Target Rifle by J.H. Rector of Syracuse, NY

I picked this up via trade yesterday at Dixon's. The asking price was $850.



From what I've been able to determine, J.H. Rector was active in Syracuse 1845 - 1855, and later moved to Buffalo, NY with a partner. My SWAG is that it was built sometime around 1850.

The .40 caliber barrel is 29.5" long and 1" across the flats. It's held to the stock with a single key. It's rifled with 6 grooves although I haven't checked the twist rate yet. The best thing, is that it's in excellent condition. It had some surface rust in the bore which cleaned up nicely with Hoppe's No.9 and elbow grease. There's no significant pitting.

It has a hooked breech, but it's not a patent breech. This is an ideal setup IMO. I borescoped it today and this is the breech face. You can see where the flash channel enters the barrel:




The barrel is marked "J.H. Rector Syracuse" with the serial number. It's also marked "Cut by E.G. Davies".

The nipple is .265" x 28 and in good shape but has a larger hole than I'd like. As it turns out Track carries this size as "oversize" nipples, so I ordered a couple.

A closeup of the lock, which is marked "A.T Russel" (only one L):



A sharp eye will see that the hammer nose is damaged, likely from corrosion. I measured its diameter and I may be able to use the neck of a .44-40 case soldered on as repair.

Very clean inside. It's fitted with a fly, although that's not strictly necessary since it doesn't have set triggers.



It holds solid at full and half cock.

The tang is drilled and tapped for a lollipop-style peep sight, which is missing. Once I figure out the thread size I'll look into making a replacement.



All the furniture is iron (tested with a magnet) except for the brass inlays on both sides of the butt.



That small crack at the heel, along with a small chip behind the tang, along with a few dents are the only stock damage.

The business end:



The ramrod appears to be original or a period replacement. The muzzle end is plain but the bottom is fitted with a reversible tow worm.





The gun weighs 9.1 lbs. on my bathroom scale and 46.5" long overall.

It's in fantastic shape for a gun that's potentially 175 - 180 years old. I plan to shoot it. Along with the gun I got a bag of .389" balls and have a Lee .390 mold on the way from Track of the Wolf.

Your rifle represents my preference in muzzleloaders, absolutely beautiful.

BTW, several rifles in this style are pictured in The Muzzleloading Caplock Rifle by Ned Roberts. Not all 19th Century caplocks were plains rifles or military arms.

Gtrubicon said:

Your rifle represents my preference in muzzleloaders, absolutely beautiful.

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II was just going to say that

Dave Markowitz said:

BTW, several rifles in this style are pictured in The Muzzleloading Caplock Rifle by Ned Roberts. Not all 19th Century caplocks were plains rifles or military arms.

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Swinney's books on the NYS Firearms Trade has a major writeup on John H Rector with several different half stock rifles illustrated. His operation in Syracuse in 1850 employed 7 people and in 1855 had 8 men and 2 boys. Per Swinney, Rector probably sent an apprenticed worker Robson to Buffalo to start a branch operation. There is a partial listing of serial numbers, but unfortunately no dating of them. Almost all are half stock (hunting as well as target types) and a few percussion over under combination guns

Very nice gun and great pics of it as well.

Great envy is mine!! That, Sir, is an absolute gem of a rifle, and one that I'm certain will shoot as well as it looks. I'd love to find one on this side of the pond, however unlikely that might be, but I'll never stop looking. Is that rifling really the hexagon form that it appears to be?

Dave, I’m gobsmacked! That rifle is a beauty, and in such good shape! I like all muzzleloaders, but everybody has favorites and I’ll have to say the late-era percussion rifles, the so-called “plains rifles,” are the ones that really get my attention.

The fly in the tumbler is a great feature, even with a single trigger. It will allow having a good, solid half-cock position for the hammer, with a light, crisp let-off from full cock.

It sounds like things are really falling into place… the odd-sized nipples were readily available, the hammer nose was an easy fix, and you have appropriate lead round balls.

Congratulations on that purchase! You got a fine, shootable antique, the real thing, for probably a third of the cost of having a similar custom rifle built.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

Gents, thanks for all the kind words. I had a feeling that I needed to go to Dixon's on Saturday, and sure enough that worked out!

And I checked the rifling twist after I got home today from work. It's about 1:60, so it's a good twist for shooting round balls.

Kia Ora from NZ A Lovely rifle you have there

Very nice looking rifle. You mention the fly and no set trigger. It doesn't happen to have a single set trigger does it? I have a Krider target rifle that you push the trigger forward to set. Looks like it'll be a fun one to get back in service.

Beautiful rifle, a real treasure! I always felt that the .40 caliber is the one to get!

I thought Dixon was only selling knives these days. Is the ML shop still open?

Mike

TFoley said:

Great envy is mine!! That, Sir, is an absolute gem of a rifle, and one that I'm certain will shoot as well as it looks. I'd love to find one on this side of the pond, however unlikely that might be, but I'll never stop looking. Is that rifling really the hexagon form that it appears to be?

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After looking at some original American rifles it seems several of them have such deep cut rifling that they appear hexagonal. Some of them almost look more hex shaped than the bore of a whitworth.

hawkenhunter50 said:

Very nice looking rifle. You mention the fly and no set trigger. It doesn't happen to have a single set trigger does it? I have a Krider target rifle that you push the trigger forward to set. Looks like it'll be a fun one to get back in service.

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Thanks. I did check that and it's not a set trigger that you push forward. Good suggestion, though.

mikeinpa said:

I thought Dixon was only selling knives these days. Is the ML shop still open?

Mike

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Yes. AAMOF, if you're interested in picking up a T/C sidelock he has probably around a dozen in stock. I suspect a collector died and he acquired them. Also, plenty of custom smokepoles.

That is one FINE looking rifle!

That beauty is in better shape than many 20th Century rifles I've seen. Just Wow!

I took the Rector rifle to the range today.

My load was a .389 ball in a 0.018" pillow ticking patch lubed with Hoppe's No.9 BP Lube and Bore Cleaner, on top of 50 grains of Goex 3Fg. This seated easily with only thumb pressure in the muzzle. It shot several inches high at 50 yards from the bench but unfortunately did not group well. I think it's too loose a patch/ball combination.

So I decided to try a thicker patch on my 12th shot. I had some 0.020" patch material with me. I loaded it up and it was noticeably more snug. However, on this shot, the cleanout screw blew out.



The screw didn't go far, landing on the shooting bench. This obviously put an end to shooting the rifle for the day so I cleaned it up and put it away.

After getting home and inspecting the screw closely it looks like the threads stripped out. I think what happened is that was undersized and let go with the higher pressure with the tighter patch.

It looks like I can retap the hole for the cleanout screw hole to accept a 10-32 screw to get the gun back into shooting condition.

Aside from being a bit undersized, the .389 balls didn't look so great. I've had excellent results from Rush Creek balls previously but these didn't look good. I got a Lee .390 mold in and will cast up a bunch to try.

If I can't get the rifle grouping well I'll probably send the barrel to Bobby Hoyt and have it rebored to .45.

Anyway, aside from the Rector rifle I also brought my Numrich Arms H&A Heritage Model underhammer .45. I've always shot .440 balls from it since that what my dad used when he taught me to shoot with it. I decided to try .433 balls for easier loading because I want to shoot it from woods walks without using a mallet to start the balls. With the .433 balls in ticking over 50 grains of Goex 3Fg, all the holes were touching from the 50 yard bench. I'll be ordering a .433 mold.