Zonie said:
Obviously I don't know what went on when the guns were selected however I don't think they were less intelligent than I am.
Given the choice between some existing guns that were used by the common troops and reworked to shorten the barrel and replace the locks, or newly made guns made at the arsenal, there is no doubt in my mind that I would choose the newly made guns.
After all, I would be intending to spend an unknown amount of time thousands of miles from any civilized place and I would want every part to be new.
I would also want the spare locks to be totally interchangeable with the locks on my new guns and unless refurbishing the older "used guns" meant restocking them so that they would accept a common lock size and shape that wouldn't be possible with the 1792's.
I don't have anything here to tell me who picked up the rifles, although I was under the impression from earlier reading that it was Lewis instead of Clark. I had read somewhere (can't remember where) that Lewis picked up the arms when he took delivery of his boat frame. But, no matter who it was, does anyone know exactly
when he took delivery of the rifles? That may help a little in figuring this out.
It is noted that a small quantity of full stock rifles may have been made experimentally at the Ferry in 1800 or 1801 but the War Deptartment didn't issue an official directive for the short rifle until May 25th 1803. At this time the Secretary of War told Perkin (the Superintendent at Harpers Ferry) that he was dissatisfied with the weapons currently issued to the regular troops and wanted a new rifle. He specified a rifle "shorter in length, half stocked and of heavier caliber". This would become the M1803.
In late November, 1803 Perkin submitted several patterns to the War Dept. for inspection. (According to a table I have there were 4 pattern rifles completed in 1804 instead of 1803 which would throw the following scenario out of kilter).After the pattern used was chosen, an order for 2000 stand of this model was issued. I don't know when production actually started, but it would have been at least December before the armory would have gotten the go-ahead and probably January or February before the first rifles were put into store. The order for this model was increased to 4,000, but mechanical troubles and malaria outbreaks slowed production and the last rifles were not completed until February of 1807. Also, according to this table, there were 772 M1803 Rifles turned into store in the year 1804. So, after probably March or so, there most likely would have been enough M1803 rifles on hand to arm Lewis and Clark's men.
Col. Gluckman in his book
"Identifying Old US Muskets, Rifles and Carbines", states that these are the rifles issued to the Corps of Discovery. They very well could have been although they would have been untried arms. (Or at least minimally tested). But, the Army already knew of the dissatisfaction with the earlier common rifles and were willing to take the chance.
As for interchangeability, there was none at this time. Even with the M1803, which was known to be more finely finished than any other at the time, each part was handmade, using crude jigs and fixtures. Spare parts in the rough would have been issued to the expedition and Shields would have had to fit them to the broken weapon. That would not take an experienced armorer or smith very long to do, even using limited tools and we know that they had what was needed. But at least there was probably more uniformity with these rifles than was available with the earlier common rifles.
I don't know if this shed any light or not. I may have just confused the issue more.
