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SOLD Original Half Stock Plains Rifle By Gilbert And Bales, Penn Yan N.Y.

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Original half stock by the above maker. It is stocked in walnut and pretty good condition for it's age.
I think the rifle had a rear peep sight as a hole is there for one. Has rear sight and front bead sight currently
LOP is 13.5" rifle weighs in at 11lbs, barrel is 32 3/4" in length, barrel is 1 1/8" across the flats, bore is good
my muzzle guage reads .40. Lock is by H T Cooper, and is full cock only, and has a unique way of setting
the sear bar on the side of the lock.

I have not fired it, but seems very serviceable 750.00 plus ship

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650.00 plus ship

Gilbert and Bales were English immigrants who for many years served the community as gunsmiths and gun manufacturers. Bales remained a bachelor his entire life, but Gilbert (who was an expert woodworker) married Margaret Jane Hallet in 1843; she ran a milliner's business in the house next door at #219. Their son John Gilbert grew up in the gunsmithing trade and kept it up until mass-produced guns made it unprofitable. The guns that Gilbert & Bales made were shotguns, now rare and expensive collector's items.

The Gilbert & Bales business began in what was described as "a little old red building" near the northwest corner of Head and Main Streets; this must have been part of the old Asa Cole tavern buildings on that corner, which were destroyed in a fire many years later that also destroyed the Birdsall works that took over that location.

In 1842 the business was moved to a shop erected near the north line of their property on Main Street. It was a small two-story structure that was sold many years later, after the turn of the century and by a later owner, and removed to a site on Court Street, where it was remodeled into a dwelling, at about the same time as the old Jones house was razed and the new Lake Keuka Floral Co.'s shop replaced it.
 
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