Pete, that's a gorgeous example. I'm not too skilled in wood identification but that looks to be walnut to me...and I love the aperture front sight. It looks like a competition pistol if you ask me. In doing my research elsewhere, apparently a ton of those boot guns were also made.
The bottom line for this gun is harvesting deer-I think I mentioned that. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but the impression I get is that compared to a siler-lock percussion, this is a simple, efficient design. (I believe I saw a side-by-side comparison of total parts between a siler and an underhammer, and there were far fewer pieces.) I used to mess around with BP about 4 years ago, but that was living in Alaska, and I was loathe to rely on it as a moose gun and then have no recourse for incursion by grizzly bears...so I gave up on it. (I had a felony conviction 13 years ago-Alaska is THE most difficult state to reinstate a right to bear arms and the only official channel in Juneau was "accepting applications but not processing them" due to lack of funding-or give-a-damn) Thus, at the time I was forced to use a BP rifle in some pretty sketchy territory...and no I was never successful. I'm in Washington state now, and presently about to file for a restoration as my attorney has advised me I meet the criteria for restoration of full rights and a removal of my name from the "Denied Persons" list with the Federal govt.
Despite this, here in WA, it appears I can enjoy my freedoms again before 2023, when I initially established my rights would be automatically restored in AK. Thus, as my dad is 70 years old, and showing it (I kept having to pick up things he dropped on the trail or in the brush) it looks like I will be able to enjoy a few hunts with him using modern by next season. That said, being legal with this BP is great, but I am once again excited by a black powder gun. So excited I got off-track...Is there a consensus regarding the ignition reliability of an underhammer compared to other perc-locks? I noticed one thing about the underhammer is that there appears to be no fire channel-it's just a nice wide open hole from where the nipple screws in, straight into the bottom of the breech. I recall there being a tapped and threaded hole for the nipple on my Lyman Deerstalker, but with a very narrow hole leading into the breech for the fire channel-this leads me to believe the underhammer will have more reliable ignition and hopefully less hang-fires which I had to contend with using the Lyman.
