frank wesson rifle

[paul lewis]

Help I have a Frank Wesson rifle cal. 44 ? octagon barrel 30 1/4long tang, site ,cresent butt plate with 3flats on top ,slide ejecter,tip up barrel for loading double triggers,one to open action , worcester mass. pat'd oct. 25 ,1859 &nov.11,1862 hammer has date of ,apr. 18 1872, blue book does not list this gun very well no mention of a long barrel and when seems close it must have a detachable stock this does not , any help out there thanks Paul

 

[Harley Nolden]

Wesson Rifle:

Paul:
If the attached matches your rifle, then you have the Wesson No 2 Sporting Rifle. It came in calibers 38-100, 40-100 or 45-100. it describes it as a sngle shot rifle, dropping barrel action rifle with barrels rangeing from 28" to 34" and only about 25 being made.

As you can see, very dimley, the 2nd ring also holds a second trigger, and there is a crescent butt plate. The only difference I can tell, need thick Glasses, is according to the book description it was not made in caliber 44-100 ?. However the No. 1 is made in that caliber (44-100) I would assume that possibly this gun is a
40-100 caliber the same as the No 1.

Flayderman's has several pages, w/ photos on the Wesson dbl trigger rifles and that would be a good source to get more accurate information

HJN

 

[James K]

Hi, Paul,

Can you provide a little more info, such as whether the cartridge is center fire or rim fire, and any other markings? I am also curious about you comment on a detachable stock. Wesson made "pocket rifles" which were pistols with detachable skeleton stocks, but none had a barrel that long.

Jim