This is a nice rifle.  Bit more than I can afford, but I know there are some fans of the English. 

There is an interesting asymmetrical step to the barrel profile that I've never seen or noticed before.

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Ditto the stock wood. Appears to be an 'el Cheapo' (no stalking safety) that's been restocked and reblued. Regards, Joe

hmm, well right or wrong, I still like the rifle and if it is altered, it must have been a long time ago.  The wood is oil soaked near the action.   

I don't have any problem with reblued guns or refinished wood. I don't know why this is such a bug up most people's butts.  But I am happy for that bug as it puts the occasional rifle in my dream range if not my price range.

Brent

I'll answer that - probably a little different than Joe.  

A stalking safety is the single biggest waste of time any English gunsmith ever spent in making a gun.  

Here is a picture of one of my rifles with a pair of the damn things... 
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)  That is a Joseph Lang double rifle (18 bore - about 635 caliber).

The sliding button infront of the hammer moves a tit back into a groove on the backside of the hammer locking it in place.  This only works at half cock.  So, as a "stalking" safety, you have to stalk to within range, then slide the safeties forward (making very audible clicks), then cock the hammers to full cock (more clicks and movements), and then aim and fire.  Meanwhile the buck is somewhere in Nebraska halfway to Wyoming....  Not a lot of help if you have an Iowa tag in your pocket.  I know this for an empirical fact.

If they worked on full cock, I could see some sense in them.  At half cock, they are really just a PITA.  I would not pay a dime for them.  

Brent

Brent is largely correct in his description and opinion. The original purpose of the stalking safety, as I understand it, was to prevent ADs caused by snagging the hammer spur on vegetation. I've seen them most commonly made to engage at the half-cock position although I remember seeing one that engaged at the full-cock. They were fairly common in the UK (and even on the Continent) at one period on the finer examples of hammer rifles, but were never used in the US to any degree.

The rifle pictured has a simple transverse round pin as the only visible portion of the forearm attachment. This simple pin with no escutcheons around the ends is the standard Henry attachment for his less expensive models, but I've seen several higher-grade Henry and Fraser rifles with actual oblong keys and escutcheons, engraved of course. The unadorned round pin is deceptively simple; it's tapered, tightly fitted & hardened and holds the forearm very firmly indeed in the original rifles I've examined. The simple round pin attachment together with the lack of a stalking safety and the lack of engraving are the reasons I believe it's an el Cheapo.

Relatively speaking, of course.

We must always remember that Fraser and Henry didn't make cheap products. Yes, some were less expensive than others but this was primarily a function of their adornment rather than any difference in the basic quality of the workmanship or materials. Every single original example of both Fraser's and Henry's rifles that I've ever examined has been worthy of the 'Best' label, at least IMO they were, whether they had full-coverage bank-note engraving & gold inlays or none at all. Now, I haven't done up-close-&-personal-disassembly on more than 4 but have closely examined & manipulated about a dozen more of Thad Scott's and Clarence the Collector's rifles and that's my basis of opinion. I wish I could afford one. Heck, I wish I could build one half as good!
Regards, Joe

fallingblock wrote on Jul 9^th, 2008 at 5:46pm:

I note that it is a RH hammer rather than the LF version that I recently aquired. Strange that it carries no date or makers name on either side.

I've fired about 20 rounds through mine and it shoots very well and surprisingly not too harsh in the recoil department.

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