Restoring an extremely rare swivel-breech rifle from 1850. In desperate need of help, if anyone may be so kind! Bore is a wreck.

[bang]

Looks like a wall hanger.

 

[JCKelly]

E.W. Cook from Lockhart sold his shop about 1862 to George Holmes. There are about ten pages, mostly photos of rifles, in that absolutely classic work, The New York State Firearms Trade, written by H. J. Swinney and compiled after his death by Tom Rowe. Five Volumes.
There neither is nor will there ever be, one so thoroughly acquainted with New York makers as was Mr. Swinney. I was fortunate to spend one evening with him in 2002.
Personally, I have written & continue to upgrde the book on Michigan gunsmiths. In, say, 1860 about 30% of MI gunsmiths came from NY. For this reason it is my opinion that a study of Michigan rifles should include a background in New York firearms.

 

[GunnerAces]

Update 2: Sorry to sound like the guy who's crying wolf here, but this gun is turning out to be a real noggin scratcher. Yesterday I couldn't make a dent in that epoxy after the evaporust came out, but today I threw my ball-puller down there to see if steel could punch into it and that screw went right through the damn stuff. It handles like epoxy, looks like epoxy and even has bubbles in it like epoxy, but it has softened up in the last 24 hours and I have no idea why. I'm doing one more evaporust cycle to finish off small patches of rust in the bore. Tomorrow I'll take some good photos of what I think is the epoxy (now I'm not so sure) to see what ya'll think. Once I'm sure I've hit a dead-end I'll make certain to call up Bobby Hoyt, but for now I think I'll do as much as I can. (Maybe I'll save a little money and learn something in the process.) Thank you everyone for your interactions on this post! It's been very informative and helpful thus far. Might do some acetone and heating in the next few days if the consensus is that it's epoxy.

 

[GunnerAces]

E.W. Cook from Lockhart sold his shop about 1862 to George Holmes. There are about ten pages, mostly photos of rifles, in that absolutely classic work, The New York State Firearms Trade, written by H. J. Swinney and compiled after his death by Tom Rowe. Five Volumes.
There neither is nor will there ever be, one so thoroughly acquainted with New York makers as was Mr. Swinney. I was fortunate to spend one evening with him in 2002.
Personally, I have written & continue to upgrde the book on Michigan gunsmiths. In, say, 1860 about 30% of MI gunsmiths came from NY. For this reason it is my opinion that a study of Michigan rifles should include a background in New York firearms.

I'll have to get my hands on that book! Sounds fascinating, I have a lot of family in Michigan.

 

[Secesh]

Update 2: Sorry to sound like the guy who's crying wolf here, but this gun is turning out to be a real noggin scratcher. Yesterday I couldn't make a dent in that epoxy after the evaporust came out, but today I threw my ball-puller down there to see if steel could punch into it and that screw went right through the damn stuff. It handles like epoxy, looks like epoxy and even has bubbles in it like epoxy, but it has softened up in the last 24 hours and I have no idea why. I'm doing one more evaporust cycle to finish off small patches of rust in the bore. Tomorrow I'll take some good photos of what I think is the epoxy (now I'm not so sure) to see what ya'll think. Once I'm sure I've hit a dead-end I'll make certain to call up Bobby Hoyt, but for now I think I'll do as much as I can. (Maybe I'll save a little money and learn something in the process.) Thank you everyone for your interactions on this post! It's been very informative and helpful thus far. Might do some acetone and heating in the next few days if the consensus is that it's epoxy.

I pray you haven’t given up on your labors. That’s a nice looking rifle you are bringing back to life. Give us an update if you can.