Need some ideas for a unique single shot rifle for a book

[Kermit1945]

Peabody Martinis. Check out Tom Rowe's book. You can see all of it online.

http://www.blurb.com/books/4112984-e...body-martinis#

[44minimum]

You guys have given me lots of good ideas, but I'm going to have to go with that Frank Wesson. That's just a gorgeous rifle. Thanks for all the input. Now I'm going to have to find out about its cartridges.

[John Taylor]

How about a Remington Beals. Very short lived rifle. Drop the lever down and the barrel slides forward. There were only 700 made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtD1pugLNf0

[John Allen]

how about something a little earlier such as a whitworth rifle. The hook might be the fact that the bullets are fitted to the rifling.

[fouronesix]

Watch the movie "Crossfire Trail" and check out the scoped 40-60 Remington-Keene the hired killer (Beau Dorn) uses... played by Brad Johnson. The movie is set in the early 1880s so would be correct for your timeline.

Here's a link to some of the movie's still clips showing the Remington-Keene, and other firearms.

While not a single shot, it seems plenty "unique" to me and is period correct.

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Crossfire_...epeating_Rifle

[uscra112]

I believe that a poster on the ASSRA site just bought that Frank Wesson. Or one just like it.

[Knight Templar]

How about a Strong/Dickerman?
http://books.google.com/books?id=fR4...0rifle&f=false

[John Boy]

I don't want just a plain old Sharp's chambered in .45-90, I would like it to be something rather unique, maybe in an unusual chambering, something that would've been used in 1870s and 1880s. Got any ideas?

A fully engraved & carved M Gruny Martini Schuetzen Rifle in an obsolete 9.5x47R caliber that was created in 1880 and lasted for 10-15 years.
There are 3 known owners in the US with rifles bored for the 9.5x47R - no known examples for the bullet - was re-created from a photo on a page in a turn of the century German ammunition catalog - the schematic of the bullet sent to Accurate mold - last known Bertram brass obtained and reloads prepared for shooting with my data
http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/Ya...m=1341971260/0
http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/Ya...um=1341973264/
http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/Ya...m=1348200433/0

[leadman]

How about a 71 Mauser single shot bolt action rifle? The rear site on it is a real interesting piece of machining.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

I always thought it would of been enteresting for someone in the late 1870s too show up with a bolt action 1871 Mauser with PP bullets and black powder now that! would of been WAY COOL!

KW
The Lunger

[Yellowhouse]

Kenny, isn't that what the shooter was using in the Streets of Laredo?

[Huvius]

Is your man American, English...?
Did he serve in the Civil War?
My vote goes to the Alex Henry hammer falling block or 1881 Westley Richards.
450 3-1/4" BPE for the Henry and 500/450 No.1 Express for the Westley.
Or a Gibbs Farquharson in 461 No.2

[fouronesix]

The gun will have to fit into the context of the story. If it is too far out, then likelihood of possession by the character goes way down and the credibility of the whole story may suffer. Since the timeline is just post-Civil War, I like the possibility of some foreign or domestic muzzleloader found on a battlefield. If the character has traveled abroad just prior to the timeline then that opens up a much larger group of arms as reasonable or believable.

That brings up the possibility of the character having been in South America, hiding out or doing some mercenary work there, then bringing back an M1879 Remington rolling block in 43 Spanish. Then having a scope mounted on it for serious long range work. ... seems the possibilities are endless!

[carbine]

Remington Rolling Block in 50/70. Accurate as all get out

[Huvius]

The gun will have to fit into the context of the story. If it is too far out, then likelihood of possession by the character goes way down and the credibility of the whole story may suffer...

True, but we don't even know the background of this character.
If he is a hired assassin with the means (as he should if he was good enough to get to his 50s)
he could have just about any gun available in the day.

[pietro]

Pietro, I just cannot seem to find out a whole lot about a Frank Wesson falling block. You know of any online sources you can point me to? I would kind of like to see an exploded diagram of one, and I would like to know if you can take them down for transport in a storage case and things like that.
Can anyone point me to anything ?

The falling block rifles were solid-frames (not "takedown"); but the FW tip-up/two-trigger models were.

http://www.nramuseum.org/the-museum/...ver-rifle.aspx

http://www.steveearleproducts.com/

http://milpas.cc/rifles/ZFiles/Sport...Mid-Range.html











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[Texantothecore]

Falling blocks were extremely expensive. Iirc, one buffalo hunter reported that he paid 276.00 for a Sharps falling block 1876 which was a huge amount of money at the time and they were primarily sold to rich guys.

Many of the day to day guns were recognizably made of parts from 4 different guns. So you can go wild.

Many of the cap and ball guns started life as flinlocks and you can see the additional woodwork on the few which still exist.

If your character was from a particularly rough area with low population he would have carried a flintlock as the caps would be nearly impossible to come by in large sections of the US. They were produced as day to day production guns through the end of the 1920s.

Bedford and Somerset counties of Pennsylvania come to mind, but any area that had low population would feature flintlocks, frequently Granddad's gun.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Yellowhouse, I think your correct on that rifle in that movie.

Joey Garza? I think it was?
Kenny W.

[Reverend Al]

A fully engraved & carved M Gruny Martini Schuetzen Rifle in an obsolete 9.5x47R caliber that was created in 1880 and lasted for 10-15 years.
There are 3 known owners in the US with rifles bored for the 9.5x47R - no known examples for the bullet - was re-created from a photo on a page in a turn of the century German ammunition catalog - the schematic of the bullet sent to Accurate mold - last known Bertram brass obtained and reloads prepared for shooting with my data

Wow ... do I ever feel privileged after reading that! I have a German made (Dresden) under-lever single shot sporting rifle and a Mauser Model 71 single shot Schuetzen target rifle ... BOTH chambered in 9.5x47R! I also bought 40 rounds of Bertram brass for the Mauser 71 (the tighter chamber of the two guns) and I've reformed a few rounds of .45-70 brass for the sporting rifle. Two more "back burner" retirement project guns that I'll get to eventually ...

I've actually shot about 15 rounds through the sporting rifle (mostly just forming brass) but I shot it twice at our Shuetzen Rifle events in local Cowboy Action Shooting matches. The 71 Mauser Shuetzen has only had one blank (powder + cornmeal) fire-forming round fired in it so far.

[Dusty Ed]

Howdy 44
Steve Earle Manufactures the Frank Wesson falling block action ,type this information into your search engine.