Can someone Identify a W. B. Dickert percussion rifle please?

[dick_linn]

Greetings, I'm new to this forum, and I'm trying to get a little information on a  family rifle that goes back to my Great Grandfather, at least.

This is a picture of the plate along the bottom of the stock.  
Here is a site with some more pictures of the rifle.  
http://dicky_linn.webs.com/techsheets.htm
I'm trying to get more info on this gun.  It was my Great grandfather's and he may have gotten it from his Father or Grandfather. They Lived in Western Pennsylvania until the 1820's-30's? and then migrated to Illinois.  Is  W.B. Dickert have any association with Jacob Dickert? Caliber of the rifle is .32? .36? small bore at any rate. I'm not really concerned with it's worth, it's a family keepsake, and being cut down and missing the lock, I realize it wouldn't be worth much anyway.  
I'm just looking for whatever historical data there is on the gun and/or maker, and if it may have originated from western Pa. in the time period when my ancestors lived there.  
Thanks for any and all help,
Dick

[Tanselman]

The name on the toe plate is most likely an owner of the gun. If the maker signed the gun, you should find a name, or initials, on top of the barrel several inches behind the rear sight. If there is something there, please let us know. If we could locate the gunmaker, then the owner was probably in or near that county, and it would simplify research to locate him.

There is no "W. B. Dickert" listed as a gunmaker, so most members on this site will not be able to assist you in identifying the man. If you want to locate him, and see if there is a family connection with gunmaker Jacob Dickert of Lancaster, PA, I'd suggest finding a library within driving distance with a good genealogy department, and go through census date of PA beginning with the 1840 census, plus check 1850 and 1860 as well. If you can't do that, perhaps an internet check or  call to the PA state library can put you in touch with a researcher there who could check the records for you at a nominal charge. You may be able to identify the owner of this rifle. With its back action lock and lack of a cheekpiece, I would suspect it dates somewhere from the 1840s to 1850s. Shelby Gallien

[dick_linn]

Sorry I didn't mention this earlier, but the name is very faintly still visible just behind the sight, as you suggest. It doesn't come out in photographs, so I didn't post a picture.
All I could find out about Dickert's family is he had one daughter, and she married a "gill" I believe.  I guess from the lack of response that this gunmaker is very obscure or else this is just a rifle personalized by a previous owner. 
Thanks for the info on the back lock and lack of cheekpiece.  Knowing the rough time frame of manufacture is a help in placing it in the family geneology.
It's beginning to look like this is just an old gun that was acquired somewhere along the way. I did visit the family ancestral homeland in southwestern Pa some years ago, Near McConnellsville,Pa, doing research, but didn't realize at the time this name might bear investigating.
Thanks for the help
Dick

[Tanselman]

Dick,  If you would tell us whatever you can decipher from the barrel signature, even if you can only read a few letters, or guess at them, particularly the first letters of the name/s, we still may be able to figure out who the maker is, which would help locate where the gun was made, and narrow your search for the "Dickert" owner. Shelby Gallien

[dick_linn]

Sorry I wasn't clear in the last post, the name on the barrel appears to be "W. B. Dickert", as on the toe plate.  Also, I didn't mention it here before, the caliber is small, ie, 32-36. 
Dick