INDEX. Alexander Henry (1818-1894) was an Edinburgh gunmaker of muzzle and breech loading rifles including the Henry Fraser two position rifle. Henry’s rifling was famously used on the Martini-Henry rifle, adopted by the British Army.
Category: Firearms
Firearms history. Long range rifle fire and target rifles. British Military Longarms. Ammunition. Accessories. Gunmakers.
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19thC Muzzle Loader Range Box
For the long range rifleman shooting black powder in muzzle loading rifles, one of the critical factors for accuracy is consistent weight of powder charges. William Metford wrote about this in his notes on the management of the muzzle loading match rifle. Correspondence on this matter will also be found in contemporary newspapers; Horatio Ross referred to it in ‘Hints for Long Range Riflemen’. So how did the enthusiastic rifleman get his carefully weighed charges to the range?
The Gibbs-Metford Rifle
The 1865 Cambridge Cup match in Great Britain, which comprised two days shooting at 1,000 and 1,100 yards, fifteen shots at each range each day, was won by Sir Henry Halford using a Gibbs-Metford match rifle. The Times of 15 June 1865 had this to say of the rifle: “The weapon with which the prize was won, will, it is said, create some stir among those interested in small-bore and long-range shooting, being on entirely new principles.”
Measuring Precision
The 19th saw firearms evolve from flintlock muzzle loaders, using patched round ball and black powder, through to bolt action breech loaders with smokeless powders. As firearms development proceeded, so arms and ammunition needed assessing in comparative trials by the military. In the 1860s the National Rifle Association held competitive trials to determine which rifle would be used in the final stage of the Queen’s Prize at their Annual Rifle Meetings on Wimbledon Common. The system used to measure precision of rifled arms at this time was the “Figure of Merit”.
Parker-Hale ‘Goodwin’ Rifle Sights
The cased set comprises a Goodwin style rearsight with eyepiece and mount, a foresight with spare elements and mount, and a nipple key. The sights would have been used on the popular Volunteer and Whitworth rifles manufactured by Parker-Hale. They were manufactured by the late Rex Holbrook, a prominent member of the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain (MLAGB) for many years.
Rigby: Rifle No. 15651
John Rigby – Rigby Banks actioned falling block single shot target rifle: set for the back shooting position; 451 Cal; 33″ heavy target blued barrel.
Rigby: Rifle No. 14614
John Rigby Long Range, match percussion rifle: 461 Cal; 34″ rnd tapered barrel.
Rigby: Rifle No. 13137 (attributed to Lord Elcho)
52 Bore Best Quality John Rigby Percussion Match Rifle of historical importance, being attributed to Lord Elcho. 32¼” heavy round tapered barrel marked “John Rigby & Co Dublin and London”.
Rigby: Rifle No. 12169
52 Bore John Rigby Percussion Match Rifle. 36″ heavy barrel marked “John Rigby & Co Dublin & London”.
Report of Experiments
In the Annual Report of the National Rifle Association for 1875, General Alexander Shaler (President 1875-1877) reported on experiments with powder charges for long range shooting. The experiments commenced during the summer 1875 and were concluded that December. The aim was to determine the proper charge of powder to use in long range shooting in the Remington Creedmoor Rifle. Swaged bullets weighing 550 grains were used, and interestingly made of a hard alloy composed of fifteen parts lead and one of tin.
Sharps Long Range Bullets
Pictorial feature of boxed sets of long range bullets for the Sharps rifle, manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Co.
Joshua Shaw, Artist And Inventor
This biography of Joshua Shaw, Artist and Inventor, from 1869 also features the early history of the copper percussion cap. Many people claimed invention of this system but it was such an obvious development from the patch lock that it must have occurred to a good many people almost simultaneously.