Wise Man's Gun

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

Here is a gun that I choose to call the Wise Man's Gun since it is a wise and frugal man who chooses the simple over the ornate!

Anyways, this is a Southern rifle stocked in cherry.  Even though it is very simple, iron mounted without a buttplate or rear ramrod thimble, the lines of the stock flow so well.

LOA  55.00   LOP  14.00
Barrel LOA 39.00  Breech 0.900  Waist (8.0 from muzzle) 0.820  Muzzle 0.900 
Bore 0.510 7 groove rifling
Tang L 3.00
Butt  H 4.50  W 1.38
















A few notes:  The gun retains the original ramrod, or at least a very old one, tapered the full length with a cupped end to fit the ball.  There is still grease in the hole, like bees wax, hard with no obvious grease soaked into the surrounding wood.  The trigger guard is 3 piece riveted, and placed off center (oops!!).  The only decoration is the punch marks on the muzzle.  Apparently never shortened.

Jim

[rich pierce]

Thanks for posting.  I especially like the guard.  Is the trigger plate missing and do you think it ever had double set triggers?  I ask because I think I see a long trigger bar inlet.

[Longknife]

Check out the inletting of the barrel in the last picture, octagon barrel, ROUND channel,,,HA......I've seen this on many originals...Ed

[Mark Elliott]

The guard isn't that much off center.  It does line up with the toe.  It is just the the side plate panel is not cut to match the lock plate side.   This was a very quickly made gun.    The wrist architecture looks very Leheigh Valley.

[Eric Laird]

Is it just me, or does that look like Dixie's old Belgian made lock?

Eric

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

Good observations all.  The lock is a cheap replacement lock for an earlier replacement lock that required a "cross band" of iron to anchor the rear of the lock.  You can see the replacement wood where the "cross band" was.  The gun was always a flintlock, but the original flintlock was missing.  Note the cut out for the flint hammer shoulder.

The single trigger is mounted in a long plate, like that used for a double set trigger.  I have not removed the trigger or the trigger guard to check out the insides to see if it ever was equipped with double triggers.

Jim