A revolving flintlock rifle!

[trentOH]

If you are trying to decide what to get me for Christmas....

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/78286687_a-rare-flintlock-revolving-gun-from-carlsbad

I checked my couch but couldn't find enough jingle to buy it.
Seriously, I have never heard of such a rifle. Double barreled and twist rifles, yes, but a 4 shooter? Nope!

[retired fella]

Really cool but what about a spark jumping into another pan.  That could ruin your day.

[L. Akers]

Seriously, I have never heard of such a rifle. Double barreled and twist rifles, yes, but a 4 shooter? Nope!

Beside the rather crude Puckel revolving gun,  John Dafte, about 1680,  invented a single action, self-rotating, self- priming, 6-shot flintlock revolving action.  Another revolving action was invented by Artemus Wheeler but called the Collier, who was the manufacturer, about 1800--less refined than the Dafte, it was self-priming but the cylinder had to be rotated by hand.  Colliers had 5-9 cylinders.

Really cool but what about a spark jumping into another pan.  That could ruin your day.

The subject gun would probably been made by an Austrian gunsmith and you can safely bet the family farm the frizzens would have been fit to the pans tight enough to preclude such an event.

[oldtravler61]

  What amazing workmanship an engraving. How they accomplished this kind of work back then is truly remarkable....Oldtravler

[Flint62Smoothie]

... me thinks I am more stunned at the hefty 30.5% Buyer’s Premium, than I am from the artistry and craftsmanship of that flintlock!

[Bob Roller]

Several years ago,Ralph Marcum in McKee,Ky. had a 4 shot revolving flintlock made
by Joe Sivits in Pennsylvania. It was a fine job and performed well.I haven't seen it
again anywhere and probably it's in a collection of contemporary flintlock rifles.
Bob Roller

[trentOH]

How do you think that rifle was loaded? Did you have to disassemble the rifle to load the cylinder? There are a couple of thimbles but nothing near the muzzle, so any ramrod would be a short one.

[Tanselman]

It appears the bottom chamber is clear to load into...so with a short ramrod I'd guess you load one chamber at a time, just like a pistol, always rotating the next empty chamber to the bottom position for loading. It would be a lot easier than loading a 46" barrel longrifle! Shelby Gallien

[Frank Graves]

The "Collier" Revolving Rifle was patented in 1818 by Artimas Wheeler in America and by Bostonian Elisha Collier in England. As a partner in the all-American concern, Bostonian Cornelius Coolidge patented the same design in France in 1819. Three Collier rifles and pistols are known today, for which the cylinder is advanced by a clockwork mechanism when the cock is pulled back. Additionally, over seventy-five Collier long guns and pistols out of the approximately 225 made have been presently identified whose cylinders are hand-rotated. Artimas Wheeler took out a second patent for a redesigned revolving cylinder gun in 1824, and the US Navy bought four for trials; two are revolving cylinder rifles and two seven-barrel pepperbox carbines. The Collier revolver, variously termed as the Wheeler, Collier and Coolidge gun, figure prominently in the 1851 and 1852 patent infringement trials that Colt brought against his competitors. In the trials, the defendants accused Colt of having taken and concealed what is believed to be the aforementioned 1680 Dafte revolver whose cylinder is advanced with a pawl and ratchet, so that it would not be available as evidence in the trial. The Dafte revolver is on display at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, England.

I don't have a Collier flintlock rifle to show, but I do own this pictured five shot Collier flintlock revolving pistol that shows the same cylinder, frizzen and lock area as does the rifle. The tolerances are very close, especially considering that the Collier flintlock revolver was manufactured in the early 1820s.  On the long guns and the pistols, loading is through the front of the cylinder with a short rod after the cylinder plate is removed.  The frizzen contains priming powder that is metered out to the pan for each shot.

A well researched book on Elisha H. Collier and his products and patents is being written and is to hopefully be released in late 2020 or 2021.

[Craig Wilcox]

Frank, I, for one, appreciate your scholarly discourse on the revolving flintlock.  That picture really impresses me with it's workmanship.
So, that frizzen, each time it is lowered to cover the pan, discharges a small amount of powder from the hopper constructed on the back of the frizzen,  And the groove on top of each cylinder hole - is that the flash hole leading to the charge?
About what caliber were these fascinating rifles?  I imagine someone getting terrified when the shooter keeps shooting, and shooting, and shooting!  I would sure dislike being on the wrong end of the muzzle.

[mr. no gold]

A sad story relating to these pistols: there was one known cased set of Collier pistols. One was flintlock and the second was percussion.
I saw the set before it was sold to a collector. Later I learned that his home and collection had bben ravaged by a fire and everything was lost.
The set was magnificent and fully equipped with all the tools. What a loss!

[Seth Isaacson]

Here is a matched pair of the pistols that were sold at Rock Island earlier this year (note that between filming the video and completing the catalog I learned of another pair).
https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/77/3182/matched-pair-of-eh-collier-revolving-flintlock-pistols

Here is a revolving rifle Rock Island sold back in 2016:
https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/69/3165/collier-patent-flintlock-rifle

[Frank Graves]

The previous description was from myself and Ben Nicholson, who is heading up the research for the upcoming book. 

The long guns and pistols have one pan, as shown here, and the cylinder has the appropriate number of touch holes to each chamber in the very closely fitted cylinder.  The frizzen meters out a small amount of priming powder into the pan when it is closed.  The hand revolved cylinder is counterbored to engage the reverse of the barrel breech to affect a tight seal.  When the trigger is pulled and the hammer falls, an internal lug and block bears against the rear face of the cylinder to hold the cylinder tight to the barrel against the recoil.



The pistols are .40 caliber smooth bore and the long guns when rifled usually are .56 caliber.  The shotguns vary somewhat in bore size.

I am also involved in the Collier research project.  We know of the cased pair that was lost in the California fire as Mr. No Gold recounted.  We have a picture of them from an auction catalog that will be shown in the book.  Actually, one was percussion and the other was a pill lock.  They were numbered sequentially and were no doubt cased as a pair and why they had two different ignition systems is curious to us. 

The Collier firearms are all very well made.  We are keenly interested in locating any Colliers out there that we are not aware of.

[Craig Wilcox]

Frank, thanks for showing and relating the firing and priming mechanisms.
Even today, with all our precise machinery, it would be difficult to match the level of expertise that these firearms display.  The idea of the breech block, and the close match to the barrel, is especially tedious to have been made in any era.