Alonzo Selden Target Rifle

[LawrenceN]

Thank you for your input.  The problem with these old rifles is that without actually being there, all one can do is educated speculation.  I would tend to disagree with the shortened muzzle opinion though.  Under a strong light and a good magnifier, there are no tooling marks as such (and trust me, I know tool marks!) but some dents and scratches that I think one would expect from a rifle that's 130+ years old.  Also, docking the muzzle would have necessitated the relocation of the foresight dovetail and shortening the ramrod.  The crack in the wood is definitely a stress crack.  I would be of the opinion that the screw was too snug and stressed the grain and then, as you'd mentioned, recoil would be sufficient to add enough force to make the wood fracture.  Fortunately, for a purist, that would be an easy fix or it could be left as is.  Call it part of the rifle's history.
It came from the estate of an elderly gentleman who just collected "stuff" from treasures to junk.  That's as much as the auction house would tell me, so I can't trace the history back and I wouldn't have a clue as to where to start looking.  What are the odds that Selden kept records of his rifles and someone has them still?  Pretty slim, I'd bet, or someone would have chimed in.

[LawrenceN]

I am curious though, not knowing how those old time gunsmiths operated, and hoping someone can steer me right.  I'm assuming those old gunsmiths would build arms of desired types on "spec" so they'd have stock for the "off-the-shelf" buyer, tweak them to suit if asked, and then do custom and "one-of's" for the wealthier clients who wished to have fitted firearm made to suit them. 

[Uncle Russ]

LawrenceN....Don't read more into this than actually exists.

"Old Time Gunsmiths" did do excellent work, as so many surviving specimens from that era can attest to.
However, most gunsmiths, even back then, did not make all of their own parts as many were readily available on the market.
Barrels blanks, or barrel scalps of bar iron for forging gun barrels, were available as early as the 1830's.   
Many early Gunsmiths rifled their own barrels from a "blank scalp", or barrel blank, with a pitch that they felt was just right for the projectile which the gun was designed to fire, be it round ball or conical, and a select few even cut their own barrels in whole from these "scalps", but for the most part the barrel was ordered then rifled.

Most of them did 'refine" many of the parts that they had bought on the market, some by simply polishing the workings of the lock and trigger, and then adding their own engraving to both the locks, and the side plates.
Most of them did do, or would do, the stocks to a buyers specifications to include length of pull, cast-on, or cast-off, and height of stock comb to the sights of the barrel.

As far as them having "off-the-shelf" replacement parts for potential buyers, I am not sure that existed. Certainly not as we know "off the shelf" today.
The replacement of parts, "custom" fitted to a particular rifle, or repair in general, has always been the real "Bread & Butter" of most Gunsmith's income, because that is where his skills truly shined.

Custom rifles, such as the one you're the proud owner of,  would have cost more than the average workers annual wage, likely even twice the annual wage, back in the year that gun was made....consequently, there were not very many made, and those owning such rifles took the best of care to insure, not only their accuracy, but their longevity. 

Think of it like this....if a Hawken, from the Hawken Shop in St. Louis, MO cost the average hunter of the fur trade era the equivalent of a years wages, one can only imaging what a rifle, such as yours, would have cost 'back in the day'....and even back then, Sam Hawken did order a lot the "parts" that after fitting made the Hawken the gun it was recognized as being during that time frame.
 
There is a familiar saying that goes like this: "A lock is a lock and a trigger is a trigger" no matter what modification is made to change, or perfect them in some way....their function remains the same.
Adding to that the old saying of "Lock, Stock, and Barrel", it is very easy to see we're missing one key ingredient, and that's the trigger.

Hope this helps you a bit.
Sorry I got long winded, but some subjects just need a little more 'talkin' than others.

Russ...

[LawrenceN]

OK guys (and thank you for your input), but I think I've got it nailed down.  It was made by Alonzo Selden c:1860's as a high-end, custom order.  It never had a false muzzle as it was probably made for picket matches.  I'm going to do a magnet test on the some of the screws since they seem to be platinum like the breech plug screw.  Whoever had this made was obviously well off and serious about shooting.  What I still have to determine is the rate of twist and that may help narrow down probables even further.  If only this old thing could talk!

[LawrenceN]

OK, more information.  I may have discovered the meaning of the "80" on the muzzle above the ramrod.  I'm told it means 80 balls to the pound, which makes it .39 caliber.  I confirmed that with my micrometer, so my assumption that it was .40 was incorrect.  I thought I'd measured it wrong, never having heard of .39 cal.   [ Invalid Attachment ]  [ Invalid Attachment ]