cjmouser started a thread in the general interest asking about rifles in the mid 1800's. In that discussion the Hall rifle was brought up, and I have some photos and information that might be besides general interest, of interest to flintlock shooters. I left a post for anyone reading the original posts to come here.
I video taped this rifle back around 1985 at a rendezvous, and I dug the video out yesterday and snapped some stills off of it. So here goes:
The pictures are of a Model 1819 Hall U.S. breech loading flintlock rifle. The hammer and frizzen is dead center in the breech, so in order to sight the rifle the sights were off set to the left. The front sight was on the barrel band, and the lug on the end of the barrel was for the bayonet. This model was manufactured at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal under the patent of John H. Hall. There was a total quantity of 19,680 rifles made. It was .52 caliber, 16 lands and grooves, one turn in 8 feet according to the guy that owns the rifle. He says using paper cartridges he can get off 5 shots in a minute, and he can worry the heck out of an 18 inch gong at 200 yards. I don't know what charge he uses. The barrel is just under the ball size, and the rifling ends 1 1/2 inches from the bore, and it is coned, just in case it has to be loaded from the muzzle. A large number of these rifles were in Confederate State Arsenals when the
Civil War started, and most of them were altered to caplock. The breech is opened by the lever in front of the trigger guard, and when the gun is fired gas escapes from vents in the side of the breech and also out by the opening lever, as well as up. When you see the pan flash in your face plus the vent blasting out hot gas and realize there is also some gas escape from the breech it doesn't take much to figure out why the Dragoons had that little tiny bill on their hats. Man, I'm thinking a sombero would cook you eye brows catching all that flash, gas escaping out the vent plus from around the breech. It must have been interesting to say the least.
This shows the breech closed and the lever below that opens the breech.
This shows the breech open. It was loaded with either loose powder and a ball, or using a paper cartridge the end of the paper was bit off, the powder poured into the breech, the the ball shoved in paper and all. In combat I would almost bet that the pan was primed with the paper cartridge first, frizzen closed and then the rest of the powder dumped into the breech and topped off with the ball, paper and all.
This shows the relieved portion of the stock (just under the metal reinforcing strap) to allow gas that leaks out from around the breech to escape. And the next two pictures are the offset rear sight, the offset front sight on the barrel band, and the bayonet lug on the muzzle.
I video taped this rifle back around 1985 at a rendezvous, and I dug the video out yesterday and snapped some stills off of it. So here goes:
The pictures are of a Model 1819 Hall U.S. breech loading flintlock rifle. The hammer and frizzen is dead center in the breech, so in order to sight the rifle the sights were off set to the left. The front sight was on the barrel band, and the lug on the end of the barrel was for the bayonet. This model was manufactured at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal under the patent of John H. Hall. There was a total quantity of 19,680 rifles made. It was .52 caliber, 16 lands and grooves, one turn in 8 feet according to the guy that owns the rifle. He says using paper cartridges he can get off 5 shots in a minute, and he can worry the heck out of an 18 inch gong at 200 yards. I don't know what charge he uses. The barrel is just under the ball size, and the rifling ends 1 1/2 inches from the bore, and it is coned, just in case it has to be loaded from the muzzle. A large number of these rifles were in Confederate State Arsenals when the
Civil War started, and most of them were altered to caplock. The breech is opened by the lever in front of the trigger guard, and when the gun is fired gas escapes from vents in the side of the breech and also out by the opening lever, as well as up. When you see the pan flash in your face plus the vent blasting out hot gas and realize there is also some gas escape from the breech it doesn't take much to figure out why the Dragoons had that little tiny bill on their hats. Man, I'm thinking a sombero would cook you eye brows catching all that flash, gas escaping out the vent plus from around the breech. It must have been interesting to say the least.
This shows the breech closed and the lever below that opens the breech.
This shows the breech open. It was loaded with either loose powder and a ball, or using a paper cartridge the end of the paper was bit off, the powder poured into the breech, the the ball shoved in paper and all. In combat I would almost bet that the pan was primed with the paper cartridge first, frizzen closed and then the rest of the powder dumped into the breech and topped off with the ball, paper and all.
This shows the relieved portion of the stock (just under the metal reinforcing strap) to allow gas that leaks out from around the breech to escape. And the next two pictures are the offset rear sight, the offset front sight on the barrel band, and the bayonet lug on the muzzle.
