US 1863 WHITNEYVILLE RIFLE Anyone know the history of this rifle?

[MRCLARK]

I have this old beast and would like to try to salvage as much of it as I can. Its in pretty rough shape and my goal is to basically clean it up, restore it without sanding, blasting or other things that could be a problem.

Its covered in rust, grunge and other crap.

From what I understand the metal work on the guns where in the white back in the day and these guns were not blued or browned. Does anyone know if this is correct?

Now when I was in springfield at the Springfield Armoury Museum http://www.pbase.com/mrclark/springfield_armoury_museum I spoke with one of the curators there and they mentioned that my rifle is basically the same as the ones listed here in this pic

But he was not sure. Basically the springfield and the whitneyville are the same rifle but just made in different factories? Hence the name.


Heres some other pics of some springfields possibly whitneyvilles as well. The ones on the left are used obviously and the ones one the right in white are mint storage.

Anyone know anything about this rifle. I sent Springfield some emails but they wont reply back, and I gave up.

I'll try calling next but I thought some of you guys might know something about what I have here.







http://www.pbase.com/mrclark/1863_us_whitneyville_rifle

 

[tiriaq]

Eli Whitney, Whitneyville Armory, made a variety of rifles and rifled muskets during the Civil War, under various contracts, Federal and State. Many were US pattern, but were purchased by different states for issue to their troops, rather than to US Federal troops. Others were generic in pattern. A lot of Whitney's guns would not pass US Federal inspection. From the shape of the hammer, it basically Model 1861 pattern. It looks as if the gun was converted to a shotgun after the war. This was done with many obsolete arms to make them saleable, at low cost. Is the barrel 40" long? When dealing with antiques, do as little as possible to stabilize and preserve what is left. There are gentle techniques for dealing with rust. Basically, the gun looks to be in antique "good" condition.

 

[Gibbs505]

Very nice rifle there!!

 

[JP]

Third rifle down is an original Whitneyville contract rifle for the state of Connecticut, very similar to your US Model 1861.

 

[MRCLARK]

Eli Whitney, Whitneyville Armory, made a variety of rifles and rifled muskets during the Civil War, under various contracts, Federal and State. Many were US pattern, but were purchased by different states for issue to their troops, rather than to US Federal troops. Others were generic in pattern. A lot of Whitney's guns would not pass US Federal inspection. From the shape of the hammer, it basically Model 1861 pattern. It looks as if the gun was converted to a shotgun after the war. This was done with many obsolete arms to make them saleable, at low cost. Is the barrel 40" long? When dealing with antiques, do as little as possible to stabilize and preserve what is left. There are gentle techniques for dealing with rust. Basically, the gun looks to be in antique "good" condition.

yes I think it was modded for shotgun use, as the rear sight appears to have been ground off. Also the barrel does not look to be as long as those in the pics.

Does anyone guess if these were in the white or browned? As for rust removal I was wondering if CLR would be a good choice?

 

[tiriaq]

CLR would be a poor choice. There is nothing that you can do about the pitting. The buttplate could respond to oil and scraping with a brass scraper. Just gently clean and oil.
Original finish would likely have been National Armory Bright, a burnished - not buffed - white. It would be just about impossible to reproduce that on your gun, and would only be relevant if you were considering a restoration to original configuration.