This is a Westley Richards Express rifle on the 1881 Deeley and Edge Patents. It dates probably from the late 1880s. It is chambered in the 500-450 Number 1 Express cartridge, a 2.75 inch bottleneck case (think 45-110) and was designed to shoot a 270 grain hollow tubed (HP) bullet with 110 grains of powder at 1900 fps. The intended game animals are suggested by the engraving - an Ibex on the left side and a Chamois head in an oval on the upper tang (not shown.) The rifling is Metford with 7 grooves (if you can call them that - I'll see if I can add a diagram of the rifling) and a slow twist for the light bullets. I suppose you could consider this the 7mm Mag sheep rifle of the day. The barrel is harp shaped in cross section. The flat is not cut into the round part of the barrel but raised above it and contoured in. Hard to describe but a wonderful job of filing by a master. The engraved butt plate has a round trap. The fore end tip is horn. The front sight is a very fine bead and the 2 flip up leaves of the rear sight are marked 150 and 250 with platinum line inserts on center. Greener in his book describes Express rifles as not being held to the same accuracy standards as target files with 6 inches at 200 yards being good. I've approached this with a 300 grain Lyman 457191 with 120 grains of 1 1/2 at 1740 and gotten 1870 fps with this bullet and a duplex load of 10 grains of SR4759 and 100 grains of 1 1/2 but with less accuracy.

Beautiful rifle, thanks for posting.

I am impressed, that is one nice looking rifle. You don't see them like that very often.

I have one the same, but not as nice as that.

Sorry, it would have been more correct to have said lyre shaped. The old pic I had is not in focus. I'll reshoot it and post it.

Yes, there is not much for fouling to hang up on in there and they had rules about not cleaning between shots in competition. Here's the barrel shape I was trying to describe. Got to touch that blue up!

Lovely rifle!
The barrel is most often referred to as 'ovate' 
I have an 1881 match rifle in the No.2 chambering (wish I had a sporter like yours...) they are great rifles.

Does anyone know if Metford style rifling was used on the 54 calibre US Model 1841 Mississippi Rifle. It looks very similar to me.

Regards,
Powderman