Contempory gun,original lock?

[pathfinder]

This is a gun from an estate I aquired not too long ago.

I havent seen any William Border gun's in flint,but to be fair,I only have James Wiskers book. The gun was built in 1965 by Harold Harter

It has a very fine piece of quilted maple with some very nice Sterling inlay's and wire.
Any thoughts on the lock? It's VERY tight and sparky!

[Mark Elliott]

When I saw the lock, my first impression was Russ Hamm.    Some of the older guys will have to chime in here.  I don't know if he was making locks in 1965, but he was in the 70's and this lock reminds me of one of his.   Just a thought,  don't take it for anything other than that.

[pathfinder]

I did compare it with a Hamm lock I have,close,but no cigar. And the W B script? Who knows. It's a great gun. I've lapped the barrel and I have 3 forestock inlay's to replace,(of course I had to wait till silver was sky high!),and she'll be ready to do what she was meant to,HUNT!

[heinz]

I know Mr Hamm was making locks in 1965. There was also a guy in Michigan who made a similar lock that was pretty rough inside but worked OK. Cochrane maybe?

[Bob Roller]

The Hamm lock was the rough one.The Cochran lock wasn't too bad
and  was patterned after a lock I made for a while.
Let's see the inside of that lock and that will tell the story.
Bob Roller

[pathfinder]

Figured Bob would know! I'll get pic's tomorrow.

[Dphariss]

Sutter made some rough Bedford locks as well.
The cock appears to be a Russ Hamm "Gonter" but he used a "Maslin" cock on his IIRC. The frizzen spring is Russ Hamm near as I can tell.
Its remotely possible that its a WB percussion lock someone converted to flint.
A look at the internals would be very enlightening. But if the Hamm cock was used then Hamm internals might be as well...
Its not shaped as Hamm did his but the plate could have been modified.

Dan

[pathfinder]

Let's see if these will help. So far the concensis is that it is NOT a 19th century lock? Harold Harter built the gun in '65,and at that time,fella's seemto be using original parts and building "new" gun's. I dont know,I was 11!








I'm nowhere near knowing what I'm doing with this machine,like my gun making,I know just enough to be dangerous! I suppose if you click on the pic,it;ll take you to the page with the pic's.

[Bob Roller]

Looks like a scramble of new and old parts and none of good quality.
Possibly made as an expedient in the absence of something better.
I have seen one that was worse on a rifle made by Hacker Martin and
for sale in a shop here in WV many years ago.
The mainspring pictured appears to be a casting.
Bob Roller

[pathfinder]

I'm still curious about the engraving on the plate. The lock is fairly tight and sparks really well. It's old and was abused,took a lot of cleaning to get it to this point! I was able to lapp the barrel to a really shiney finish,and the rifling is crisp and sharp. The only marls on the barrel are: 1   22   8       45. It even has that engraved around the muzzle. It is a .45,I use .440 balls with pillow ticking. Havent shot it enough to get it grouped,but it handles very well. And it goes off everytime...so far!

Any other thought's?