GEOe Goulcher?

[DerbyDale]

Hoping you all can help me out. I have a family friend that has an old black powder rifle. Unfortunately, I don't know much about black powder rifles. Would any of you be able to tell me what exactly this rifle is and a little history if it is an original rifle?

Thanks!

 

[rcmodel]

http://www.nramuseum.org/the-museum...york,-ny)-kentucky-percussion-long-rifle.aspx

I believe the lock on your rifle was made by him.

But the overall quality doesn't look like his work to me.

rc

 

[Jim Watson]

Interesting contrast.
A back action side lock by George Goulcher, one of the main suppliers to the trade in his day; with engraved duck hunter scene.
On a heavy barreled rifle with old style peep sight threaded into the tang.
No sign it ever had a foreend, ramrod ferrules crudely soldered to the bottom flat of the barrel.
I wonder if it might not be a parts gun, a shotgun lock used on a target rifle.

 

[Jim K]

The lock was made by Goulcher, but the gun is likely the product of a local gun maker. The trigger guard, set trigger, patch box and butt plate all appear to be trade products, made in factories and sold by gunsmith supply houses (sort of like Brownell's today). The hammer does not meet the nipple squarely, yet the hammer appears to be original, suggesting that the barrel or at least the drum is not original. I have the feeling, as Jim Watson suggests, that it is a gun made up from at least two other rifles.

Jim

 

[deadin]

old style peep sight threaded into the tang.

Shouldn't the peep sight be vertical to the barrel, not canted back and square to the wrist?

 

[Jim K]

Not necessarily if the hole is made straight to compensate, but I don't recall ever seeing that arrangement, just another oddity about that rifle.

Jim