Hi,
Nice rifle 120RIR!! Ernie did nice work. The stock on the original in Morristown has a lighter color and is not nearly as finely made. The original also has a "U" shaped iron band nailed to the bottom of the stock in front of the screw plug which repaired a crack in the stock there. When you mentioned that half of the ordnance rifles had bronze and half steel plugs, are you referring to Ernie's copies or the original rifles?
I am not aware of any documentation indicating that half the original Fergusons were made with gun metal bronze plugs and half made with iron or steel. The only other Ferguson pattern 1776 ordnance rifle gun identified is in the Milwaukee Public Museum and has an iron or steel plug. The ordnance-issued rifles were made by Barker & Whatley, Grice, Galton, and Willits all of Birmingham. No documentation to or from them indicates different plugs so that feature remains a mystery. Contrary to Cowan's account of shooting his Ferguson stating the bronze plug was the key, I shoot mine frequently and the steel plug functions very well as long as the threads are lubricated before the day's shooting. A variety of metals were used to make the plugs on civilian versions. One by Durs Egg has a plug made from a hard alloy of silver! Others are gun metal bronze, iron, or steel. It seems no one back then was sold on the idea that any one metal was key.
The ordnance rifles were produced in a rush and in fact the makers were in the middle of filling orders for the British pattern 1776 muzzleloading rifle, stopped that production to make the Fergusons. That is probably why the engraving on the locks is crude and the stocks roughly finished. The lock on the TRS lock is much more finely engraved than the Morristown gun.
dave
