number 87

[bp]

The correct place for this post maybe antique collecting.  If so please move.
Has anyone had a chance to to inspect  RCA  87 the Orre/Graef rifle.   

If so, do you feel the lock or at least the plate is original?  Seems sear bar is odd for trigger location but hard tell from pictures how much cosmetic surgery has been done.  Thinking about getting something built in a similar vein.

PM if you wish. 

Thanks

Bruce

[Dave B]

It looks to me like it is a original lock. It may have had some work done but with the skill of some of the smiths out there you can be easily fooled. I was taken in along with several other memebers here by a piece made by one of the old timers. He had signed it half way between the front sight and rear sight. He had engraved the spitting image of the signature of J * Dickert if not mistaken where you would expect and we all took turns having our photos taken with it. Then we found the contemporary makers signature. Boy were we red faced.  That rifle in my opinion was the real deal till the signature proved other wise.  Trigger locations on some of these old pieces are not what I would call text book. It could be a replacement lock done in the period. The dissasembly of the lock from the rifle will possibly remove some of the doubt.