WESTbury has brought the thorough approach he used with arsenal production and military arms to the longrifle. He asks lots of questions, and is working with others to share what they have learned. Having written books, he knows how to illustrate and let the photos tell a story. Not many collectors are willing to disassemble a valuable old longrifle to show us how it went together. Thank you for this careful example of how that can be done.
He has included considerable research – combining knowledge of the men who stocked the rifles, the riflemen who carried them into battle, together with a sample rifle. This is a wonderful way to learn. Scott Gordon found the two Graeff brothers in Lancaster records, which changed the faulty assumptions in Kindig and repeated in recent books. There are links to other Graeff rifles to show what is similar and what varies, and a side discussion of locks made here or imported. Kudos for casting a wide net to date.
Tom and Taylor have mentioned the teaching value of a post like this.
As one example, the barrel lugs are visible in the ramrod channel. When I began stocking rifles, breaking through was considered bad form – we were encouraged to remove wisps of wood from the lug slots carefully and keep them hidden. But when I was fortunate to see old rifles, the barrel lugs were visible in the ramrod groove (and ramrod pipe tabs visible in the barrel channel). This got some of us to thinking that the stocker inlet the barrel, added the lugs, inlet and pinned. Then turned the rifle upside down and shaped the ramrod channel right down until he hit the lugs, before drilling for the ramrod. That provides a thin web and slim forend to the rifle. No need to guess how thick you want the web – let the rifle show you. This may or may not have been “taught”, but somehow this became standard.
Let’s discuss other details we see here that show us how a rifle was stocked. Thanks WESTbury for all your work over several years that resulted in this post! Bob
