Trying to ID BP rifle

[sectshun8]

So I'm going through the gun safe tonight cleaning some of the toys and I come across this black powder rifle my g/f inherited. I've never really taken a look at it til now, and well... was curious if anyone can actually ID it. On the barrel it reads Ardesa Spain Black Powder Only 50 cal.

I was able to find Ardesa firearms website HERE but can't really seem to find the exact model. I'm not really sure on the age of the rifle, but I'd say easily 20 years old???

It looks like a mixture of a couple of their Side Lock Rifles... but just trying to figure out what it really is. Any help?

I've attached some pics.

 

[arcticap]

That is their Frontier model. As an Ardesa distributor, Traditions recently reintroduced that same model after being discontinued in the U.S. for about a decade or more. And Traditions also offers it in kit form. It does look like they changed the rear sight on the new model.

http://www.traditionsfirearms.com/p...d=744&osCsid=c15bea9c66ad9f73bf05724b3a00e6f8

 

[sectshun8]

Definitely looks like the right model... I need to find out more about the age being as the ram rod on mine doesn't seem to fit that new model, but the rest is dead on.

Thanks

 

[mykeal]

If you remove the barrel you will probably find a set of proof marks which will help identify and date the rifle. Spanish proof marks will be a line of figures like:

The first two characters - a coat of arms and then three circles - identify the Spanish proof house, next is the test information - in this case it means 70,000 kilopascals per square centimeter - and the last item is a two date code for the year the proof test was done - I2 meaning 1989 in this case. Here's the 'decoder ring' for the proof dates: