These gunsmiths centered their activities around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for a number of good reasons. It was an important crossroads for trade at the time. It lay between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the wilderness to the west. The area also had large iron ore deposits for gun barrels and hardwood forests for gun stocks. The product that evolved from the earlier gun designs could shoot up to five times farther. The Pennsylvania rifle could accurately hit targets at . From about 1730 and through the War of 1812, the Pennsylvania rifle was the preferred long range rifle in America.