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Can I fire this?

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Thanks for all this great advice. I am letting a local gunsmith go through it first. He said is is happy to do so as he has never seen one from this manufacturer and doesn't see many underhammers.
What's surprising to me is this seems like a very primative design not as flashy as others I see but he said this is a very nice gun. Although, maybe he says that about all the old guns he works on but was still cool to hear.
 
Your gunsmith is correct. That is a very nice gun with a great piece of curly maple for the butt stock, nice inlays and general tight fitting of the hardware. There is an elegance in the simplicity of an underhamer that makes up for unnecessary flashiness.

I hope this rifle checks out for you. I would limit my shooting to light loads.
 

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If you have a tape measure, ruler or something similar you can measure the distance from the smallest flat (curved?) area to the one on the opposite side. It looks like there are 6 rifling grooves so measuring the distance should be fairly easy.

If the distance is close to being 3/8 of an inch the bore is probably a .36 caliber. If it is close to 7/16 of an inch it is probably a .45. If it is 1/2 inch it is a .50 caliber.

Let us know what you find. :)

As a side note, my book on American firearms makers says,
"Stevens, A.C. 1855-1873, Made percussion match and target rifles at Hudson, New York." Not much new information for you except maybe the date period the gun was probably made.
 
If you have a tape measure, ruler or something similar you can measure the distance from the smallest flat (curved?) area to the one on the opposite side. It looks like there are 6 rifling grooves so measuring the distance should be fairly easy.

If the distance is close to being 3/8 of an inch the bore is probably a .36 caliber. If it is close to 7/16 of an inch it is probably a .45. If it is 1/2 inch it is a .50 caliber.

Let us know what you find. :)

As a side note, my book on American firearms makers says,
"Stevens, A.C. 1855-1873, Made percussion match and target rifles at Hudson, New York." Not much new information for you except maybe the date period the gun was probably made.

The bore is exactly 1/2 across on the inside edges
 
3542EEB8-73B3-4C1C-AAA4-1EF1679546C9.jpeg
I was able to find this small write up from a resource on local history. Kinda neat as it makes mention to another somewhat local company Remington Arms.
 
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