Questions about a rifle I just bought

[newtire]

Hi all,

New here but not new to shooting.   This posting is about a percussion rifle that I just bought and would like to shoot.

Sorry about the rather long-winded description but I wanted to get in  as much about the gun as possible.  So here goes...


I bought this rifle on GBr in January 2018 for $800.00.  It reminds me of the guns I saw in a museum in Speyer, Germany while vacationing there back in the 1980’s.  There were racks of these kinds of rifles standing right next to the aisle where one could touch them.  Most of those were vastly more ornate than this one I ended up with.  The thing that set them apart was just how deep the rifling grooves were.  They all had very deep grooves and we're of a very large bore.

So, this rifle of mine is supposed to be .62 caliber and it has very deep cut 16 groove rifling.  The bore appears to be very clean and shiney.  The rifle weighs about 18 pounds with a 33” octagon to round barrel.  There are 4- tapped holes of approximately ¼” diameter on the bottom side of forend for maybe some sort of palm rest.  Written/engraved in script on the top flat is the inscription “E  Trischh~necht.a.Schpeiker”.  The sights are a rear one with a ⅜” tube for an aperture and a hooded front blade.  Rear sight is screw adjustable for both windage and elevation.  Set trigger with rear of a normal curved design and the front being a kind of thin wire with a screw adjustment. There is no provision for a ramrod in the heavy figured walnut-looking stock.  Has a hooked buttplate with it, the toeplate, the trigger guard, and drilled & tapped strip on bottom of forend being made of brass.  The nose cap is made of horn. 

Does anyone have an idea of what I have here and/or what kind of ball & patch combination or bullet I may be looking at?  Looking down into the bore, I can see that the rifling makes one complete turn in the 33” length of the barrel.  This would seem to be a barrel made for a slug rather than a round ball.  Light powder charge with a round ball??  I am guessing at this point.  I used one of those little battery powered LED light  made to be put on a fishing float or a lure maybe.  They are about 1-½” long and .150” in diameter and drop right down the barrel of any muzzleloader barrel, so I got a good view of the rifling.

So, anyone have any ideas of what I have and what loads I might use?

Thanks in advance,

Calvin

 

[L. Akers]

Sounds like a Swiss/German offhand target rifle.

[Daryl]

ditto - must post pictures or it didn't happen.

[newtire]

OK here goes with the pictures

[Mike Brooks]

Probably shoots a paper patched bullet. I have never seen one of these larger than .45 or so shot in competition.

[Daryl]

Neat gun! Well done, good find and inexpensive.

Appears the grooves are filed out to appear deeper than they are. This is quite common, but is not to say the grooves are not deep, however a measurement is better than guessing. It will be necessary to measure the depth, thus groove diameter as well as the bore diameter and to ascertain the rifling twist.

Is there any provision for inserting a smaller aperture 'ring' or part inside the rear 'peep"?

The current hole is huge and too large to be useful as an aperture sight.

Once we know the bore and groove diameters along with the depth of grooves & rifling twist, we can ascertain or rather make an educated guess as to the correct projectile for this remarkable match rifle.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

[smokinbuck]

18# is awfully heavy for any type of offhand rifle. It has all the lines and hardware of a Schuetzen rifle, were they shot from bench or rest? Perhaps the threaded holes were for some sort of shooting post or a yoke.
Mark

[Daryl]

I would estimate for anyone over the age of perhaps 40, 18 pounds would be too heavy for standing shooting.  At 21yrs. old - maybe if in excellent physical shape and strong.

On the other hand, Harry Pope of rifle barrel making fame, once noted that a man's 'standing position' rifle should be 16 pounds and a woman's standing position rifle should be 12 pounds. He also

noted that if these weights were too heavy, THAT person needed muscle development until they could hold the rifle for a 10 shot match.

He was referring to the use of hooked butt plates and palm rests & perhaps the use of shooting jackets as well.

[will payne]

That gun has thick barrel. Looks like it was built to withstand a big explosion possibly the ball will go farther.