Long Rifle Restoration Advice

[cspaldi]

I would appreciate some advice. I was just given a "family heirloom" rifle in rough shape and am interested in having restoration work done. We are unsure of the age, but my grandfather says his grandfather remembered it from when he was a boy, putting the date at least prior to about 1865 and likely earlier based upon other family history. It is an approximately 60 inch long percussion rifle of a smaller caliber, which may have been converted from a flintlock because the side plate on the lock side is of a different metal than the brass side plate of the other side. That branch of the family has lived in North Carolina from the mid-eighteenth century to the present, so the rifle could have been made in North Carolina. No obvious maker's marks, but surface rust could be covering any. In addition to needing metal and wood refinishing, it needs a new hammer made and fitted and a new brass patchbox cover (and maybe latch) made and fitted. The goal is not to make a shooter, but to preserve a piece of family history. I would appreciate the names of any gun restoration outfits I should contact about this work. I am located in central Virginia, but am willing to ship. Thanks

 

[Jim Watson]

I went to look up contact information for two gunsmiths who could do a good job for you, one I knew personally, the other I knew of by his work and writing; Ron Ehlert and John Bivins. It turned out they had both passed away.

 

[Jim K]

The rifle may have been converted from flintlock, but the lockplate (where the hammer is/was) was normally steel or iron, not brass. The brass plate on the left was mostly for decoration, though it usually supported the lockplate screw head.

You can usually tell a conversion by the holes in the lockplate where the flintlock frizzen spring and screw used to be. Those holes are often empty as there was no need for the parts on a percussion rifle. If there are no "vacant" holes toward the front of the lockplate, the rifle was probably percussion originally.

One source of parts for those rifles is Dixie Gun Works, in Union City, TN, which might not be too far, depending on where you are in VA. They have a large selection of hammers, but they don't do gun work.

Jim