A. E. Whitmore target rifle

[Hednign]

A few weeks back in time I was able to track down an original A. E. Whitmore cal .40 target rifle in excellent condition. With all the original bells and whistles....the false muzzle, the bullet starter and everything in place....well, the rear lollipop sight was missing though...

After a lot of googling to find out more about Whitmore rifles I can`t find anything. Just articles about the patents he made for Remington and Colt. Is there anybody in here that has any information about the rifles he designed? The rifle mentioned is rather interesting because it got an 1:18 twist which I find rather fast to be a rifle from the 1860-70s. So it would be extremely nice to find out more about it....

Thank you....

[waksupi]

Pictures! We need pictures!

[wch]

I suggest you go to assra.com and ask your question there.

[HARRYMPOPE]

Roberts book had mention of him.It is a conical gun more than likely for paperpatch.

[Wayne Smith]

Check the top of your false muzzle. It should show the shape of the patch. Some used a cross patch, some round, some scolopped. You placed your patch in the indention and pushed the boolit into it. This can be done with the false muzzle mounted or not. You then use the false muzzle to push the boolit into the bore, the patch going with it. After you add the powder, of course!

[OnHoPr]

A number of times when I try to google something for info and see that the formats of info might not be what I am looking for. So, I go to the duckduckgo search engine. A lot of times it will show a whole different format of info. Such as if you searched for "boolit lube for sale" on google this forums bodine's Voodoo Red Lube doesn't show up in the first 10 pages but a bunch of other stuff does not pertaining to what you searched for. To where as on duckduckgo search engine bodine's Voodoo Lube shows up in the first page.

[drhall762]

The fast twist had been popular in the "small bores" at least since the early 1850s in Great Britian. Whitworth and the like were fast twist barrels for target work and also used by the CSA as "sniper" rifles. Actually the Whitworth was a gain twist barrel.

[oldracer]

You might want to give Lee Shaver a call as I think he is back from South Africa by now? He went down there for the world long range muzzle loading championships which is out to 1000 yards! From what I have been learning, the 40 and 45 caliber 1 in 18 twist guns are meant to be shot with 500 to 550 grain bullets either lubed or paper patched such as the Pedersoli Gibbs I recently bought. It's bullets are very long, bore riders, use a fiber wad and no powder compression! I have talked with Lee multiple times since I started with this gun and he is most helpful.

Here are some links that might help also:
http://www.researchpress.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
http://stores.homestead.com/hstrial-leeshaverguns/storefront.bok
http://www.bpsu.co.za/

[DIRT Farmer]

451 Pete left Friendship Friday I think, hopefully he will check in here. he has a lot of research on Withworth and his rifles. I learned long ago that when I go to his camp with a question to take a note pad.

[451 Pete]

I have checked what information I have here on A.E. Whitmore and it is very limited. He was listed in " American Firearms Makers " as " Whitmore, Andrew E. 1868-1877 General gunsmith at Somerville, Massachusetts. " Additional searching turns up an A.E. Whitmore as working for Remington and having considerable influence in development of the early Remington breech loading shotgun of 1873 vintage.
Unfortunately that is all that I have available here. For many of the old makers information regarding specific's on what or how many guns they made has been lost to history.

hope this helps ... Pete

[ResearchPress]

Actually the Whitworth was a gain twist barrel.
Whitworth was a uniform twist of 1 in 20. Several of the British match rifle makers experimented with gain twist but most settled for 1 in 18 - 1 in 22. The Gibbs-Metford was gain twist; George Gibbs of Bristol was the gunmaker utilising a barrel with William Metford's rifling design.

David