The Pennsylvania rifle, from about 1815 on, almost universally known as the Kentucky rifle, is a special American gun. For decades in American History, it was the best shooting long-distance rifle in America. The Pennsylvania rifle was the product of German gun makers who moved to Pennsylvania hundreds of years ago. This was in the early 1700s. Settlers and people who lived on frontiers started to really like the gun. One of the early frontiers was Kentucky. People like Daniel Boone used the gun there. So the rifle started to be known as the "Kentucky rifle".