Author Topic: help ID this rifle  (Read 15930 times)

MGretz

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Re: help ID this rifle
« Reply #25 on: January 21, 2011, 06:09:05 PM »
Sounds like David definitely needs to take this rifle over to the gathering at Prairie State Longrifle Show in Princeton, Illinois, Feb 25th & 26th.  I believe he is planning on it.

Mike

Offline Dennis Glazener

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Re: help ID this rifle
« Reply #26 on: January 21, 2011, 06:23:01 PM »
I don't think anyone has mentioned this but to me that commode lid cap box does not go with this rifle. Any chance it was a late addition?
Dennis
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Offline G-Man

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Re: help ID this rifle
« Reply #27 on: January 21, 2011, 07:29:55 PM »
The cap box might have been a commercial piece rather than made by the gunsmith.  However, the finial is more ornate than most of those common late capboxes you see - the finial looks more to me like something shaped by the gunmaker.

Some other unique things this gun - one is the barrel tang - which looks more like something you might expect on a Soddy gun than upper East Tennesse or the Blount County area.  Perhaps the gun was re-breeched in its liftetime and the original tang inletting obliterated by this wide, long tang?

The other is the nosecap - it looks like it is open-ended to me, and held on with screws coming in at angles from the sides(?).  That is atypical for east Tennessee as well. 

Guy

38_Cal

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Re: help ID this rifle
« Reply #28 on: January 21, 2011, 10:29:38 PM »
Guy, the nosecap is a piece of sheet iron bent around the stock.  The end is filled with lead, which also flowed into a couple of holes at 4 and 8 o'clock on the sheet metal to hold it in place. 

On another note, I got to digging around in a box of m/l parts and found a bag of lock parts that I had forgotten about.  According to my daughter, since my hair has gone silver blond (not gray) I can now have blond moments instead of senior ones.  At any rate, I had pulled the lockplate off of the rifle, and looking at the contents of the bag, found that the bridle and plate wear matching numbers, and the mainspring, sear spring, sear and a couple of screws also match up to the plate.  I'll have to make a tumbler, or sleeve one to fit the 3/8" hole in the plate, and I have a blank hammer from that box that will work. 

I pulled the barrel from the stock and ran some Kroil down the bore to help loosen any interior rust.  After a couple of minutes, I noticed that it was leaking out of the breechplug thread area, and was able to pull the plug with finger pressure only.  Not good!  The drum appears to be in tight, but the nipple is battered and rusted in place.  Oh, yeah, the bore is going to be very shootable! 

Guy, the tang inletting shows no signs of having been redone.  The inletting is shallow to match the tang, and there are no extra chisel marks that would indicate either a shorter or narrower tang had been there. 

More later,
David

38_Cal

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Re: help ID this rifle
« Reply #29 on: March 02, 2011, 05:51:23 PM »
I was at the Prairie States Longrifle Show last weekend, and got to meet a few folks from the forum...great show, nice people!  Jerry Noble took one look at this rifle and told me Samuel Keller...no hesitation, no doubts about it.  Thanks, again, guys for all the comments, suggestions, and help!

David

Offline Ken G

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Re: help ID this rifle
« Reply #30 on: March 02, 2011, 06:24:10 PM »
David,
Glad you were able to get a good ID on the maker.  Thanks for sharing the photos with us.   
Ken
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Offline gibster

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Re: help ID this rifle
« Reply #31 on: November 24, 2011, 07:49:03 PM »
Check out the pictures of this Samuel Keller rifle with the ones that I posted under Another who, when and where iron mounted rifle.  Same box, guard, tang, forestock molding, etc.