Grooved or No groove

[n stephenson]

I have been looking at pictures of  original Jacob Dickert rifles in preparation for a project. I haven't been able to see details on muzzle caps. Did he use grooved caps ," ramrod groove", or , mostly not , or did he use both . Ungrooved earlier in his career, grooved later? Any input welcome,.  Thanks Nate

[deepcreekdale]

Looking at my copy of The Lancaster Longrifle, which has many pictures of Dickerts work they all appear non-grooved. One thing with Dickerts, rifles, he had many gunsmiths working for him, later in his career he was more of a shop manager than a solo gunbuilder, so there may be many variations. That is what makes this all so fun!

[Don Stith]

The two 1792 Contract rifles, built by Dickert, that I have seen had grooved nose caps.  No way to extrapolate that to his normal production.

[Seth Isaacson]

These ones don't appear to have them:

Aspen Shade: http://www.aspenshadeltd.com/inventory_4rifles.html

Rock Island Auction: https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/68/327/kentucky-percussion

But this one appears to:

James D. Julia: https://jamesdjulia.com/item/3455-386/

[louieparker]

Nate I am attaching photos of an original Dickert nose cap. LP

[TommyG]

Nate, I too am in the early planning stages of an early Dickert build around RCA #48.  Looking at RCA 48, 49 & 50, there is a pic of a nosecap in RCA 50.  It does not have a groove.  I would be most interested to learn what exactly Dickert did with some of these types of nuances earlier in his career.  Another observation is with barrel pins vs keys.  From pictures in RCA vol. 1, it seems his earlier work used pins.

TomG

[rich pierce]

So many early flintlocks got converted to halfstock and percussion, then restored, that I am a little careful to assume every gun illustrated in the books we use is as it was originally.

[oldtravler61]

   Rich I agree wholeheartedly. Just because we haven't seen it doesn't mean it was never done. IMHO  Oldtravler

[louieparker]

I am with Rich on some of the rifles pictured in books. In the seventies a friend from Missouri said," Looking at rifles in books I wished my rifles were as good. Then I went East and saw some of these rifles. Mine were not only as good but better."

The nose cap I pictured is original and on an original flint rifle.  As for RCA # 48, It has about the same nose cap as I pictured with one exception.  It has two rivets, one on each side. Both are formed from one piece of brass and are slightly rounded on the front end. Both have rather deep grooves..

Rifle #50 appears to have a two piece nose cap........................LP

[TommyG]

Rich,  Thanks for the sound advice on not getting too caught up with the pictures.  For a novice builder as myself, I depend on people like you to steer me in the right direction. 
Louie,  Thanks for posting the pictures and passing on the details of the front nosecap on RCA 48.  Another detail that I now don't have to guess at. 
TomG

[rich pierce]

Thanks TomG. As Jim Kibler says, some are more informed or experienced than others. Here's my perspective on me. I've studied these guns since the late 70's but others have much more hands on experience with originals. I'm a hobby builder with very low productivity/slow turnaround of builds, and the many pros on this site can give much more experienced advice.

Some folks here are world class in their knowledge in a particular area, and are among the very best at building a particular style or period of rifle.

All I meant in my comments about originals in books is it's common that fore ends are restored since so many flintlocks got converted to percussion and turned into half stocks during their working life.  Then they were restored with best intent but some best guesswork on what the fore end should look like. Hopefully but not always, the restorer of a signed rifle had complete specimens by the same maker for comparison in the restoration work. If unsigned, then a lot more guesswork could be involved.

Take a look at this original. http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=45044.0  There are guns in our favorite books that started out in that condition.  No lock.  No barrel. No forestock. Maybe missing a guard.