Different question

[debnal]

This has never come up for me before. I have a rifle with a barrel that was bored out to .75 caliber smooth. The barrel is 1.25 inches at the breech and 1.0 inches at the muzzle. The ramrod pipes (original) come out .4 inches or 40 caliber. Can it be inferred by the size of the ramrod pipes, what the original bore might have been?
Al

[Jim Kibler]

I don't really think you'll find any strong correlation.  You sometimes see large bores with small rods etc.  I don't think there was that much concern with using as large a rod as possible relative to bore size. 

[Bob Roller]

A lot of old larger bore rifles with small rods were smaller bore when new and rerifling or recutting  or
"freshing out"made them into big bore guns.

Bob Roller

[Dphariss]

This has never come up for me before. I have a rifle with a barrel that was bored out to .75 caliber smooth. The barrel is 1.25 inches at the breech and 1.0 inches at the muzzle. The ramrod pipes (original) come out .4 inches or 40 caliber. Can it be inferred by the size of the ramrod pipes, what the original bore might have been?
Al

If it had a rod in the .380" range then its most likely something between .40 and .50. Might have been bigger but American rifles over 50 caliber become increasingly rare even in the 18th c from most comments from the time, what very few of them there are.
Boring a barrel this small at the muzzle this large makes me wonder how the underlugs are attached.

Dan

[Dphariss]

I should add "eastern American rifles" or "flintlock" to the above comments. Later, from the 1820s on, rifles made for the far western trade were generally over 50 caliber.

Dan

[Jim Chambers]

Have you considered the rifle might have had a steel ramrod rather than a wooden one?

[debnal]

Jim,
Since it is a Kentucky rifle with standard ramrod pipes I just figured the original ramrod was wooden. The rifle is a pre Rev War rifle and I just was curious as to how large he bore could have been
Al

[Eric Kettenburg]

The rifle is a pre Rev War rifle...

Care to post some pictures?  This I'd like to see.

[debnal]

Sorry, it will be published soon, with pictures.
Al

[Lucky R A]

Al,  Tom Paulhamous  an old KRA member (deceased) used to own a Bucks Co. gun made by Bloom.  The gun was an O/R fowler type w/ sights.  It was purpose built with a steel ramrod of about 1/4".  The bore was larger than a 20 ga.   The gun had liberty cap carvings at the front of the lock panels similar to Antis' work.
Ron

[debnal]

Eric,
The rifle I was referring to has just been published in the KRA Bulletin.
Al

[Fullstock longrifle]

I've had an opportunity to handle Al's rifle, it's an excellent piece.
Frank

[JTR]

Nice 'find' Al!
John

[Shreckmeister]

Speaking of the next KRA Bulletin.  When is it coming out.  I can't recall getting any this year.

[debnal]

The KRA Bulletin I was referring to was the Fall 2014 issue, which came out about two weeks ago.
Al

[spgordon]

I would be interested to know what others think about the rifle pictured in John Kolar's article in the Fall 2014 issue of the KRA Bulletin. The article is excellent, but most of it re-tells the events of Easter Sunday 1782 rather than analyzes the rifle itself. John states at the start that this rifle was manufactured by Joel Ferree "in the late 1770s" and then again at the end that it was "made by gunsmith Joel Ferree...between 1775 and 1780." He adds that "this rifle is thought by many to have been the one used by Ann Hupp in the defense of the Miller Block house on Easter Sunday in 1782."

The rifle also appears in the Lancaster Long Rifle book with similar proposed date. But no reason is given for the very specific dating of the rifle (1775-1780) either in that book or in the recent KRA Bulletin.

Is it mainly the provenance of the rifle (held in the Miller family until the 1990s) that suggests this date? I assume the lock, furniture, etc., point to this late 1770s date as well?