A Look at the Hilliard Underhammer

[musketman]

D.H. Hilliard (1805-1877) was a gunsmith in Cornish, NH. His designs are similar to Nicanor Kendall's for the simple reason that Hilliard worked with Kendall before starting his own gun shop sometime around 1840.

The target rifle is a .36 caliber with a 25 inch rifled barrel, walnut stock, and iron furniture and peep sight on an extension. It possibly had a provision for a false muzzle, or the round end on the barrel was simply decorative. There are no holes for locator pins in the end of the barrel.

The gun has been poorly repaired, with a resoldering of the ramrod ferrules and flashcup, but is in otherwise very nice condition. It balances nicely and the sights line up easily. The lock does not have a half cock position.

 

Nice looking rifle, Musketman - looks somewhat like a Billinghurst in stock & hammer design.
Daryl

 

[NoJacketRequired]

What a pretty rifle you've found there, Musketman. We miss a lot in our modern, mass-production world. How wonderful it is to see the lineage of this rifle can be traced to its designer through its unique design features. Try doing that with any of today's in-lines!

Just out of curiosity, how "heavy" is the trigger on this rifle? I'm curious to know if this rifle, designed as a target rifle, would have featured a "light" trigger or not. It looks like the trigger acts directly on the detent in the hammer itself which would lead me to believe trigger forces would be fairly high...

 

Not sure about the trigger bearing on the hammer - there being quite a distance between the two. It appears to me to have a separate sear bar working on a notch on the hammer's boss.
: Being a target rifle, the pull would, of course, be a light one. I suspect something in the 1 lb. range would be correct. It could, of course be more in line with 2 to 3 lbs., as that is a normal pull in Target rifles of the 1970's due to regulation. Many of the regs. are mere updates on previous 'rules' of many years ago.
: The rifle appears to have a Reminton-type barrel, most being turned at the muzzle for a false muzzle, whether used or not. Remington sold many barrels and other parts to gun makers of the mid to late 1800's & many plains rifles have this same barrel, but were never fitted for the false muzzles.
: In the 70's through 90's, common bullets for ML rifles, target and hunting were rifled for 'picket' bullets. A simple 'slip-on' false muzzle helped load these cloth patched elongated bullets straight with the axis of the bore. There should be a locating pin(s) though, for aligning the rifling.
Daryl

 

[Zonie]

Daryl: You are correct about a "false muzzle" using pins to align the false muzzle to the rifleing. IMO this style of muzzle was popular with Target Rifles shooting non-paperpatched bullets which needed the rifleing grooves engraved on them during the start of the loading operation.

There is also a unrifled style of false muzzle which is bored slightly over the bore diameter (.001-.002 inch). It is piloted by the face of the barrel and a diameter machined onto the outside of the last 1/4 inch of the barrel.
Because it is unrifled, it does not need pins to locate or time it to the barrels rifleing.

This style of starting muzzle aligns the bullet with the bore but obviously does not engrave rifleing into the bullet.
The barrel for my Muzzleloading Schuetzen came with this piloting feature machined on it. I am sure this is not a new idea because I have seen this feature on several guns which were made in the last half of the 1800s.

I have not built the starting muzzle yet (it's on my list of "to do's") but I can see where it would be useful when loading the paper patched bullets I shoot.

 

Zonie you are correct concerning the non-rifled muzles, however the false muzzles were the primary means of loading paper patched bullets in the heavy match rifles of the 80's and 90's. Te paper patch in strips, sat in grouves between the false muzzle and the barrel, being picked up by the slug as it was seated. Another form had these on top of the false muzzle and single, double, triple and 5 strip paer patches were used.
: As well, naked bullets were seated into the rifling with false muzzles, which looked just like other false muzzles. The gradual taper and hollowed nose starter helping align the bullet in the false muzzle.
: If you can find a copy of "The Muzzleloading Caplock Rifle" by Ned Roberts, it is an encyclopedia on these early accurate rifles for certain. His book - "The Sheutzen Rifle" is another book worthy of owning.
Daryl