Nice Ferguson Rifle

Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf

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This is a nice Ferguson sporting rifle. I wish I had $30,000US.

FINE FERGUSON BREECHLOADING FLINTLOCK RIFLE. Cal. 71. NSN. 35-1/2” oct. bbl. Walnut stock. Marked “B” in script on lockplate, “Newark” on top of bbl behind rear sight. Two crown over crossed scepters proofmarks on upper left flat of bbl. Triggerguard turns to left to open breech. There is light border and floral scroll engraving on the metal parts. Bbl key escutcheons and thumbplate are silver. Fancy rear sight has single leaf with half moon cut in center and a dished top. Base has a solid blade with a V-notch. Front sight has a blade on a dovetail base. Rifled with 10 deep square cut grooves. This rifle is from the famous Roebling collection. Hickory ramrod has a trumpet tip at front and iron ball screw at rear. CONDITION: Fine with smooth gray patina overall. Faint traces of casehardening pattern on lock plate. Stock has a crack on right side of forearm at front bbl key. Mechanically fine. 4-30889 FS1 ($27,500.00-$45,000.00)

30889aaakv2.jpg

30889daaawv9.jpg
 
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It appears to have 10 parallel threads at a very steep pitch. They have to go to multiple threads to keep the depth relatively shallow and the breach relatively narrow. What a shame my lathe does not cut 2 threads per inch, or at least I don't think there is a way to cut that fast.
Nice gun just the same.

cheers mooncoon
 
The trigger guard is unscrewed either 180 or 360 degrees I forget which. The breech plug unscrews. Thats the 'top plug' you refer to. It's actually a threaded screw with steep pitch attached to the trigger guard. That lowers the screw plug and opens to the back of the barrell. The rifle is held barrel sloped down. A ball is dropped in and rolls into the back of the barrel. A powder charge is poured in behind the ball. The trigger guard is screwed back into place raising the plug and sealing the back of the barrel and removing excess powder. The lock is primed and the rifle fired.
As I point out to my kids, all this old ingenious stuff was made without computors.
 
Not a simple task / mechanism...

I get the general drift of the operation...still not clear as to the link between the trigger guard and the top breech plug...
The first picture show a strong front trigger guard pivot point...is that pivot linked to the breech plug?...I assume...

You needed to have a bullet that would fit/stop on the beginning of the rifling...are we talking round ball without patch?...conical...

What happened of this advanced technological development...did not caught on with military production due to cost of production I guess...

so much to learn! thanks

Jacques


theDuck said:
The trigger guard is unscrewed either 180 or 360 degrees I forget which. The breech plug unscrews. Thats the 'top plug' you refer to. It's actually a threaded screw with steep pitch attached to the trigger guard. That lowers the screw plug and opens to the back of the barrell. The rifle is held barrel sloped down. A ball is dropped in and rolls into the back of the barrel. A powder charge is poured in behind the ball. The trigger guard is screwed back into place raising the plug and sealing the back of the barrel and removing excess powder. The lock is primed and the rifle fired.
As I point out to my kids, all this old ingenious stuff was made without computors.
Click to expand...
 
the vertical screw is fastened to the trigger guard which becomes crank handle so to speak. The guns were supposed to work well in battle and could be shot while troops were lying down behind shelter, thus less vulnerable to enemy fire. Fergusson as I recalled used them successfully in one battle but was killed not long after and without him to champion the merits of the gun, it was passed by in favour of the Bess.
It is also my impression that there may have been problems with fouling jamming the threads and that the breach may have required a quick slosh of water every so often.
When you look at the breach hole you will notice that there are 10 threads that break the surface of the barrel. That is because instead of having one great big deep thread spiraling itself upwards, there have been a series of parallel threads cut to partial depth as well as round bottomed in order to reduce the problems of fouling and in order to reduce how deep a single extremely coarse thread would be.

cheers Doug

cheers Doug
 
Unfortunately, Ferguson the inventor and the main force behind the bid to have the rifle adopted by the British Army was killed at the Battle of King's Moutain in N. Carolina During the American Revolutionary War. By the way, his men were armed with Brown Bess smoothbore musket and the American Militiamen he was up against had Pennsylvania Long Rifles. After his death, the rifle project died in obscurity, it was not untill the War of 1812 that a rifle became standard issue in the British Army. Follow link:

http://www.tngenweb.org/revwar/kingsmountain.html
 
Thanks SW
A picture worth a few words indeed...loaded from the rear, muzzle down, would you use a paper cartridge?...or go with separate components?... I note the breech plug seats just where the flash hole is... so that breech plug cylinder has to have a groove that allow powder to move back from chamber to flash hole area after it is closed. The next best thing to a picture would be to handle one but i do not think this will happen...Thanks again for the Pic.
 
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I dare say if Major(?) Ferguson had not been killed by a sniper, and had manages to bring his rifles and men to bear the outcome of the American revolution would have been much different.
 
As a side note, Major Ferguson had an American officer under his rifle at one point, however, he opted not to shoot as he considered it unsporting. Historians now agree that the American officer in question was none other than George Washington!

Ferguson was a helluva man and soldier. He'd originally equipped one company with his rifle, which performed great under combat conditions. Unfortunately, he took a bullet in the arm that put him in the hospital for months and left him with only partial use of it. Beating the odds against infection and amputation, he returned to combat duties, ultimately falling in combat at the Battle of Kings Mountain before the impact of his rifle could really be felt. The Ferguson rifle could get off 3-4 shot to every one fired by the Brown Bess! It was a major improvement on the technology of the day that was allowed to be almost forgotten.
 
JP said:
Unfortunately, Ferguson the inventor and the main force behind the bid to have the rifle adopted by the British Army was killed at the Battle of King's Moutain in N. Carolina During the American Revolutionary War. By the way, his men were armed with Brown Bess smoothbore musket and the American Militiamen he was up against had Pennsylvania Long Rifles. After his death, the rifle project died in obscurity, it was not untill the War of 1812 that a rifle became standard issue in the British Army. Follow link:

http://www.tngenweb.org/revwar/kingsmountain.html
Click to expand...

I've been to that site. That Mountain would have been a hard fight.
 
"...rifle became standard issue in the British Army..." The Brown Bess was standard until the 1830's. 1812 was fought with the Bess.
 
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