Right Screw Locks.

[Jerry Girard]

Hello All,
I collect guns with right screw locks. I have heard that John Young of Easton, PA secured some locks with a right screw & decorating the left side. A number of rifles from Oxford County Maine gunmakers used that lock system. Recently i came across a right screw lock rifle with the barrel stamped  "J.F. METCALF / RECUT BY / J. ALLEN / KALAMAZOO / MICH."sold through gunauctions.com. It had a right screw lockplate marked "WARREN / STEELE / ALBANY". Right screw lockplates of other lock makers have also been used.
I cannot find any information on J. F. Medcalf. Any information is welcomed. I would also like to know of other gunmakers that used right screw locks.
Thank you.
Jerry

[Mike Brooks]

Please explain a "right screw lock" I have been at this 40 years and am unfamiliar with the term.

[jdm]

I think he means hidden screws like on this John Young Jr. rifle

[Lucky R A]

      So are you saying that there is a nut hidden behind the sideplate and that the lock bolt has a countersunk head which fits a corresponding countersink in the lock plate?     Now about that trigger, which appears to have a backward front trigger, do you push the front trigger to fire the gun...This gun has more questions than answers...inquiring minds want to know...

[tim crowe]

Had a trigger like this one come into Steve Bookout's shop. The front set the trigger the rear fired the rifle. I have pictures somewhere of the internals of the lock.

[Jerry Girard]

The term right screw lock was used in Dwight Demeritt's book "Guns Made In Maine & Their Makers". The lock is secured to the breech plug through the lock with a screw. The left side flat has no screw showing as indicated in the photos. I bought this rifle from William Larkin Moore dealer.
Jerry

[WESTbury]

Jerry--Thanks for enlightening us.

[Bob McBride]

Here’s a contemporary one I own that Mike Brooks built a few years ago. Thanks for posting the pic, it's an interest of mine as well. The breach plug is threaded to take the lock screw.

More pics can be seen here:

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=41482.0

[JTR]

  Now about that trigger, which appears to have a backward front trigger,

Check out Rowan County, Carolina rifles for similar triggers. Rear trigger sets it, Pulling the front trigger normally, fires it.
Here's one I had many moons ago;

[Jerry Girard]

jdm,
Thanks for the photo. Could you also post the lock side of the Young rifle?
Bob, Thank you as well for the photos of the flintlock.
My interest in the right screw lock started when I began to obtain some of the Oxford County rifles from Dwight Demeritt whom I knew quite well. ( Unfortunately, Dwight passed away at age 90 in January, 2019). Although he found a few guns with the right screw lock from makers outside of Maine, he concluded that most of that style were made by Richard Houghton (about 20 known), Abel Spalding (1 known), Loren Wrisley (2 known) and Deploria Bisbee (3 known), the Oxford County gunsmiths. That county was the only place in Maine where Kentucky style rifles were made. A Richard Houghton is pictured below purchased from Amoskeag Auctions.
Question remains: who was J. F. Medcalf? Thank you all for your responses.
Jerry

[Mtn Meek]

The Atchison silver mounted J&S Hawken presentation rifle also has this feature.  A screw passes through the lock and screws into the standing breech.




I had assumed this was more common on English guns and that the breech and tang were English imports along with the lock.

[Jerry Girard]

Phil,
English guns have that lock feature. Many of the Oxford County Maine guns had imported locks marked "London Warranted". Pictured is an R. W. Houghton rifle dated 1838 with a London lock. However other maker's locks were also used with a right screw. Dwight wrote the 1st edition of his book in 1973, the 2nd was in 1998. Of course his conclusions could only be based on the information found at that time.
I am a member of the PAGCA and plan on an article on right screw locks for their newsletter, "The Monthly Bugle"
Jerry

[jdm]

Jerry, Sorry the Young rifle has moved on to a new home and I don't have pictures of the lock side. Here is a Henry Young rifle made the same way . Sorry no close ups of this one.
Yes the front trigger on the John Young is to set it.

[albert]

I restored a Benjaman Sells jr. rifle that had the screw going from the lock into the breechplug  , first one I  ever saw , since then I  located another of that type but unmarked .