Hey DWS !!!

Be careful about bringing them cold guns into a warm house..

Ed....

The style and lines on your rifle are works of art DW. 


                    Joe

I'm pretty sure they are nickle-plated.  the butt-plate is the same and the removable knob/screw on the upper prong has a wear spot through to the base metal, as does the trigger guard removal knob. 

  If they were silver I'd expect a degree of tarnish in the corners,  Its been hanging on a wall for years and shows no evidence of recent polishing.   
That trigger guard is indeed nice. It also feels very natural in the offhand position.  I keep leafing through the Rowe book comparing features on the rifles shown to my Rudolph Grimm rifle.  There is a lot of variety when it comes to the guards.  While Grimm was a Chicago 'smith this guard looks a whole lot more like the ones on a few of the eastern guns.  I'd love to figure out how to get a replica of it, and the butt-plate, cast.

froggie,  I've had the new TOTW catalogue, either in front of me or in my briefcase for the past couple weeks.  now that my muzzleloader genes are getting fired up with this percusion schuetzen I've been really missing the flintlock musket I "lost" in my divorce some years back and now I'm REALLY seriously thinking of ordering a bunch of parts before year end to recreate it.

They sure have a bunch of trigger guards for certain, but nothing like the one on my rifle.  they have a rather bloated clunky looking "pope style" in waxcast steel as well as a nicer looking "S" & "C" style ML schuetzen guard in brass or steel but nothing coming even close to the one on my rifle.  I know someone has cast the Walker/Hepburn in the past.   I'd like to find one of them too, for a totally different project.

Rowe seems to feel that there were 3 basic schools of percussion schuetzen 'style"  eastern, midwestern, and california.   But looking at the examples photographed for his book I believe there were regional subsets.  In a non-critical way I wonder how many he viewed that did not make it into the book,  and how many others are still out there.   Having edited more than a few pictorial books I wonder how and what criteria he used in his selections.
  I personally suspect that there may be more out there to learn about the antecedents of our ASSRA-style cartridge schuetzen sport.

Bob: Thats what I've assumed as well.  It must be drilled and tapped for a palmrest of some sort. 
 I'd love to know what else would have been in the shooting kit for this rifle.  Mould,? female plunger starter to fit the muzzle recess?  loading rod(s)?  (I suspect the one currently under the barrel is basically a cleaning rod)  some sort of powder container/measure/flask?  What kind of container would the caps have been in?

Rowe shows several variations on palm-rests, including a strange inverted horseshoe one that looks real awkward to me.
Personally I shoot my single shots off my left hand, my forearm vertical, gripping the action with my hand.  I've never been able to find or set up a palmrest that feels as solid.  I guess a lot depends on you own unique body structure.
If you decide you want to make a rear sight like that one PM me.

amoskeagauctions.com has one in the Leland D. Schlegal collection in March 2010. It has a palm rest.

DW,

This is an aprox. translation;

Standard aperture sight milled from steel for muzzleloading schuetzen rifle. Elevation and windage adjustments are made with precisely milled dovetail slots, with 6mm square shaft for fitting into the upper tang, the sight-key is included. Price $300.00 US

Bob