barrel signing

[yip]

  which is correct ln signing a barrel, from breech to muzzle  (looking from lock side on right handed rifle ) or from muzzle to breech?...............yip

[Ed Wenger]

Like so many other aspects of Longrifles, I'm not sure I'd say one or the other is "correct".  I've seen them signed both ways, but breech to muzzle seems to have been the most popular.



        Ed

[ddoyle]

 (looking from lock side on right handed rifle )

I'd guess the other way (but only an opinion)   if it has to be on the top sign it so it can be read  when the rifle is held, the way it will be held in use (right hand on wrist, left hand on forearm) the letters presenting themselves from left to right. Do not force some one to look at upside down or back wards writing all day while they sit on a stump and try to admire the gun on their lap.

This will be opposite to how you would want it presented for a rifle on a stand or on a wall or on an internet show and tell pic. People who are looking at a rifle they are not holding can walk away the hunter is stuck with it.

Just another opinion but I find it very unique to see a signed barrel that does not detract from the overall gun. A touch mark or tactful stroke is a bit classier then a graffiti style tag on a perfectly struck, draw filed and fitted rifle barrel! Odd practice, Imagine if the guys at the mine, the steel mill, the rolling mill, the boring and rifling shop and then the assembler all signed the barrel LOL.

[smallpatch]

Opinions are like armpits I guess.
Mine is like Ed's.  From the lock side, breech to muzzle.
Settles trying to remember that guys name, when some one asks........who built that beautiful rifle?

[t.caster]

I've always signed mine from sight to the breech on longrifles & fowlers. The last two Jaegers I built are just opposite. My Jaeger book shows all of them signed or stamped from breech to sight, so you read it from the lock side.

[WadePatton]

So this has me wondering if you build a left-hander would you sign from muzzle to breech?

[smokinbuck]

On my left handers I sign them from the muzzle to the breech. More often than not you will hold a rifle with the lock facing you. Signed otherwise it would be upside down. Reverse for a right handed rifle.
Mark

[James Rogers]

So this has me wondering if you build a left-hander would you sign from muzzle to breech?

Ha Ha! I am doing one now and have been contemplating that. I have decided to sign muzzle to breech to be read from lock side.

[oldtravler61]

How much is over kill on signing a gun? Guess it's personal choice. But when you sign your name,number,town made in. Month, year  it was built. Is it all necessary plus the new owners name. Just wondering

[Clark Badgett]

If I sign my barrel it will have to be with a sharpie. 

[David Rase]

Well, it's official.  I just looked at photos of a number of my guns I have built over the years and have come to the conclusion that the direction of my signature on the barrel is directly related to how the wind is blowing at the time of my signing.  I have engraved both muzzle to breech and breech to muzzle.  The latest pistol I am finishing up is signed on the left side oblique flat since the top flat is covered with an adjustable bar sight. 
David 

[Ky-Flinter]

If I sign my barrel it will have to be with a sharpie. 

Clark,

I laughed so hard, beer shot out my nose!

-Ron

[54ball]

How much is over kill on signing a gun?

" " John Bartholomew Jones the Younger" made for Joshua Hagar Bentley the Third "Esquire"  on the Eleventh day of the Eleventh month presented on the Eleventh Hour on this day in the Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Sixteen to commemorate his Paternal grandfather's World War One Service although flintlocks rifles were not used in World War One and Joshua Hagar Bentley the First carried a Eddystone Enfield United States Model of Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen just like Sergeant Alvin York but in recent years it has been confirmed by some sources that York actually carried a United States Springfield Model of Nineteen Hundred and Aught Three This rifle is not original and is so marked even though a quick inspection of the barrel maker's mark on the bottom flat at the breech and screw pitch will reveal it's modern construction I the maker John Bartholomew Jones the Younger do mark said barrel to prevent some potential unknown future collector mistaking this rifle for an original although it should be fairly obvious for all except for the aforementioned inexperienced collector This rifle is Fifty Four Caliber to the inch or weighted at twenty eight to thirty to balls to the pound depending on the scale and the alloy used for the lead ball this rifle is Black Power Only any use of any other gunpowder or propellant voids any implied or not implied warranty and the maker John Bartholomew Jones the Younger advised the owner Joshua Hagar Bentley the Third that the use of this rifle is at his "Bentleys" own risk and that the maker is not responsible for any failure ,act of God, accident or mishap that should befall the shooter and or shootee."

[Kingsburyarms]

Either a rifle for a Lawyer or a 753" Barrel. 

[oldtravler61]

54 ball after all that. Any room left to put the sights on without messing up the writing,warranty etc ! Only thing missing is the lawyers e-mail an phone #. Must be on the ramrod pipes.

[smallpatch]

So I take it you guys don't sign your guns?

[oldtravler61]

Smallpatch just name an year. Nothing more. How much else do you really need. But to each his own it's their gun.