were most decidedly not accurate and allowed balls to wobble to the side and actually take off in a curved trajectory, rifles were an enormous improvement.

    But within the field of rifling there was wide variance. Some rifles were not as accurate as others; their accuracy was based on how they were made and who made them. Many were simply utility rifles, good out to fifty or sixty yards—still much better than the smoothbores—and men were happy with that, but now and then . . .

    Now and then, with great rarity, there came a blending of steel and wood and brass and a man’s knowledge into one rifle, when it all came together just . . . exactly . . . right and a weapon of such beauty and accuracy was born that it might be actually worshiped.

    Such rifles were called sweet and were, almost literally, priceless. In that time weapons were much more important than they are now—were, indeed, vital to survival, for putting food on the table, for defense, for life—and a sweet rifle was revered and adored.

    What made such a rifle, a sweet rifle, so rare is that even if a gunsmith made one, achieved such a pinnacle of art, there was absolutely no guarantee that he would ever be able to do it again. It was said that a bad gunsmith could never make a sweet rifle but that even a great smith might make only one in his life.

    Waynewright was a competent gunsmith and could make serviceable weapons, but he lacked the spark of genius that would make him brilliant. His rifles were plain, functional, dependable, and would never be sweet.

    Cornish McManus was something else again. Waynewright often chastened him for daydreaming, for spending too much time on a rifle’s form or finish, for wasting more time on silly sketches of new shapes for stocks or trigger guards—in other words, for being artistic.

    The truth is that Cornish was an artist, pure and simple; he was that perfect blending of artistic thinking and force of hand that it took to make a sweet rifle.

    Still, it did not come soon. Waynewright held Cornish back as long as the man worked for him. Cornish never got a chance to express himself, and the spark would have died except that in the evenings he spent time drawing on scraps of paper that he hid from Waynewright to avoid ridicule. There were new shapes for rifles, new lines, delicate filigree—all the beauty he wanted to put into his work that Waynewright held back survived in Cornish’s drawings, and when it came time for him to leave and be a journeyman gunsmith, he took the drawings with him.

    When he started his new shop near Philadelphia, Cornish was near penniless, and for nearly two years he worked only on bread-and-butter items—repair, retuning rifles and shotguns for hunters, making cheap trade rifles for barter with the Indians—just to get by. As it was, he barely kept his head above water and his artistic abilities were fading, perhaps would have gone altogether except for a piece of wood.

    It came with a stack of rough-sawn blanks—dry pieces of gun-stock wood crudely hand sawn by a carpenter named Davis specifically to sell to Cornish for use in making rifle stocks. These

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1