Percussion rifle

[RogerFurman]

I have a very well preserved tiger-stripe stocked .36 cal half-stocked percussion squirrel rifle. The rifle was given to me by my father back in the fifties. He had received it from a woman he did work for as a young man. I have fired it many times and have cleaned and kept in good condition. My question concerns it's ancestry.

The lock is an H. Elwell Warranted. It is engraved with a quail scene behind the hammer. The top of the barrell is marked, C. H. Vaughan.

The rifle has a brass triggerguard and a brass buttplate. Is is equipped with a nice set trigger and is mounted with several german silver escutcheons.

I have been told by a gunsmith friend that he believed it is an nineteenth century vintage of an Ohio or Pennsylvania stlye squirrel rifle.

Could anyone give me some information on the maker himself and the maker's location, time of making, etc.

Thanx

 

[Jim Watson]

So far have found:

"Henry Elwell was a lockmaker located in Seneca County Ohio circa 1810-1812. His locks were used extensively on a wide variety of guns by any number of gunsmiths."

This is very early for a percussion lock. Are there any signs of it being converted from flint?

I can't Google anything about C.H.Vaughan who may have made the barrel or whole gun.

 

[RogerFurman]

No signs of conversion, but it definitely has been made in the flintlock style, cheekpiece, triggerguard, buttplate, ramrod furrels, etc. If you didn't look at it from the lock side, you'd think it was a flint. It's a real nice piece and was a good shooter. I just no longer shoot it, because it is so old.
Would appreciate any info that's available.

 

[Jim K]

I have long questioned those dates for Elwell. I have a rifle with an Elwell lock (the same markings as described) and it definitely was made as a percussion lock and is the only lock that was ever on the gun. The rifle has no maker's name, but is from Blair Co., PA, about 1850.

(The gun is essentially an assembled gun, as most were at that time. The barrel is by J&D Little, the big Pittsburgh gun supply house, the Brownells of the day.)

Jim