D Boyd rifle - Greenville, SC

[parve]

Here is a rifle by David Boyd from Greenville, SC. He was associated with Thomas Peden, also from Greenville County. Some pictures of rifles by Thomas Peden and other information about him can be found in this thread:
https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=42473.0

Just about everything I know about Boyd and the Pedens is contained in that thread, all I have to add is that this rifle is back in Greenville County.

About half of the upper forearm has been replaced and was done so with the omission of a nose cap. The hammer is held on with a brass wood screw and washer due to the square hole being far too large for the tumbler. Whether the hammer is original to the rifle or was added during the restoration attempt, I'm not sure.

[parve]

After looking at the hammer some more, I'm pretty sure it's been on the rifle for a long time. It can't turn the tumbler anymore on account of the hole being wallowed out, even after it looks like someone tried upsetting the metal around the hole to get a tighter fit:



Same upsetting on the back end too, and a better view of rounding of the square hole. I can only guess the tumbler is much harder than the hammer, its edges are only slightly rounded.



Wiping some of the dirt off the top of the lock plate revealed what looks like an indentation behind the remnant of the pan:



I had assumed this rifle has always been percussion based on David Boyd's birth year of either 1817 or 1819. The lock plate started out life as a flintlock, but I've read anecdotes of flintlocks being converted to percussion before ever being installed on a rifle. This hammer doesn't seem like it was ever a good fit for the tumbler, and the indent on the top of the lock plate and groove above the lock panel have me questioning if this rifle started out as a flintlock. I'm not sure if the wood tells any stories besides being corroded by percussion cap residue. What does the crowd think?

[Tanselman]

The rifle appears to be made in the percussion period, based on its single lock bolt, thin butt, pointed toe, and later rounded cheekpiece. The lock plate fits reasonably well, except for a slight gap at back, so hard to say if original, or replacement sometime along the way. A fascinating detail is the forward, smaller hole in the toe plate. It may be for a vent pick, and it seems like a small piece of a wire pick can be seen at the hole's surface. That hole, and what appears to be a bit of wire, need a closer look, and may show it was originally flint, although still made well into the percussion era.

If the gun were originally a flint, it would have been a double-throated type cock that did not require a clearance cut in the stock wood above the top edge of the lock plate, which your rifle does not have. However, the stock wood immediately behind the breech on the lock side of the tang does not appear to have as much erosion/dry rot from the caps' fulminate salts as would be expected from an original percussion rifle... kind of supporting a flint beginning.

I'd suggest taking a very hard look at that smaller hole in the toe plate that may be a vent pick hole, and may have a wire pick still in it, so you know what is there. 

As to the current percussion hammer, the gap in size between the tumbler shaft and hole in hammer base seems too large in size for me to believe the hammer was originally fitted to this lock. More likely someone replaced an earlier hammer with a poorly fitted hammer with oversized hole, and tried to make it work... in more modern times.

I saw that rifle sell and thought what a great gun it was, to get a signed, full-stocked South Carolina rifle that's almost as rare as hens' teeth.

Shelby Gallien

[J. David Gillespie, Stonecutter]

Here is a rifle by David Boyd from Greenville, SC. He was associated with Thomas Peden, also from Greenville County. Some pictures of rifles by Thomas Peden and other information about him can be found in this thread:
https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=42473.0

That is neat! Didnt know there were Greenville SC Gunmakers!





Just about everything I know about Boyd and the Pedens is contained in that thread, all I have to add is that this rifle is back in Greenville County.

About half of the upper forearm has been replaced and was done so with the omission of a nose cap. The hammer is held on with a brass wood screw and washer due to the square hole being far too large for the tumbler. Whether the hammer is original to the rifle or was added during the restoration attempt, I'm not sure.

[AZshot]

Nice rifle.  The buttplate top looks a lot like Peden's.  Mine has only one screw on top, and my tang is longer.  Interesting similarities in other places too. 

[parve]

The rifle appears to be made in the percussion period, based on its single lock bolt, thin butt, pointed toe, and later rounded cheekpiece. The lock plate fits reasonably well, except for a slight gap at back, so hard to say if original, or replacement sometime along the way. A fascinating detail is the forward, smaller hole in the toe plate. It may be for a vent pick, and it seems like a small piece of a wire pick can be seen at the hole's surface. That hole, and what appears to be a bit of wire, need a closer look, and may show it was originally flint, although still made well into the percussion era.

If the gun were originally a flint, it would have been a double-throated type cock that did not require a clearance cut in the stock wood above the top edge of the lock plate, which your rifle does not have. However, the stock wood immediately behind the breech on the lock side of the tang does not appear to have as much erosion/dry rot from the caps' fulminate salts as would be expected from an original percussion rifle... kind of supporting a flint beginning.

I'd suggest taking a very hard look at that smaller hole in the toe plate that may be a vent pick hole, and may have a wire pick still in it, so you know what is there. 

As to the current percussion hammer, the gap in size between the tumbler shaft and hole in hammer base seems too large in size for me to believe the hammer was originally fitted to this lock. More likely someone replaced an earlier hammer with a poorly fitted hammer with oversized hole, and tried to make it work... in more modern times.

I saw that rifle sell and thought what a great gun it was, to get a signed, full-stocked South Carolina rifle that's almost as rare as hens' teeth.

Shelby Gallien

A vent pick holder is a great suggestion to explain the open hole on the toe plate. I'm only able to stick a piece of piano wire down about a half inch into it, but it does not look like it ever held a screw. What looks like a wire in my photo is, to my best guess, a burr from the brass toe plate. I'm not sure if there's only a half inch of depth due to build up of dirt and debris, or if that was the original depth. If the latter, it probably wasn't used to hold anything, but with the lack of evidence of any screw ever residing in that hole, I can't think of any other reason for its existence.

Nice rifle.  The buttplate top looks a lot like Peden's.  Mine has only one screw on top, and my tang is longer.  Interesting similarities in other places too. 

How long is the heel return on your Peden rifle's buttplate? This buttplate's dimensions are 4" from heel to toe, 1-1/16" wide, and 3-1/8" total heel length. If this one is smaller in all dimensions, maybe it could be from repeated casting shrinkage.

[Tanselman]

I enlarged the picture you posted of the toe plate, and in the center of the front hole, it still looks very much like the end of a piece of wire, and not a brass burr off the side plate itself. I would have expected a 3/4" depth if a vent pick, but I don't know how deep they were when a rifle was new. Holes must have worn deeper as the pick was taken out and then after use stabbed back into the wood to hold it in place. So perhaps the holes started rather shallow and deepened with use, to what we see today.

Another possibility, since I believe the gun was made well into the percussion era but perhaps still originally a flint, is that it was percussed early in its life, with very little use of a vent pick hole, keeping it closer to what it was originally. Kind of conjecture there, since I don't really know what it looked like originally, but a possibility. Still think you should enlarge your own posted photo to the max and look at that "wire" in the hole.

Shelby Gallien

[whetrock]

Very nice rifle. Thanks for sharing the photos!

I know nothing about SC rifles, and can't see the details in the toe plate well enough to make any observations. But I wanted to mention that it is not uncommon in some schools for small details like that thin extension on the toe plate to have been held down with a nail. (I own a NC mountain rifle that has the butt plate very neatly nailed on, and the toe plate neatly nailed on, with all the nails in countersunk holes, and the toeplate is pinned to the butt plate as is the one in your photo.)

As for holes, it is common on flint rifles for there to be a small hole in the wood behind the trigger guard rear extension. These are sometimes described as being for a vent pick, and perhaps some were, but many of them have been found to hold remnants of feathers. (I own one with a hole almost 2" deep, and it has bits of feather stem in it.) Presumably, feathers were used to plug the vent when the rifle was loaded but not ready to shoot, or during damp weather. If checking one of these holes to see its depth, it seems helpful to check with a small paperclip, unfolded of course, and to push hard enough to break through any debris (or feather stems) that may be plugging the outer portion. That's been my practice, anyway. (Local collectors in my area refer to those holes as "feather holes".)