[saltydog452]

I am about as 'green' in this catagory as a willow tree in the spring, so please bear with me for a few mnts..

One of the things my father-in-law did, other than run off and leave a wife and four kids to fend for themselves in rural Alabama in the 1950's, was to buy up the assets of a gunsmith in Utica, N.Y. Going through some of this stuff, I found chamber gauges for such strange, to me, items such as .32 gauge, 24 gauge, thats in addition to the standard gauges such as 12, 16, 20, and .410. All are stamped '1930' on a flat spot milled on the side.

Also, in this assortment of gunsmithing supplies is a flint lock barrel with the 'cursive' signature that appears to read 'S Mc K.', again this is in cursive writting. The barrel measures 30 1/4 in length, has eight flats that measure about 1.85 at the rear, and about 1.1 at the muzzle.

The 'rifileing' or what would normally pass for 'rifleing' is a smaller version of the external apperance of the flats on the barrel. By that I mean, that flats were inside of the barrel as well. Not lands and grooves as we know it now.

Some years back when the earth was flat, I seem to remember reading in the American Rifleman about such a bullet/rifle combination being used in The War Of Northern Aggression (thats the War Between The States for you non-Southerners) as sort of a transition from smooth bore to rifled bore.

I know my description is lacking and I have no way of posting a photo, but if any of you gents have any idea of the maker of the barrel and lock, and remember the unusual method of stabalizing the bullet with this type of rifleing, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks,
salty.

[Third_Rail]

Just sounds like polygonal rifling. Other than that, I can't help.

[1911 guy]

The original Whitworth rifles used a hexagonal bullet. Can't tell with no pic, but you might have one or an early repro. Modern repros use round bullets.

[saltydog452]

Thanks guys. I appreciate your thoughts. This is a flint lock muzzle loader though. The Whitworth was percussion IIRC. The barrel length and weight is more like the short, heavy, big bore rifles of the 'Hawken' type. The maker of the gun inscribed his initials on the top flat of the barrel around the rear sight. His initials were 'S Mc K." This is in cursive. Does anyone recognise the gun maker?

Thanks agqin,
salty.

[arcticap]

Maybe you could ask in the "FLINTLOCKS FORUM" over on: www.muzzleloadingforum.com
If no one can help you there, maybe someone will refer you to another specialty site.
There is a relatively new Crosman Model 760(b/c?) that has a similiar bore to the one you describe. It doesn't have twist rifling, but is straight walled (as far as I could tell) and designed to shoot steel bb's.

[Chawbaccer]

i'm gonna guess eight groove cut rifling, just looks strange.

[Jim Watson]

I don't know who SMcK was, but have seen pictures of polygon bores going back a looong way. About every possible shape was "twisted" to serve as rifling as the gunsmiths experimented with gun design.

Hope you find him.