• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

1803 Harper's Ferry Rifle

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Article from the April/May 2000 edition of "Muzzleloader". Took two years to be published. I have some additional information, and some corrections to the article. For instance, Larry Janoff's rifle is not s/n 14, it's a three digit s/n (14X); photos showing the discrepancy were supplied by Michael Carrick a few years ago.
Serial number 15 was discussed with Jess Melot prior to going to print, but that was back in 1998 and I referenced his M1803 drawing, which detailed s/n 15 and 94. Regardless, info on the air rifle is not correct; the individual who claims that he owns the rifle used on the expedition has made some rather bizarre claims in the past, and that at least two or more such rifles he owns (which all differed) were used on the expedition. There is tons of info on the contract long rifles, I may transcribe those papers and submit an article for future publication.
I had a previous article which touched on the short rifles, portable soup, tinned cannisters, iron frame boat, etc., in a 1998 edition of "On The Trail" magazine.
 

Attachments

  • Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg1.jpg
    Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg1.jpg
    129 KB · Views: 96
  • Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg2.jpg
    Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg2.jpg
    172.4 KB · Views: 93
  • Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg3.jpg
    Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg3.jpg
    176.1 KB · Views: 81
  • Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg4.jpg
    Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg4.jpg
    311.1 KB · Views: 86
  • Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg5.jpg
    Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg5.jpg
    142.2 KB · Views: 79
  • Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg6.jpg
    Maggelet_Short_Rifle_pg6.jpg
    156.2 KB · Views: 82
Article from the April/May 2000 edition of "Muzzleloader". Took two years to be published. I have some additional information, and some corrections to the article. For instance, Larry Janoff's rifle is not s/n 14, it's a three digit s/n (14X); photos showing the discrepancy were supplied by Michael Carrick a few years ago.
Serial number 15 was discussed with Jess Melot prior to going to print, but that was back in 1998 and I referenced his M1803 drawing, which detailed s/n 15 and 94. Regardless, info on the air rifle is not correct; the individual who claims that he owns the rifle used on the expedition has made some rather bizarre claims in the past, and that at least two or more such rifles he owns (which all differed) were used on the expedition. There is tons of info on the contract long rifles, I may transcribe those papers and submit an article for future publication.
I had a previous article which touched on the short rifles, portable soup, tinned cannisters, iron frame boat, etc., in a 1998 edition of "On The Trail" magazine.

Mongo,

Does your research and investigation of the original rifles show a smaller pistol sized lock or regular size rifle lock on the early rifles?

Gus
 

Attachments

  • C2EBAAB4-D3EE-4AF4-91FC-E592217C930B.jpeg
    C2EBAAB4-D3EE-4AF4-91FC-E592217C930B.jpeg
    93.2 KB · Views: 62
Last edited:
Here's a better photo of the purported (fake) "Model 1800" rifle (bottom)-
 

Attachments

  • ShortRifleFakery.jpg
    ShortRifleFakery.jpg
    50.4 KB · Views: 65
A 2006 archaeological excavation at Traveler's Rest recovered some round ball artifacts. They did not make any specific claims that the artifacts were from the L&C era, however carbon dating of charcoal, wood, bone fragements, etc., from the same layer put it in the time frame (plus or minus a few decades).

Artifact 1 included a flattened ball weighing 210 grains (.480 ounce). A half ounce ball was the type specified for the Short rifle.
By way of comparison, a .520" diameter pure lead ball weighs 212 grains.
A .530" lead ball weighs 223.49 grains.

Artifact 2 was a large diameter round ball of 423.46 grains (.97 ounce). A one ounce ball was specified for the Charleville pattern musket (Model 1795).
In comparison, a .648" ball weighs 410 grains.
A .662" ball weighs 437 grains.
A .680" ball weighs 473 grains.
 
I found it interesting that for the 200th anniversary of the corp of discovery two different companies made limited edition reproductions of their rifles. One made 1803 Harper's Ferry rifles. The other made contract rifles fitted with 1803 locks. I am sure that both companies did serious research on the rifles before investing in their products. Yet they came to two different conclusions!
 
Back
Top