Cap n Ball
Member
I have an elderly friend who is moving into an assisted living condo and he called me to see if I was interested in an old rifle he had. I told him of course I was. By his description I thougth it might be a Sharps but when I saw it I was stunned. Its an old European style hunting or maybe even sniping rifle. Obviously for big game such as boar or elk it is .50 cal, octagonal barrel, 'dishpan' peep site with percussion ignition. The falling block breech is actually a cap ejector. The breech plug for the cap is split and when the lever is pulled down the bottom half springs back to pull out the spent cap. That action also cocks the firing mechanism and the set-trigger is ready with a very light pull. It had to be muzzel loaded but the ram rod must have been carried since there is no provision on the gun to store one. The stock is a piece of sculpture that looks odd but when you fit yourself upon it it becomes as part of your body. It has sling swivels. Beautiful checkering and engraving very tastefully done. There are no names on the outside of the piece. There is a cartouch on the top of the breech that looks like a Masonic 'All Seeing Eye' pyramid with some sort of symbol in the center. Just in front of the cartouch the barrel has flanges that could possibly been intended to take a slide-on tube scope. There is a number on the bottom of the barrel tube just in front of the forearm. The dishpan site is fully adjustable and the muzzel site has a depressable tang so that different sites such as a blade or bead might be inserted. It is missing a pin above the lever and it was replaced with a piece of wire so I will be taking it into the gunsmith to have a new pin made and have the entire piece checked out as to its shootable possibilities. The bore is dark and the rifling is odd, almost like a smoothbore. Any comments or knowledge of guns like this are most welcome. I think this was custom made for some gentleman and is most likely one of a kind.