Need help identifying this old gun

[Bulldurhamn]

[mr. no gold]

Nice rifle; thank you for showing it here. It appears to be a Jamestown, NC rifle. Any signature on the top flat of the barrel? How about a Roman numeral behind the rear sight? There were a lot of makers in that area of NC and if unsigned it might make it a little harder to identify who built it.
Dick

[okieboy]

 Well, that is not a Leman rifle and the stamping on the lock above "Lancaster" does not appear to be "Leman", but the "engraving on the lock-plate and hammer certainly looks like the stamp used in the Leman factory. Interesting. There are probably as many or more rifles rebuilt from salvaged parts with Leman barrels or Leman locks as there are original Lemans.

[mbriggs]

Dick was correct, the rifle was made between 1840 - 1890 in Jamestown, N.C.  There were as many as 85 gunsmiths who worked in this school during this period.  They were the largest longrifle school in the South.  I have only found signed rifles by 38 of those men.  I believe the others mostly worked as farmers nine months a year and made rifles during the winter to provide extra income. if the rifle is not signed on the barrel, there is no way to know which gunsmith in this school made it.

I have written a book, "The Longrifle Makers of Guilford County" about this group of men if you are interested.

These men did not make their own locks and imported them from Pennsylvania except during the Civil War period.  Leman and Golcher are the two most common.  After the railroad was completed to Jamestown, they also imported their rifle barrels.

Michael   

[Bulldurhamn]

[Bulldurhamn]

I found some markings behind the rear sights. The gun has been handed down through the family, but know one knows much about it. It was my great uncle that had the gun. He was born in the 1890’s. And it was handed down to him. But we only live about 30 miles from Jamestown  NC.

[WESTbury]

Uh-Oh--here we go again, "can of worms"!

Looks as though it was deliberately struck in a somewhat random pattern with a sharp ended instrument. This could have been for a number of reasons known only to the person that did it. It is definitely NOT writing. Refer to April 15th post by MdLock to see what fun we had with that.

It's a very nice rifle, thanks for sharing it with the forum.

[mbriggs]

Bulldurhamn,
I have owned hundreds of these old Jamestowns over the last forty years.  I have found that 70% to 80% of them will have a roman numeral stamped on the barrel behind the rear site.  When the rifle was sold, it came with a matching bullet mold.  The mold would have the same roman numeral stamped on the top flat.  That is how the gunsmith knew which mold went with which rifle.

 


Michael

[Niall]

Bulldurhamn,
I have owned hundreds of these old Jamestowns over the last forty years.  I have found that 70% to 80% of them will have a roman numeral stamped on the barrel behind the rear site.  When the rifle was sold, it came with a matching bullet mold.  The mold would have the same roman numeral stamped on the top flat.  That is how the gunsmith knew which mold went with which rifle.

 


Michael

Now THAT's interesting.....Makes a lot of sense.

[WESTbury]

Should Bulldurhamn be able to locate the mold that came with the rifle into his family, what a great artifact to have. Check the junk draw in the kitchen.

Thanks to mbriggs for that info about the mold. I wonder how commonplace that practice was?