twowindy Report post Posted March 11, 2013 This is a pre-civil war 54 cal.muzzleloader.It shoots great.Very acurate.It apraised for $1200.00 about ten years ago.Will take $950.00 for it.Please call Will at (928)537-9703 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
8OWHUNT247 Report post Posted March 11, 2013 B-E-A-Utiful !!!!! I wish...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PRDATR Report post Posted March 12, 2013 I sent a link to a good friend of mine who has been collecting these for a long time. Hopefully he will be getting in touch with you. Can pm me some more info about it? Do you have any history or provenance? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twowindy Report post Posted March 12, 2013 I don't have much info on it.The guy that told me it was pre-civilwar is a collector of military weapons.He sent pictures of it to a history buff he knew and he said it was pre-civilwar.He also said it was probably made for a wealthy person.Most of them were not that fancy.It has a couple of screws that look like they were replaced. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billrquimby Report post Posted March 12, 2013 Twowindy: You have a nice rifle at a fair price, but it's a "working" piece compared to the highly decorated rifles that were built for wealthy buyers before the Civil War. Best guns from that period had decorative brass or silver inlays, stocks with carved designs and engraved patchboxes. I can't tell for sure from the photos, but there seems to be a wide gap in the stock around the top of the lock. If so, it's possible that there may have been a caplock with a larger plate installed there at one time. If your rifle began its life as a caplock, it probably was built between 1820 (when percussion caps first came into wide use) and the late 1860s- early 1870s (when rear-loading rifles shooting metallic cartridges became available). However, many older guns began life as a flintlock and were converted to caplock after the advent of percussion caps. Later, as flintlock firearms became more desirable to collectors, some were returned to flintlocks. (I fitted both styles of locks with matching plates to one of the Kentucky/Pennsylvania-style long rifles I built years ago so that I could switch from caplock to flintlock and vice versa, depending upon how I wanted to hunt. Switching involved only removing the lock and installing or removing the "drum" and "nipple" or the flash-hole insert. Sure wish I still had that rifle and the jerks who stole it were behind bars--or worse.) It's also possible that your rifle had a full-length stock at one time. I say this because the rib that the "thimbles" (the small tubes that hold the ramrod) doesn't extend to the end of the barrel. (I've never seen an original half-stock rifle with such a short rib.) There is no way of telling from the photographs, but your rifle also could have been built from replica or original parts AFTER the Civil War. Lots of amateur and professional gunsmiths have built "period" rifles over the last 70 years or so. I built three such rifles myself and I did my best to make them look and function like those built in the 1700s and early 1800s. At any rate, it's a good-looking muzzleloader. If it were mine, I'd want to check it out to see if I could hunt with it. Bill Quimby Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twowindy Report post Posted March 12, 2013 Thanks for the information.I have shot it quite a bit and I was surprized how well it shoots. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billrquimby Report post Posted March 12, 2013 Out to 75 yards or so, patched round balls fired from barrels with slow twists and iron sights are more accurate than my aged eyes allow me to shoot now. I killed a few Texas Hill Country whitetails and a couple of Arizona javelinas with them when I was younger, though. Bill Quimby Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twowindy Report post Posted April 4, 2013 still for sale Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
