I collect early firearms out of Kentucky, and my favorite early gunmaker is Jacob Rizer of Bardstown, who made the most highly decorated rifles in Kentucky. Last year I picked up a late ca. 1845 half-stocked rifle by Rizer, rather plain but clearly signed in his usual neat script "J. Rizer." While not his best work, any Jacob Rizer gun is a major prize and eagerly sought after down in Kentucky... so a good addition.
Recently while surfing the net for old guns, I came across a beat up, damaged, almost scary looking half-stocked rifle with rusted barrel and no visible name that looked "kind of" like the little half-stocked Rizer I'd picked up last year. It had made it as far west as Colorado before it expired. I pulled the signed Rizer half-stock out to compare the two rifles and was amazed at how many similarities were immediately obvious... so I spent a few bucks to pick up the battered rifle. It arrived last week, and while the barrel was too rusted to find any trace of an engraved signature, the similarities were overwhelming, and I am convinced it is also a ca. 1840s Jacob Rizer rifle. Both rifles share: same butt architecture, strongly curled maple wood, Rizer's late style "chunky" cheekpieces, back-action locks marked "C.Baker," long 2-screw tangs of same shape and length, same shaping of side-facing remnants, same guards with Kentucky-style square shoulders above the rear spurs, same butt plates, same lock bolt washers, same patent breeches, lengthy barrels, three pipes, etc. The nose caps differ, but the rest is close.
I'm attaching pictures and would like to get your opinions if you think the same man made both guns. The damaged rifle is a year or two earlier with slightly heavier barrel and bore. In Kentucky, the finer gunsmiths including Rizer considered back-action locks superior to the traditional front-action locks and began using them before many of KY's lesser gunsmiths.
Shelby Gallien
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