Tower Cavalry Carbine

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  • Allen65

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 29, 2013
    7,063
    Anne Arundel County
    Looking at a 1858 ish cavalry carbine in pretty good shape for the age. No pics at the moment but...

    Would you shoot it?

    Similar to this...

    https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...ounted-police-dated-1858.cfm?gun_id=101469722

    If you're squeamish about shooting it, send it to Bobby Hoyt at Freischutz Shop in Fairfield, PA. He specializes in black powder firearms and has the equipment to make complete replacement barrels for antique muzzleloaders. He would be able to tell you if it's good to shoot, needs to be relined, or needs an entire repro barrel for shooting.

    I have two original P1853 muskets. One has an original barrel relined by Mr. Hoyt, while the other one has a replacement barrel made by Dan Whitacre http://www.whitacresmachineshop.com/
    that I put on it for shooting, while saving the original for display only because of severe corrosion inside the breech and snail.

    Both Whitacre and Hoyt do great work and I highly recommend either of them to help you with your rifle. Just be prepared to be patient because both have had long backlogs.
     

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    So this is kind of a tale of two guns. I bought a Anschutz / Savage a couple weeks ago to tinker with and had a bit of buyers remorse. It needed some work to get the bolt to cycle smoothly. A pretty simple remedy on the lathe with a drop indicator to work it back true but the problem with it was that it wasn't as much fun as my baby Remington Model 12 pump with Lyman sights. So I took it back and swapped it out for the cavalry carbine that had showed up in the meantime...













    Sitting next to my Euro-arms repop infantry version.


    Links to similar ones

    http://www.antiquearmsinc.com/barnett-pattern-1856-cavalry-carbine.htm

    https://collegehillarsenal.com/barnett-p-1856-cavalry-carbine

    The lock plate is marked Barnett London and has a B crown proof on the lock plate. I found the ghost of an anchor behind the trigger guard on the stock which if true indicates Confederate proof stamp. It has the T&C.G stamp on the swivel bar and ramrod. It has the builders names stamped on the stock in the barrel channel, C.Giles and F.Everhard. I haven't tried to take it apart yet. Barrel is fuzzy inside but shows the three rifling grooves. Nipple area has peppering and the sling side shows wear.

    Only real negative is the 200 and 300 yard leaves are broken off for the rear sight and the palm cap for the ramrod was replaced with a furniture nut with the prongs bent flat (seriously). That and someone etch penciled CSA on the top of the but plate. :sad20: I'll machine a new cap for the ram rod and am not too worried about the sights.

    Overall realizing that it might have been carried in the civil war is pretty amazing. I'm kinda dumbfounded. Really wish these old pieces could talk...
     

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    Fantastic find!
    Do guns like these have any way to be traced to the units they served?

    Perhaps. There's so many different twists and turns in just how these were bought on the British commercial market, brought to Cuba or Bermuda, then smuggled into the states. Supposedly only 10,000 were imported, 4000 new ones were destroyed by one of the Union armies because they weren't as useful as the Spenser's. I'm trying to weed through a bunch of old for sale ads and some forums entries to figure out what story's other rifles with the same traits have. It has what could be a big 3/4" tall D stamped in the butt stock and looking at other Barnett's, I found a infantry one with a 1" tall H so who knows what it is or even if it is something.

    The Barnett font and other marks indicate that it's an early war commercially sourced rifle from what I'm finding. I might be able to find out which blockade runners were bringing them in then and see where they went after coming ashore.
     

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