Hand Made Muzzle Loader

I have a Markwell Arms "longrifle" that had a brass piece that simulated a patched stock. The real reason for the brass was to allow a shorter pieces of one to be used instead of a one piece stock. The brass was discarded and a rib soldered beneath the barrel. A pewter nose was poured.

The problem encountered was with the geometry of the stock. The ramrod hole is the stock was far below the rib, necessitating a spacer to be made so that the thimbles were aligned with the ramrod hole. This made the gun look rather hokey.

Anyway, either the rib is taller on that gun or the stock was made right to start with. I'm of the latter opinion. Conclusion? It's not a CVA that was customized but rather something built from scratch with some parts that may have come off a CVA rifle.
 
Going back and looking at the pics again I'm of the opinion that two different people had a hand in building it. The stock work is excellent as is the poured nose cap. The lines of the cheek piece follow the wrist like it's supposed to not like on a modern rifle. So the stock is a custom build. It has a lot of historically accurate parts but maybe the bore in the original barrel was bad and the next owner put that thing on it and tried his hand at inletting. He was not very good.
The bear inlay was very well done. The side plate was not. The same person did not do both. The tang shows the same type of butchery and the breech faces don't match up well. I'd say originally it was a very nice rifle until somebody else got ahold of it.
 
Yeah, you're right, Hawg. One detail I forgot to show was the initials "CNM" inlaid on the bottom of the stock. Doesn't match up very well with Earl Quakenbush.
 
Not a CVA , though there maybe some CVA parts like the RR pipes and trigger guard .
Nipple and drum say nothing . it’s a common drum with a nipple and flash cup screwed on .
Also not a CVA long rifle conversion as the stock has a cheek plate
The CVA MT rifle had a cheek plate .
I would also be to quick in proclaiming the barrel as Spanish made just by the tooling marks .
The only thing they tell us is that the barrel wasn’t draw filed
Lock is not a CVA possibly a Dixie gun works .
Frankly that’s what I think you have is a gun , built from parts , probably purchased through Dixie or built from parts from different rifles
 
Back
Top