Joseph Golcher lock, 37 3/4" barrel,4 1/2" tang,swamped barrel .900 @ muzzle to .870 ( 11" from muzzle) to .900 at breech. Slight sow belly in butt stock.Pewter entry continues into pewter heart that continues into pewter star with hole in center.About .36 cal.,slightly coned to the eye. Wide lands,narrow grooves. Key escutcheons are German silver, all else brass. Very slender trigger guard.Walnut stock.
Addendum:
Update on comments of unknown 1/2 stock.The front trigger is cracked and this was done by previous owner , she admitted this. The entry is poured continuous with the heart and star, not cast.Trigger guard is 9" long. And the gun was found in Texas.
Comments:
It's a strange little rifle, with the side facings having "finials" made of thin ridges running out from the front and back ends of the facings. I don't recall ever seeing that detail on a gun before. The front trigger raises the question of whether it is bent backwards, or was actually made in its current backward-sloping form. Unfortunately the barrel appears to have been shortened sufficiently to remove any name or initials of the gunmakers.
This is a tough one, and I'm guessing it's one that Nord won't see New York details in! Since it's a somewhat later rifle, with the thin guard, highly extended butt plate heel and wedge inlays attached with screws, it could be from almost anywhere, and quite possibly outside of the more conventional gunmaking areas or states in the eastern United States. It also doesn't have much of a "southern" feel to it, in my opinion. With the pewter five-pointed star behind the cast muzzle cap, it makes me wonder if it possibly might have come from down Texas way.
-----------------------------------------------
A good surmise! The star and what appears to be a heart or perhaps an ace of spades next to it suggests a western origin. Chris Hirsch wrote a book, recently published, on Texas guns and the answer may lie in its pages. Film at eleven.
------------------------------------------------
I'm guessing that the closest that gun has ever come to NY is when I captured the photos and placed them on my server.
The wood, the style, the triggers... Nothing suggests the northeast. On the other hand I might be a bit suspicious of a Belgian gun as I've seen some examples vaguely similar in design. Both were Civil War period. Both went to war with their owner and both still have the shipping tags where the rifles were returned when the owner was issued a military weapon.
I'd really like to see the stamping under the barrel if it hasn't disappeared as the barrel was shortened.
