Another D Boyer

[Dphariss]

This is a rifle belonging to a friend.
Barrel stamped D Boyer
Should have a few more photos later
Dan

[Buck]

Dpharris,
Target rifle?
Buck

[bdixon]

Big thick bugger!

[Shreckmeister]

I see the two screw holes in the flat of the forestock just before the nosecap.  Would there
have been some sort of rest attachment there in the day?

[SPG]

Suzcat,

I think that there was something in the way of a plate or possibly two smooth round head screws to facilitate
the rifle sliding on a block rest.

The rifle shoots very well. Barrel is hand forged by the way, and loads like a dream. It still has the original, unlined torch-hole which is not burned out.

Came out of a pawn shop in Phoenix with no provenance. Shows that one can still find some great guns in weird places.

Steve

[mr. no gold]

A nice big target/match rifle made by a builder who built the best of these, in my opinion.
Boyer seems to have built guns to order since they bounce all over in terms of engraving and other ornamentation common at the time. His guns always seem to be stocked in good wood.
At one time there would have been a brass plate on the bottom side of the muzzle.
Have to call the finder of this gun, 'Mr. Lucky' because he surely is. Thank you for showing it around, here.
Dick

[Dphariss]

A nice big target/match rifle made by a builder who built the best of these, in my opinion.
Boyer seems to have built guns to order since they bounce all over in terms of engraving and other ornamentation common at the time. His guns always seem to be stocked in good wood.
At one time there would have been a brass plate on the bottom side of the muzzle.
Have to call the finder of this gun, 'Mr. Lucky' because he surely is. Thank you for showing it around, here.
Dick

Its a really neat rifle and I do congratulate the owner regularly. We should also be glad he rescued it and its now in the hands of someone who appreciates it.
I shudder to think how many may have gone to WW-I and WW-II "scrap drives"...
A man I knew who left the US to enlist in the Canadian Army during WW-I told me when he got back only the stock from one of his "good guns" was left. I was too inexperienced at the time to ask what they had been. But they were Kentuckies....

Dan

[Don Getz]

Wow, another big, heavy klunky Boyer gun.      I know where there is another D. Boyer barn gun, so far have not been
able to buy it.   Should check back in my ancestry, there's probably a Boyer in there somewhere, although I don't think
mine are quite as "Klunky" as his.  Most of his guns have a butt that appears to have been dragged thru some stones
to round it off.........pretty crude................Don

[SPG]

Mr. No Gold,

I thought the same thing about a brass plate as I've owned some other rifles with the same set-up. This one, however, does not show any evidence on the finish of ever having a plate, at least for any length of time. I'm wondering if the screw holes were a later addition by a previous owner?

Another interesting feature- the ramrod hole does not extend past the rear entry pipe. The ramrod is purely cosmetic and would seem to be done merely to meet the requirements of some of the old matches that specified that the rifle must carry a ramrod. The hole hasn't been plugged-I thought that might be the case-it was never drilled.

I think that the barrel being hand forged is another strange detail. It is big- 1.425 at the breech and 1.380 at the muzzle- and I would have thought that given the gun is late in the flintlock period that Boyer would have done the barrel from a bar. Maybe the barrel was from an earlier rifle?

It is .487 on the land, .522 in the groove, seven narrow grooves with a 48" twist and a perfect bore. It was fit with a rear peep sight, typical of the period. That was missing but is soon to be rectified. The first three shots fired from the rifle all overlapped by half at 60 yards. It's been in three turkey matches here and won them all.

Winning matches is something I think this old girl is used to doing...

Steve