Gun Building Research

[John Morris]

While doing some research into guns, I found The Metropolitan Museum of New York, and they have a wonderful section for Longrifles, and the image resolution is incredible, not too mention the images are open source, no copyright, so that can be useful too.
But boy oh boy, what a great resource I feel for the builder.

Link below, let it load, it takes awhile, then click on the image, then click on it again, and use their zoom in and zoom out features. You can also download the images and use them for any purpose.

https://www.metmuseum.org/search-results#!/search?q=longrifle

Just thought it may be helpful to some.

[tfornicola]

The display at the Met. is amazing. There is also a room full of English guns. Highly recommended if in NYC,

[rich pierce]

I think British style fowler #1 from Grinslade’s book is there. Massive gun.

[Willbarq]

I was looking at the Nicolas Beyer gun there. It's been said you can tell an inexperienced builder by a stock that is made with flat surfaces. Looks like his gun blows that rule out ...... throwing that rule away.

[smallpatch]

Will, totally disagree.  It’s still nicely rounded, even though some panels are long.  Definitely not like a 2x4.

[Elnathan]

I was looking at the Nicolas Beyer gun there. It's been said you can tell an inexperienced builder by a stock that is made with flat surfaces. Looks like his gun blows that rule out ...... throwing that rule away.

I can't get the pictures to enlarge. What specifically are you looking at? The only thing I can see that might have prompted your comment is the height of the forearm, and I think that the apparent flatness is a trick of the light, and the fact that he kept the forearm height fairly high (at the mid-point of the barrel, if not slightly higher,) and with what looks like a pretty slim barrel to boot.

[Nazgul]

Thanks for the link. Spent an hour looking at details.

Don

[alacran]

Interestingly Elnathan, that particular rifle does not an enlarge option on the pictures, You can enlarge it using the zoom feature on your browser. No it is not slab sided. I zoomed in on the fore arm and it has an interesting upper moulding treatment. Also there is a horizontal highlight on the lower part of the forearm caused by the lighting that if you look carefully it is rounded.

[Elnathan]

Interestingly Elnathan, that particular rifle does not an enlarge option on the pictures, You can enlarge it using the zoom feature on your browser. No it is not slab sided. I zoomed in on the fore arm and it has an interesting upper moulding treatment. Also there is a horizontal highlight on the lower part of the forearm caused by the lighting that if you look carefully it is rounded.

I know it is rounded. However, Beyer was not following the modern rule of thumb to leave 2/3 of the side flat exposed, and he is using what appears to me to be a skinnier barrel than the Rev-war era rifles that seem to provide the basis for most of the proportions we look for today.  The side of the forearm is accordingly fairly tall in proportion to to the exposed barrel, and that is what Willbarq was seeing, not slab-sides. It does look flat, though, particularly from the cheek side, if you aren't looking carefully.

I had a look at another rifle in a book, and apparently those are typical Beyer proportions, BTW.

[RJD-VT]

Thanks John,
I didn’t know they had a longrifle display. Very good photography. And with some pics you can get a lot of detail.

[Stophel]

Some Beyer guns look much nicer than others (kind of like Dickert guns).  I wonder if his quality declined with his age/health.

[rich pierce]

Some Beyer guns look much nicer than others (kind of like Dickert guns).  I wonder if his quality declined with his age/health.

Markets change also. In Dickert’s case he ran a big shop serving varied customers.

[John Morris]

Glad ya'll enjoyed it, there is more too.
Did a search for Powder Horn and found this. Same website of course.

https://www.metmuseum.org/search-results#!/search?q=powder%20horn

[alacran]

If you search for German flitlocks on this site, there a couple of interesting German pistols but oddly enough there is a pistol by Egg that has an inverted lock which employs what is basically a snap lock. The mainspring is on the outside and also serves as the frizzen spring.
Also there is a beautiful rifle by Haushka.

[smylee grouch]

At one time there was two Jacob Kuntz rifles there, both stunning of course and and Acer and Evon A. did a exam on one of them. No doubt one of the greatest long rifles ever made IMHO.

[Joe S]

There is a Kuntz rifle here https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24681

Interesting gun. Inlays are both bone and steel.

[Willbarq]

Will, totally disagree.  It’s still nicely rounded, even though some panels are long.  Definitely not like a 2x4.

  It's gorgeous. Somewhat flat looking forearm below the entry pipe. I agree, definitely not like a 2x4.

[t.caster]

Great reference source, thanks for posting!

I agree the Kunz rifle was amazing to examine! What is the screw head doing at the forward extension of the trigger guard though? There is not enough wood there to screw into, and it would shorten the ramrod!