Since I was playing with my new setup for photographing long guns I thought I’d post some pictures of my favourite gun ( my Westley Richards 12 1871 patent breechloader excepted!) , and one of my earlier restoration before I started this blog. It was a German (?) Jeager rifle I purchased from Holts for not much money( if I remember correctly- it now seems unlikely!) as a drum percussion conversion minus its trigger guard, sideplate and butt plate and in a rather sad state, but I was attracted by the inlaid brass figures and date on the stock. I kept the percussion lock intact and made a completely new lock with a casting for the detachable pan and a flintcock, frizzen and frizzen spring casting. The trigger guard was fabricated from strip metal and old bits, and the butt plate was modeled in lead and a silicone mould made and then cast in brass – all the casing done by Kevin Blackley. The side plate was filed from brass sheet, and new screws made. I’m very fond of the finished gun – its very simple and utilitarian, except for the delightfully naive inlay work. I’d like to imagine that this gun was one of the forerunners of the American Longrifle! ;-
You can see the ‘classic’ notch in the lock recess where someone cut away the wood to clear the sear arm as the gun wore!
New side plate in 1.5 mm brass
Isn’t that just perfect!
There isn’t that much left of the original gun – the stock, patchbox and ramrod pipes, barrel, trigger and inner lock parts, but it preserves the strong and unusual character of the original.