Auction

[RonEgg]

For the last four nights, this being the fifth, I have been pulling security for a high dollar auction in Dallas. Civil War and Militaria and Legends of the West. The final auction was today and tomorrow they pick up and move back to safes and warehouses. Those that could, would have picked up their items, while most will pick them up or have them shipped at a later time. This was also an Internet auction, so you didn't have to be present to win.
Very interesting, some of these guns and paraphernalia. I will try and take some pics this evening and if I can figure out how to get them from my iPhone to my iPad, will attach them tomorrow.
Pistols run from flint lock, percussion, four shot square pepper boxes and six shot round ones, Colt six shooters of various calibers and a rusted, loaded 44 picked up on the Little Big Horn battlefield.
Rifles run the same gammet with many 73 Winchesters, three Henry's, couple of Spencer's, a Krag owned by a Rough Rider and a very rare limited production rifle developed by Charles Minie to demonstrate the safety of his new bullet. I will try to get a close up of this one as the percussion cap is 2/3's up the barrel on the side.
And finally, if you like swords, there were hundreds from all countries.

 

[RonEgg]

This is the Minne rifle I mentioned. It was a prototype, so few were made. As I hope you can see where the precussion cap goes, the rifle is long but the actual surface the bullet would travel is relatively short. Minne wanted to be sure that his bullet would work properly, but if it didn't the resulting "explosion" would be forward of the shooters face and would be as benign as possible.

First we see the relatively normal hammer with a rod, we will call it a piston lying along side the right side of the rifle.

Next we have the end of the piston that is about 12 to 14 inchers from the muzzle of the rifle.

Now the hammer is pulled to the rear, the piston is pulled to the rear by the shooter

And up front the piston is pulled back exposing the nipple for the cap. When the rifle is fired, the hammer falls slamming the piston forward onto the cap.

This is another interesting rifle. It looks like a conventional flintlock from afar, but either had been upgraded to a percussion shooter or it could have started out in that fashion. However the lockwork has been moved to the right side of the rifle and the hammer can be pulled back with the palm of your shooting hand. Here we have a side on photo.

This is the lockwork as seen from abover.

And here the hammer is locked to the rear and would be ready to fire.

 

[schloss]

That sidelock is awesome. I've seen a few mule's ear setups before, but I really like that one. Same basic setup as the mule's ear, but the external geometry of the hammer is much more interesting. Although, the mules ear is a very sleek design and wouldn't be so prone to snagging on things as this setup. Still, I really like it.