This is a Jamestown Rifle made by J S Armfield and Son dated 1876 on the silver inlay under the forearm. The rifle is restored which raises the hackles on some collectors, but when I bought it, it had been “butchered” by someone who attempted to make it a full stock by using an older swamped barrel and splicing a piece of wood from the dated silver inlay on the forearm forward. To say it was a hack job would be an understatement. Fortunately, all the silver hardware from the dated inlay to the butt plate was still there. The rifle originally had a patent breech with an English style lock. You can see in the pictures the breech area and that the wood was never cut for the typical breech plug where the lock bolt would go through the rear of the tang. There was some wood removed inside the tang area for a brazed repair to the tang. Thankfully, whoever did the initial butchering of the rifle, cut the original tang and welded it to the rear of the swamped barrel that they used, so I was able to salvage the original tang (complete with the brazed repair) for the restoration. I was able to get an original barrel from another ALR member to use for the restoration. I had to use a modern patent breech and under rib for the barrel. I used the original tang and cut the new tang that came with the breech plug and welded it to the “hooked” portion. The wood was replaced from the dated silver inlay forward. From research, it seems that most Jamestown rifles that have a brass trigger guard and butt plate, have brass ram rod thimbles and a brass nose cap. I own a Henry Wright that is that way. But from what I found, if the maker used a silver trigger guard and butt plate, it seems that they also used silver for the ram rod thimbles and the nose cap. I don’t know if this is always the case, but from pictures on Bill Ivey’s book on Carolina Rifles, this seems to fit. So, since this rifle had the silver trigger guard and butt plate, I opted to go with silver for the ram rod thimbles and nose cap. I don’t know of a resource for an entry thimble like was used on Jamestown rifles so I made one from sheet silver, along with the two on the rib. The nose cap was bought and cut to the length of the nose caps on my other Jamestown rifles. The silver cap box has a brass lid, which I decided to leave on the rifle. I don’t know when the original lid was replaced, but from looking closely at it, it appears to have been some time ago. I don’t think that it was replaced by whoever butchered the rifle in an attempt to make a full stock out of it.
The reason that I am posting all this information is so that in the future, if this rifle is in circulation, there is documentation that is has been restored. I felt that this rifle deserved to be put back as close to original as possible which is what I attempted to do.
