A Percussion Target Rifle by J.H. Rector

I picked up this original 19th Century target rifle via trade yesterday at Dixon's. The asking price was $850.

From what I've been able to determine, J.H. Rector was active in Syracuse 1845 - 1855, and later moved to Buffalo, NY with a partner. My SWAG is that it was built sometime around 1850.

The .40 caliber barrel is 29.5" long and 1" across the flats. It's held to the stock with a single key. It's rifled with 6 grooves although I haven't checked the twist rate yet. The best thing, is that it's in excellent condition. It had some surface rust in the bore which cleaned up nicely with Hoppe's No.9 and elbow grease. There's no significant pitting.It has a hooked breech, but it's not a patent breech. This is an ideal setup IMO. I borescoped it today and this is the breech face. You can see where the flash channel enters the barrel:

The barrel is marked "J.H. Rector Syracuse" with the serial number. It's also marked "Cut by E.G. Davies".

The nipple is .265" x 28 and in good shape but has a larger hole than I'd like. As it turns out Track carries this size as "oversize" nipples, so I ordered a couple.

A closeup of the lock, which is marked "A.T Russel" (only one L):

A sharp eye will see that the hammer nose is damaged, likely from corrosion. I measured its diameter and I may be able to use the neck of a .44-40 case soldered on as repair.

Very clean inside. It's fitted with a fly, although that's not strictly necessary since it doesn't have set triggers.

It holds solid at full and half cock.

The tang is drilled and tapped for a lollipop-style peep sight, which is missing. Once I figure out the thread size I'll look into making a replacement.

All the furniture is iron (tested with a magnet) except for the brass inlays on both sides of the butt.

That small crack at the heel, along with a small chip behind the tang, along with a few dents are the only stock damage.

The business end:

The ramrod appears to be original or a period replacement. The muzzle end is plain but the bottom is fitted with a reversible tow worm.

The gun weighs 9.1 lbs. on my bathroom scale and 46.5" long overall.

For the past few months I've been casually looking for a shootable 19th Century percussion rifle on Gunbroker and Guns International. So, when I saw this on the rack at Dixon's I found it hard to resist.

It's in fantastic shape for a gun that's potentially 175 - 180 years old. I plan to shoot it. Along with the gun I got a bag of .389" balls and have a Lee .390 mold on the way from Track of the Wolf.

Incidentally, if you search for 19th Century percussion rifles you'll find a lot of them that resemble this one. By the last few decades of the century much of the country was settled so this style was developed for target shooting, not taking large game or fighting. Many gunsmiths along the Eastern seaboard were turning out very high quality guns of this type. You can see some of them in Ned Roberts' The Muzzleloading Caplock Rifle, which is pretty much the Bible for percussion rifles.

Replica Hawksley Flask from Veteran Arms

I just received this copper Hawksley flask replica today from Veteran Arms. Shown with my Zouave or Peace flask for scale on the left. The originals were made in England in the 19th Century.

Closeup of the adjustable valve. It's marked in drams. One dram = 27.348 grains. I will leave it at the smallest setting of 2-1/2 drams and dispense into a separate powder measure, for safety's sake. If you pour the powder into the gun directly from the flask, you risk of having it go off like a bomb in front of your face if there is a spark down the bore.

A nice feature of the Hawksley-style flasks is that the entire valve assembly unscrews for filling, which is nicer than the American-style flasks that fill through the pour opening, requiring you to use a funnel and hold open the valve. I filled the new flask with some Scheutzen 2Fg. I'm not sure of the capacity, probably about a half pound, but it should hold enough for a woods walk or day of shooting at the range.

New .54 Caliber Barrel for my Cabela's Hawken Rifle

Two years ago I took a very large doe in Tioga County, PA with my left handed .50 Cabela's (Investarm) Hawken. The ball was loaded over 70g grains of 3Fg black powder and impacted at about 55 yards. It was a high chest cavity broadside shot with the ball impacting a few inches behind the right shoulder. It made a mess of the chest cavity but the deer ran, which is normal. What I wasn't happy with was the minimal blood trail, which was difficult to follow with the forest floor covered in leaves. A complete pass-through would've have let more blood out faster and made the blood trail easier to follow.

I thought about experimenting with conicals like a Hornady Great Plains or Lee REAL bullet, but then I saw that muzzle-loaders.com carries replacement barrels for this rifle in .54 caliber. They sell it as the Bridger Hawken. Since I like shooting patched round balls I decided to get the larger caliber barrel.

It came well packed and included a replacement tang, which I didn't use. The barrel came with sights and a nipple. The gun as it now looks:

Monday I took it to my club and zeroed the sights for 50 yards. Like my Investarm Gemmer Hawken, it likes a .530 patched ball on top of 80 grains of 2Fg Scheutzen black powder. I used CCI No.11 caps for ignition.

The first two shots were in one hole at the bottom right. After some sight adjustments I put 6 rounds into the group in the center. POA was 6:00 on the bullseye. This is an SR-1 target. The black is 8" in diameter. Of note is that the barrel doesn't seem sensitive to lube. Most of my shots were lubed with Mr. Flintlock, since that allows me to shoot many rounds without swabbing. However, I also shot some rounds lubed with Track of the Wolf's Mink Oil Tallow, which I'll use when hunting. The 6 shot group I circled was 3 shots with Mr. Flintlock and 3 with Mink Oil Tallow.

I recovered about half the patches I used. None showed signs of burnout or cuts. The edge fraying is normal for fired patches, IME.

I lost count of how many rounds I shot but it was around 25 - 30. I shot my last 5 offhand at 50 yards. By this time I was tired and the recoil was getting to me, but this would still put a deer in the freezer.

Speaking of deer, this fawn was hanging out at the range. I took this from about 100 yards with my iPhone 12 before I started shooting. He moved to another part of the property while I was shooting but I saw him nearby on my way out.

Hopefully I'll get to connect with a deer during the October anterless-only season. While I'm not expecting any deer I shoot to drop on the spot, I'm hopeful that the larger, heavier ball will create an exit wound that causes the animal to bleed out more and sooner, for a more humane kill and less tracking.

Guns for Jews

On the eve of the Holocaust in 1939, the world Jewish population stood at about 16 - 17 million. By 1945, it was 10 - 11 million.

In 2024, it's at about 15.7 million. In 80 years we still haven't recovered the numbers lost due to the Nazis. 

We currently make up about 0.2% of the world's population and about 2.4% of the population in the United States.

Antisemitic trope is that the Jews control the world. Just going by the numbers this is laughable, smooth-brained thinking. Sure, we're prominent in many fields, but that's due to our culture which emphasizes learning and hard work. There are plenty of Jewish losers, too.

If the events of the past 11 months have taught us anything, we are a very small part of the world and that a vast number of people don't like us and don't want us defending ourselves. Thus, Israel must become independently able to defend itself. Likewise, Jews in the United States must embrace their Second Amendment rights so they can defend themselves against modern day Nazis, especially those being imported wholesale by the Democrats from assorted third world countries.

If you're a Jewish American looking to get equipped to defend yourself, check out my ebook "Guns For Jews" to help you get started. Get arms and training.