Twlunt
Private
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2017
Hello and welcome, @Twlunt . Be sure to stop by at the Railroads and Steam Locomotives forum.View attachment 164784 View attachment 164785 View attachment 164786 View attachment 164787 I am lucky enough to live in a house built by my great great grandfather, Ira Lunt. He served in 2nd Regiment Company D US Sharpshooters out of Maine. Here is his target/bench Rifle he used. My question is if anyone knows anything about this specific weapon. One pic shows the stamp of where the barrel was cast and the name M. W. Long. I assume this is Malcolm Long the gunsmith. But I can’t find out much about him or his weapons. Was hoping I’d come across a CW gun expert. I’d also love to get it appraised.
Wow! Thank you so much! That was very useful! Yes there’s a wood box full of that stuff. I’ll upload pics. I can identify 2 molds but most of the items I can’t identify. If you could assist I’d be very grateful.@Twlunt - O. Huse was part of a gun building family in Manchester, NH. One of the others was Richard Huse. It is quite possible that O. Huse made the barrel, but on rifles like these the larger signature is usually the gun builder. With the diminutive signature being that of another gunsmith who worked on the arm at a later date. Such an example is Nelson Lewis, who is documented as having made Sharp Shooting Rifles for use in the Civil War. At one time he had a brief partnership with George Ferris, which ended with animosity on both sides. After that, whenever George Ferris worked on one of Nelson Lewis' rifles he added his name stamp to the barrel. This caused Nelson Lewis to fly into a rage every time he saw one of the double stamped rifles, which caused no small amount of delight on the part of George Ferris!
Some additional information which you may not have yet: Malcom W. Long was born 1834 and died in 1912. He worked in Bangor ME from 1855 - 1871. He then relocated to Augusta ME, and was there from 1871 - 1879. While in Augusta he was in a partnership for awhile, and worked as Grove & Long from 1871 to 1875, breaking away on his own again from 1876 - 1879. He relocated once more to Harrisburg PA in 1880, and worked there until his death in 1912.
Your rifle is an outstanding example of the privately owned arms that went to war with Berdan's Sharp Shooters! Do you happen to have any of the other parts that went with it, such as the false muzzle, bullet mould, swage, etc.?
Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of your family's Civil War history with us!
J.
Perrrrrrfect! Yes I’ve wanted to know all of those things! So I was told the false muzzle was still on the gun as it sits (I’ll repost the pic) but you’re saying the plunger device is actually the false muzzle. The reason I ask is I was told the scope blocker device was attached to the false muzzle to stop you from firing the rifle with the false muzzle still on. So if that’s not the false muzzle what is the part that blocks the scop for?First row of photos - The two photos on the right end are the "False Muzzle", which was used in the loading process. Your rifle is what is known as a "Pickett Rifle", which used a "Sugar Loaf" shaped bullet with a round patch. The countersunk area on the muzzle of the barrel is for the round patch to be set on, then the bullet was gently pushed up into the false muzzle. The false muzzle was then set down over top the round part of the barrel. The plunger was then pushed down into the barrel, thereby starting the bullet and patch uniformly every time.
Second row of photos - The first two photos are a Winchester loading tool for the "38 WCF" cartridge, and the following two photos are the matching Winchester "38WCF" mould. This cartridge is known today at the "38-40". Non of this belongs to the set. The last photo is a powder flask, which may, or may not, belong to the set.
Third row of photos - The first two photos are the actual bullet mould for the target rifle. This is a classic design for those moulds. The third photo appears to be an alternate rear sight for the rifle. This would go with the dovetailed hooded front sight in the rifle box, top row, third photo. Photo number 4 is the "swage" for the bullet. This is used after the bullet is cast by lightly oiling the bullet and driving it into the swage to give each bullet the exact same size and shape. I have some of these in my collection and am scared to death to drive a cast bullet into them! It is done all the time by some of our modern slug gun shooters. Photo five is another powder flask, again which may, or may not, belong to the rifle. This flask is of a later period than the one discussed earlier.
I hope this has helped in filling some of the gaps!
J.
@Twlunt - Regarding your Model 1873 Winchester, you will find the caliber engraved on the bottom of the brass cartridge lifter. It will most likely say "38WCF". If so, the tools I identified previously belong to this rifle. I must say, a M-1873 Winchester with a tang sight like yours is not common and indicates that whoever owned it was quite interested in accurate shooting! It would be logical that this rifle belonged to the same relative who owned the target rifle.
As for the "sight blocker" for the false muzzle, yes it should have one. In the first set of photos I see something that appears to be a disc on a rod inserted into the front of the scope tube. Can you clarify anything about that?
J.