Swamped barrels

[oldfox]

Being a newbie at this, I was wondering if swamped barrels are used with half stocks, or is that just a full stock feature?

[Robby]

Old fox, I don't think they are, typically, but just about anything we can do probably has been done before. I have done two, both started as 36" barrels, on both I made wooden ribs for them. On one I cut about an inch and a half off the barrel. Both turned out as nice trim guns that held and shot very nice.
Robby

[Dphariss]

There are no absolutes.
Many English rifles used swamped barrels well into the percussion era.
I would not be surprised to find American 1/2 stocks with swamps as well. But they would not be common.

Dan

[oldfox]

Thank you gentlemen...   

[homerifle]

Several years back I saw a original swamped barreled Virginia rifle that was half stock. It had a full size patch box and the original flintlock converted to percussion. It also had a neatly poured pewter nose cap with iron under the barrel rib. I think a build that portrayed a conversion job on the lock and stocked to look similar to what I just described would be neat.

[Karl Kunkel]

Maybe some older longrifles that had been 'modernized' - had the barrels re-breached and the forestocks cut back, or maybe even broken and cut off?

[homerifle]

I would like to add that the rifle I described in my other post most diffently started out as a full stock.

[rsells]

I have had two half stock rifles in the shop that were made by the same hand that were 45 inch long swamped barrels.  There was no indication that they were previously full stocked rifles.  The muzzle of both swamped barrels were bigger across the flats than the breech.  They were a bit different all around.  Only two I have seen in my part of the country built like this and for sure not the norm. 
                                                                             Roger Sells

[Gaeckle]

Yes, swamped barrels were used on halfstocks, but I don't think to often.......I have an original that sports a swamped forged barrel, the barel was once in a fullstock and had been repurposed to make a halfstock. One can see where the underlugs had been.

[Dphariss]

Maybe some older longrifles that had been 'modernized' - had the barrels re-breached and the forestocks cut back, or maybe even broken and cut off?

There is an account of "Old Blackfoot" in "Firearms of the American West 1803-1865". Describes this. The rifle was traded from the Blackfeet with a broken stock. It ended up in Bent's Fort where it was restocked and used as a match rifle, then it was traded for by another traveler who took it to St Louis where it was modified and modernized.

Rifle barrels were not often thrown away.

Dan

[Captchee]

 there is a flintlock , half stock rifle in the  Sam Houston museum that was made by Gustavus Erichson  which carries a swamped barrel thats in 50 cal and 43 inchs long .
its down about 3/4 of the way on this link
http://www.texasguntrade.com/texassportingrifles.htm

[oldfox]

there is a flintlock , half stock rifle in the  Sam Houston museum that was made by Gustavus Erichson  which carries a swamped barrel thats in 50 cal and 43 inchs long .
its down about 3/4 of the way on this link
http://www.texasguntrade.com/texassportingrifles.htm

There appears to be no rib under the barrel.  Were the ramrod pipes attached to the barrel?  Screws or solder?

[firelock-inc]

Old Black Foot was in Minneapolis, MN years ago.
It has a long swamped barrel, with percussion lock
and half stock.

At the time Pete Harvey was asking $10,000 and
and it included the WEBB book with it.

I was able to handle this Sam Hawken Rifle and
remember it seemed light and balanced well.

Rickp

[Captchee]

 i would bet they were soldered to the barrel .
 i built a 1/2 stock  with a 39 inch swamped barrel a couple years ago and  used an under rib .
   What I did was  solder the rib to the barrel  and then filed the rib so that it allowed for a strait profile for the pipes to run.