Author Topic: Need help with two rifles....  (Read 2594 times)

county159

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Need help with two rifles....
« on: January 27, 2015, 08:43:26 PM »
Thanks in advance for anyone who can help me with info on two rifles I recently purchased. I'm looking for a more educated guess on maker, age, and value than I can come up with after a week long googling campaign!

First rifle is a full length stock, curly maple, PA style rifle. It has a very ornate brass patch box and brass buttplate that extends over the top and bottom of the butt. It has a raised cheek piece on the inside of the stock body. There is a brass plate that extends from the front bottom of the lock to the bottom of the ramrod channel. The lock is marked "Wm Moore & Co." and appears to possibly have been converted to percussion from flint. The hammer has various odd grind marks, possibly from repair. The barrel is moderately pitted but is marked "Tryon Philad." on top. The varnish on the wood is in good shape, but the wood itself shows shrinkage away from the lock, leaving the lock somewhat loose. The trigger guard is brass and covers double triggers that appear to be iron.

Second rifle is a half stocked, plains style percussion rifle with an engraved lock that is marked "A. BAKER" on the hammer side, and the barrel is marked "W Raymond Albion NY" The rifle is otherwise fairly plain.

I found scattered references to Tryon in Philadelphia, and lots of info on Wm Moore Shotguns, but nothing on rifles. The only A Baker references I could locate were for several British makers, and I have found absolutely nothing on W Raymond in Albion NY. Thank you all in advance for your input and in helping me overcome my ignorance on this subject!

Offline Dennis Glazener

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Re: Need help with two rifles....
« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2015, 09:37:05 PM »
county159,
Welcome to ALR, hope you enjoy your stay.

I am sure our members can give you all sorts of info on your rifles if they were able to see photos. Instructions for posting are in the tutorial forum or if easier for you upload the photos to a website and post the URL to them.

Its pretty hard to give much info about a rifle with only a text description of it.
Dennis
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend" - Thomas Jefferson

Offline OLUT

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Re: Need help with two rifles....
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2015, 09:57:29 PM »
As Dennis indicates, it's difficult to say much without photos . Swinney's books list Hiram Raymond of Albion, NY around 1850 and states there is some question why he marked his guns W. Raymond instead of with the initial H. ( Was his name W Hiram or Hiram W, or?). He is listed in various census lists as Hiram and working as a gunmaker from 1850 to 1875
The other gun was probably  upgraded from flint using parts from various producers & importers in the mid-1800's ..... such as a commercial  Moore marked lock and commercial Tryon barrel