This Virginia rifle is .50 caliber with a 40" straight octagon Green Mountain barrel with the early work of contemporary maker Thom Frazier and is signed on the barrel. The plain maple stock is finished as cherry. The iron furniture is finished to a dark gray patina that contrasts nicely with the stain on the stock. A large Siler lock without pan bridle is mated to the barrel. Trigger reach is 13-3/8" to fit todays average size shooter. Weight is 8.7 pounds.
The .50 caliber Green Mountain barrel is cut rifled with eight lands and grooves with a 1 in 70" twist for a patched round ball. Green Mountain Muzzle Loading Rifle Barrels are machined from high quality American made bar stock, A.I.S.I. 1137 modified, stress relieved, annealed, certified rifle barrel quality steel. All barrels are drilled from solid stock, reamed to a high degree of smoothness, then optically checked for straightness. Very close tolerances are maintained. The front sight is a nickel silver blade with a copper base, and rear sight is classic longrifle sight, flat across the top with a v notch.
Trimmed entirely in iron, this is an early Southern style flint rifle, often called a Virginia rifle. Notice the fairly flat buttplate, with flats in the comb. The wide early iron patchbox has a cam over center release. The door has a nickel silver oval soldered on top, while the head has a nickel silver weeping heart soldered on top. The cam over center door opens with finger pressure revealing a deep cut cavity beneath for flints, and other shooting accessories. The wrist is fitted with a nickel sliver thumbpiece. The tang of the breech is framed in a panel of raised carving.
The toe of the buttplate extends very slightly past the toeplate. The toeplate is fitted with the mounting screws neatly aligned with the barrel. The iron triggerguard is pinned at front, and retained with a screw at the rear, another combination of features often found on early rifles. The short skirt on the ramrod pipe is framed with raised carving similar to that around the breech plug tang. The forearm has a incised molding along the edge of the ramrod channel. The ramrod is fitted with a steel tip with 10-32 threads for loading and cleaning accessories. A Germanic influenced iron sideplate that fills the side panel retains the two lock bolts. It is inlet to about one depth with the side panel. The cheek piece has a moulding along the outer edge, and loops for a vent pick or feather below the cheekpiece. The stock is accented with raised carving. The carving on this rifle has some fuzziness to the background and is not as clean as the builders later work.
The large Siler flintlock has been altered to a earlier design by removing the external pan bridle,and reshaping the pan and frizzen spring finial. The lock plate is decorated with a folk art style engraving , signed Frazier, and is finished to a dark gray patina. We recommend our 3/4 x 7/8" knapped English flints in this lock.
The rifle is fitted with a Germanic style double set trigger with a long rear trigger. Properly tuned and adjusted the triggers can be set and fired in any sequence. Set the rear trigger to lighten the trigger pull when at the range or leave the triggers unset for use during hunting. Fast ignition is assured by the stainless steel vent liner, positioned well above the bottom of the pan, centered on the heat of the flash. If your flint longrifle suffers from that infamous slow whoosh-bang ignition delay, study the work of today's best gun makers, and position your vent well centered on the pan, high above the bottom, to serve as a window on the center of the flash.
A early example of this makers work, we recommend this simple and attractive Virginia rifle for the French & Indian War era reenactor or the Revolutionary War volunteer, seeking a suitable gun for militia duty. This longrifle is new, unfired. Order it for a ten day visual inspection. You will be delighted. Else if it does not fit you, return it in unfired condition for same-day refund. Postage is your only risk, when you order any one-of-a-kind gun from Track, whether new, used, or antique.
