Need help identifying a rifle

[Brokenlaig]

This is the rifle I picked up from another board that arrived loaded. It's currently soaking up oil while I get things to remove the old load, but I shot some pictures to see if anybody can identify. It's a .45 percussion long rifle, stocked in what looks like plain maple. It is defying any attempts I can make to identify it.
The barrel is completely unmarked in any way, and finished bright (maybe unfinished). The lock is only marked "warranted". It appears to have the old style flintlock conversion drum installed instead of a purpose built drum. The breech is a Hexagonal breechplug with a hex projection coming off the tang. The barrel is pinned in with pins going through the actual bottom area of the barrel itself rather than using tennons, which is....odd, to my experience. The barrel is 15/16ths so plenty of material to work with, considering it's a .45.The rear sight is some commercial type rifle sight (I think) and the front is a miserably small nearly invisible blade that protrudes over the the top of the base maybe 1/16 of an inch.
The ramrod pipes are just round brass tubes....which are glued on, so help me, as are the pin escutchons. There was a middle ramrod pipe but it fell off in shipping (I have it though).
Well, here, see for yourself:

Has anybody ever seen a kit rifle like this, or is it just random parts some guy assembled?

 

[MikeChapin]

It looks like one of the gazzilion cheaper imports that were brought in during the late 70s to mid eighties. Most of the fullstocks were .44 or .45 which was a common caliber back then before magnum fever hit and .50 became the common caliber.

Check the bore. Some of these had a rough bore. They shot suprisingly well but the rough bore could tear up patches affecting accuracy. If you have a smooth cut bore - all to the good. Most of them had a drum ignition so the manufacturer could sell a flintlock model with just a touch hole liner and lock change. The flintlocks were horrible on these but the caplocks generally worked fine.

I have one similar imported by Hopkins & Allen. It is a half stock but the side plate is identical to the one you have. It is a .36 in a 15/16" barrel. Luckily it has a short barrel so you don't have to be a weight lifter to shoot it.

 

[BEP]

What you have there is a Numrich Arms Hopkins & Allen "Minuteman" rifle. I owned one in the early '70s and your description brought back great memories. The clincher was your telling that the barrel is pinned through the underside of the barrel itself. And that unique cheekpiece on the butt of the stock, the "warranted" on the lockplate; many other details visible in your high-quality pictures make me certain.

One thought - although nominally a .45, mine was actually a .44 caliber. It was a tack driver at 50 yards with a .433 round ball, pillow ticking for a patch and 55 grains of (then) DuPont 3f blackpowder.

And yes,they were available in kit form. Kits were a kind of a pain as the buttplate was not a casting but formed out of brass sheet stock and required quite a bit of work to make fit and look well. And there were other "challenges" in the kits. Mine was purchased as a finished rifle.

Financial challenges (college) forced me to sell it, which I regret to this day.

sneezy

 

[BenCoogle]

Spot on! Ben

 

[shooyer_250]

hay laig...tell me you didn't that from a feller down in austin tex????...Lee

 

[Brokenlaig]

Thanks for the info guys. This rifle is actually pretty well built, much better than many kits I've seen, including the Lyman GPR I'm currently un-bubbaing.
I find this rifle has a nice solid feel and after some improvements (Like, you know, actual pinned in ramrod ferrules and screwed on escutcheons and, oh yes, some decent sights)should make nice shooter. I bet that the ball currently stuck in the breech is either too big or the bore is a bit rough or maybe both. I can polish the bore out easy enough.
And no, this rifle didn't come out of Texas.

 

[oldarmy]

It's easy to pin the escutcheons on.
The ramrod pipes are also an easy fix.
TOTW and other supply houses sell "real ones" :grin:
Nice gun, It's a keeper.