Very Fine Engraved Bench Rest Percussion

[hawkeye1755]

Here are some pics from a Very Fine Engraved Bench Rest Percussion rifle by S.C. Miller with sighting tube.

:hatsoff:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Wow, thanks again for a good post and fine fotos. nice rifle, any details available. and good post of the elephant rising breech gun. :thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

Interesting...and that's the exact same style trigger guard that Thompson Center uses on their TC Hawken

 

[jeepwj992002]

That is a fine bench rifle. thanks for sharing!

 

[tom hargrove]

sure am glad you decided to stay :bow: :bow:

 

[Bill Hall]

Beautiful rifle. Check out the angle between the sight tube and the barrel. Makes me think it was sighted in for loooong distances.

This is the first really good pic I've seen of a false muzzle. I always understood that the starting end of the false muzzle had no rifling. I thought that was the whole point, to start the bullet down a smooth bore and transition into the rifling. Can anyone explain. Bill

P.S. welcome back Undertaker

 

[paulvallandigham]

Without seeing the muzzle not covered with the false muzzle, we can even guess at the depths of the grooves.

Some false muzzles have rifling in them all the way to the end, but its been relieved so that the bullet ( conical) and patch( almost always paper) can be started from the get-go with the rifling beginning to seize the paper and bind it to the lead bullet. I am sure this false muzzle is also coned, so that by the time the bullet enters the muzzle of the barrel, it is bore diameter, and the patching is firmly held to the lead bullet, all in line with the FULL rifling of the barrel. With a long bullet, the false muzzle would have to be much longer to start at groove diameter, and then introduce the rifling to the patched bullet inside the false muzzle. And, if the entire bullet could go into the false muzzle before groove start seizing the paper, the paper might twis or turn to one side or another, before the paper is pressed into the bullet. YOu then get overlaps and bare spots, and both cause accuracy to vanish in the wind.

What you need to know is that the taper on the inside of the false muzzle is very slight- less than 2 degrees, and in some calibers, less than 1 degree. All that is needed is enough room for the lubed or oiled( sperm whale oil was preferred) paper patch to fit with the bullet inside that false muzzle, before it is pressed into the bullet by the lands. The oil gives the paper some stretch, before tearing or breaking, and lubes the lands to that the paper slides over the lands even as the taper is forcing the paper into the lead bullet.

 

[Charles D. Prokopp]

Not long ago, I was meandering through the Old Court House museum in my former college town of Bloomington, Illinois. That part of the state had a hefty influx of German immigrants, some of whom were extremely talented gunsmiths. In the museum are several locally made bench rest target rifles that look remarkably like that beauty. Not many folks are aware that there was quite a rifle industry in that part of the country.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The bench guns were being built before the Civil War, but afterwards, in the 1870s and 1880s, they became an artform, as even then, people wanted to keep alive Black Powder Muzzle Loading Rifle Shooting as a sport. Harry Pope made barrels first for MLs, and then for breechloaders, but kept the use of the false muzzle, and the muzzle seating concept, arguing that it produced the best accuracy at long ranges, compared to the Breech loaders. To prevent distortion of the bottom of the bullets, the first breechloading target guns used " bullet seaters" and paper patched bullets in front of casings containing black powder, and later smokeless powder( semi-smokeless powder) held in the casing with a card wad.

I like to think that those first men, both here and in Europe, who tried to make a better, more accurate rifle for long range shooting. showed the way to all that have followed, teaching us the importance of keeping the base of a bullet square to the bore, so that the development of higher speed bullets and smokeless powder lead logically to the use of harder, copper jackets around a lead core to give us the guns, and accuracy that men of those days could only dream about. The fact that men in our lifetime are making killing shots on enemy combatants at more than a mile would make all those men smile.

 

[JV Puleo]

The false muzzle, as patented by Alvin Clarke, was always rifled. It was also, usually, "coned" so that the bullet started easily. On this example you can see that it was also relieved to hold the patch in place. The reason that they are considered impossible to replace if missing is that they were rifled with the barrel. i.e. after finish reaming a piece was cut off. It was then clamped onto the barrel, with its holding pins in place, and rifled (on second thought, the final reaming was probably done after the piece was separated - makes more sense but its not the way the process is usually described). The rifling in the muzzle is then a perfect extension of that in the barrel.
Clarke (who was a very talented artist and scientific instrument maker) licensed the patent to Edwin Wesson. The rifle shown in this thread looks very much like a Wesson although the solid frame was used by G.P. Foster as well so it may have been popular with several makers of target rifles.
In any case, Wesson had a terrible time collecting the fees due him for use of the Clarke patent...so much so that he sent his brother around New England trying to corner makers that had infringed the patent and demanding payment. That didn't work very well so it is likely that many, if not most, false muzzles were simply patent infringements. True Clarke muzzles are usually marked with the patent date etc. When you see an unmarked example it is likely because the maker wanted to be able to deny he'd been responsible.
There are unrifled examples - I once had a .38 cal rifle that had a smooth german silver false muzzle. This was almost certainly an attempt to avoid patent litigation. Its now known that the false muzzle had very little effect on accuracy (according to Dr. Mann, the famous author of "The Bullets Flight") but they were very popular from the 1840's to at least the 80's and 90's. Harry Pope used them on his Breech/Muzzle loading target rifles and made many of the test rifles that Dr. Mann used.
They are a strictly American, and mostly a New England/New York product. I've never seen a European rifle that had one (which isn't to say it didn't happen, but they must be very unusual)

Joe Puleo

 

[50cal.cliff]

Really cool pic there Undertaker. Everything about it just screams persission work! :thumbsup:

 

[windwalker_au]

look's like a Dixie gun works Wesson Rifle.
bernie :thumbsup:

 

[shmrck1]

undertaker,
Great photos of a true piece of artwork.
snake-eyes :thumbsup:

 

[bavarialand]

i have one of the Dixie Wesson rifles, and i put on a WM Malcolm tele. scope.
looks almost exactly like that one. and shoots with great accurecy.

Dave

 

[old gunsmith]

Many years ago I briefly owned a Morgan James picket gun similar to your lovely rifle. I had all of the original tooling for this rifle as well. I have to say that loading that "sugar loaf" profile was very difficult to do: in fact, I don" think I ever got it right. So much depended on the initial ball and patch placement to get any concentricity and it was not nearly as forgiving as a round ball or slug gun. I'd be very interested to hear of your results if you should decide to shoot that beautiful rifle. Regards, Old Gunsmith

 

[alfredthegreat]

Thank you for posting the photos of a very fine American target rifle. I've been shooting and collecting American target rifles sense 1978. The (picket) rifle was the transitional firearm from round ball to conical bullet in north america. Looking at the photos the rifle was set up for bench rest shoting. This rifle was shot with a cloth patch (usually linen)and a pointed or semi pointed bullet under 2 calibers long. the photo of the muzzle shows a recess machined into the top of the false muzzle was to help center the cloth patch. The grooves at the of the false were carefully filed to help the cloth patch fold evenly into the rifling. Thanks again;