53 - English percussion rifle, military version, full stock, crown stamp, muzzleloader, 1850 to 1880

English percussion rifle, military version, full stock, crown stamp, muzzleloader, 1850 to 1880 Iron and wood, full-stocked percussion rifle, military version, muzzleloader, England, 1850 to 1880. Round barrel, full stock with two brass-colored barrel bands, sling swivel, iron ramrod with trumpet head under the barrel, fore-end of lighter wood, butt of darker wood. Percussion lock with flat lock plate rounded at the rear, a crown stamp behind the hammer, in front of it two hard-to-read rows of numbers one above the other, hammer with curved thumb piece, nipple, brass-colored trigger guard, brass-colored butt plate, two lock screws on the opposite side. Stock with old repair, an inserted piece of wood behind the lock plate, mechanism works. L. 131.5 cm The percussion lock goes back to ignition by shock-sensitive priming powder, patented by Alexander John Forsyth in 1807; the percussion cap followed in the late 1810s: the hammer strikes the percussion cap on the nipple, and the spark ignites the charge in the barrel. Compared with the flintlock with its flint and frizzen, this ignition was more weather-resistant and more reliable. From the middle of the 19th century, breechloaders such as the needle gun and the Chassepot rifle displaced percussion muzzleloaders from the armies. The present rifle with barrel bands, sling swivel and iron ramrod follows the design of the military muzzleloaders of this period.