Montgomery Ward & Co.

[John D. Dennison]

Percussion rifle with the following barrel marks:

Navy Arms Co. Ridgefield, N.J. U.S.A.
50 CAL
92 of 2500 Tribute to the American Pioneer

There are no proof marks, however the lock side plate is engraved (gold) with:

Montgomery Wards & Co.
Chicago, Ill.

Plan to make a project of this along with my flintlock. Will enclose pictures when I figure out how. Any info on what this is, origins, etc. would be helpful.

 

[RedFeather]

Rifle or rifled musket? I remember Sears used to sell Zouaves.

 

[John D. Dennison]

Hawken style with a 28 inch barrel. Visual inspection looks like a very shallow rapid twist.

Am new at black powder / muzzle loading and would like the forum and its experienced members to help educate me.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Richard Brinkman]

I have No. 380 of 2500 sitting at my house right now it belongs to a friend of mine. This one is a 50 cal and the rifling is very shallow with a 48" twist. It shoots OK we were getting 2" groups at 50 yards with it which isn't too bad of a couple of old guys and open sights. He is wanting to sell it decided that muzzleloading is too much work for him. I'm cleaning it up and checking things over it seems to be in real good shape, trying to figure out what it's worth.

RB

 

[John D. Dennison]

The one that I have, 92 of 2500, has never been fired. Howevever it has a few problems, but free is free.

The barrel to stock inlay was machined. The stock must have been dipped or srayed before the final finishing job was done. This excess varnish?, pluse no inlay work resulted in a poor fit between the barrel and the stock. The previous owner(s) must have removed the barrel trying to improve the hammer to nipple interface? This is still a problem that they compounded by using a different wedge in an attempy to force the barrel to move to the rear. All they accomplished was to drive/force the opposing wedge plate screws out of the stock.

Plan to replace the wedge with the correct brass one. Embed the barrel correctly and repair/replace the wedge plate.

Should have a fairly nice replica of god knows what. With the repairs not counting hours, will have less than $25 invested. It is probably worth less than $200 to a knowledgable buyer.

WVJ

 

[John D. Dennison]

Trying to add photos.

Hope this worked.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Unfortunate but an easy fix.

 

[flahipneck]

pm sent.