Jaeger Barrel

I've always liked Jaeger rifles but the barrels are too short for my liking. I've seen Jaeger rifles with part round octagonal barrels in auctions etc. but not too often at all. Just how ridiculous from a PC point of view would it be to build one? Would one be hunted down and shot for such a trick? How about from a practical point of view? Say 35" or 36" barrel. Maybe (IDK) It would balance well, maybe not. I don't know if it would be wise or not... Input please.

Oh, I was gonna put a mule ear lock on it

Probably those you have seen with oct/rnd barrels are smooth bored for fowling or straight rifled for bore hunting.

Look at Shuway's "Jaeger Rifles". Barrel lengths run the gamut from 24" to 40".

Yes , thats a very good point. A quick Google search found this...

German Percussion Jaeger Rifle C. 1840. 43" overall with deeply rifled 28" .52 caliber octagonal barrel, turned round for 4" at the muzzle to accept a socket bayonet, the lug on the underside. Marked on top of the barrel "E. Triebel in Landsberg

Also an unusual rifle with a (Tapered) octagonal profile barrel and a bayonet lug for boar...Percussion boar rifle - probably German - .62 cal.; 30-7/8" slow taper octagon barrel.

This is very good example (IF) it is not a smoothrifle or straight rifled, It doe's not state...

AmericanLongrifles. com -ALR Virtual Library and Museum- Ancestors of the American Longrifle- -Jaeger 101003-1

Oh, I am thinking that maybe the sights or lack of would be an indication. I am not seeing any in the photos

The only other one I could find was on the littlegun site. Johannes Marder double percussion (probably a smoothbore). I think I'll give up :shake: :surrender: :shake:

I did find this but I am not sure descriptions are accurate especially on auction sites. It stated Gottschaulk rifle. I cant really tell but the barrel (looks) half round.
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/23549184/393488958.jpg

Also there was a rifle (described) as a Jaeger rifle with a round barrel made for Arab royalty or something or other. That one had a round patch box that looked english.

I Think none of this is conclusive and you are probably right that they are fowlers or smooth rifles or maybe straight rifled boar rifles. It is hard to see the difference between rifle or shotgun on some of the arms because the stocks look so similar. I surrender :redface:

Years ago I did some research on Jaeger rifles when I started building them, & everyone told me they had.... to be 31" barrels & .58 cal.to be a Jaeger rifle... :hmm:
I did some research I found them to be from 21" long to 51" long & calibers from .41 to .75 caliber. From then on I made them what I wanted them to be.
That being said, the most prominent barrel lengths seems to be from 28 to 32" and there was many more large bores than small bores & allot of .58 cal. But there was really no set standard that I could find.

However, if I was going to make another one for me in a 37" barrel, it would be a .62 cal. & in walnut. Reason being one of mine is very dense burly maple & with 37" x .54 cal swamped barrel & even tho the balance is wonderful, it weighs almost 11#. You carry that 11# rifle deer hunting all day, it will start to wear on ya by afternoon. :wink:

Keith Lisle

Ok, I found one with sights but it is from CZ. All the more interesting to me. Some ive looked at are coonverted to percussion. The link is... http://www.littlegun.info/arme%20tchecoslovaque/ancien%20artisan/a%20junk%20gb.htm

Thanks Birddog. Come to think of it, the Gottschalk "rifle" has sights also but the picture is too small to tell if it has a swamped barrel or a oct/rd barrel. It doe's appear that way. I found this again in the AmericanLongtrifle museum under Neuhart. The other Jaeger on that site Is really high class! Sorry about the multiple postings. This is something I've thought about for a long long time.

If you want to see some truly exception Jaegers, you need to see the Jaeger book Jim Chambers sells. It is undoubtedly the finest collection of Jaeger photos ever assembled. Outstanding photography, exceptional rifles & one of the finest gun book I have ever seem published. It is an expensive book, but very expensive to produce & it took years in making. But IMHO, none other can touch it in quality of content.

Keith Lisle

I have seen segments of the book before. Very nice.

For clarification, the CZ. Jaeger by Joseph Junk has an ocatgonal/16 sided barrel. It is not round. I just noticed this. Again I apologise for the excessive posting. :v