L&C 1792 Contract Rifle by Charles Chalk

[Dan'l Hickham]

Well, I finally got my 1792 Contract Rifle with L&C Modifications (at least I am satisfied with the data) re built by Charles Chalk

It is a TOTW Contract Rifle kit with 1803 Harpers Ferry lock by RE Davis, 54 cal 36 inch colrain barrel with sling swivels for attachment of slings

I believe that this was the probable rifle of the Lewis and Clark expedition

[leatherstocking]

Awesome rifle.......I did the research for several years thinking we would use Corps of Discovery as our model for our discipleship program and also came to the same conclusion you did concerning the use of a slightly remodeled 1792 contract rifle. However the information I found suggested at best the bores may have been refreshed to .50 caliber, or slightly larger... originally being .49. Part of the reason I drew the conclusions that it was a .50 caliber was in part because of the difficulty they had killing the big bears, while in contrast how much easier Pike's crew had in accomplishing the same, with the HF 1803 in .54 caliber. Most of us are aware the "huge" difference there is in the killing power of a .54 or .58 over a .50. Of course this is in part conjecture, but as the journals don't specify the actual caliber size, do you have specific documentation? It's been several years since I left off doing my research, which at the time indicated a only slight enlargement of the bore size of the H.F. rifles. I think any new documentation that arises, should be scrutinized because the community for the longest time believed emphatically that LC carried the 1803 HF. If your information is correct, that would encourage me to continue to consider having a LC 1792 built if I can get it in the better elk killing .54 cal................if I was going to do an early impression (1806-1820's), I would likely use this rifle. I am currently looking for an original rendering of an late (1820's-early 1830's) a non-Hawken  half stock.......still considering trying to reproduce the following:

[Dan'l Hickham]

I have no concrete proof of the bore's being refreshed to 54 caliber - I like the caliber - and it just made sense to me - because they obviously had the tooling to bore 54 caliber barrels (they would start producing the 54 Harpers Ferry rifle within a year - but pure speculation on my part

[leatherstocking]

I like the caliber

Hey......if I had to replicate a gun and decided to "fudge" a bit on bore size, for the sake of a better more effective kill on big critters, I'd go bigger. All my muzzleloading big game animals were killed with my GRRW Leman in .58. In any case I think you may have pretty good logic  to improved bore size. The original repro '03's HF's were bored in .58 cal. because so much of what was on the market was intended for the Civil War market.....so most fur trade guys doing an early fur trade who carried Harper's Ferry rifles, didn't seem to mind that their guns were .58's and not .54's. Actually most Hawken rifles were not in the standard calibers we see them in today......seems like the average caliber size for Hawken was .52

Both the Pike and Long expeditions are historical events seldom seen among living history. Most guys who do fur trade hate anything in a uniform. Even most of the guys doing "Corps" are prone to do "later" in the expedition and avoid use of 1rst Infantry, Artillery and uniformed members of Lewis 14 volunteer Kentuckians. The former expeditions mentioned would have utilized the 1803 as well as the 1795 Musket.

Good on you for pushing the envelope by going for the 1792. Easily the dozen, plus or minus, sold after the expedition was over, went back up river. A first person impression of one of those of the Corps who return to the upper Missouri would compliment your rifle, especially if you're doing a Colter impression (if we assume he was able to obtain one of the rifles or actually carried a personal weapon on the expedition).....or "possibly" George Drouillard, Jean-Baptiste Lepage, John Potts, Peter Weiser, or Richard Windsor. I say "possibly" as I am not sure they obtain their old rifles at end of expedition.....I assume if they did, they had to buy them during the auction from Lewis. Or generically assume the role of an adventurer who picked up one of the "Corps" rifles when the remaining equipment was were sold at auction in St. Louis for a measly $408.62.

In any case have fun with it....sweet rifle!

[trapwise]

Beautiful rifle. If I were to have two more guns made one would be a 1792 contract rifle and the other would be a J J Henry English model. Congratulations on a very nice gun.