There's a Weyerburg in Austria.
I think the neatest thing are the loaded indicators, if that is what they are. My 1st guess was that it was A.V. Lebeda sourced but it doesn't have the stepped locks. So with the dragons on the hammers I would lean toward Herzberg but it could have been sourced from Austria. I would guess it to be a 15mm, thereabouts.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
I was trying to locate a similar German lock design or Austrian like the Augustin-Console Schloss - Zünderschloss. It may be the design of F.M.L. Augustin of 1842.
1848 definition
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
I think one of the neat things about it are the nipple covers. They are just about watertight. I delight in asking my friends to figure out how to activate the release to swivel the barrels. Following Kutter's lead I looked at Weyerburg in Austria. Then I looked closer at the town name on the barrel and noticed the period after the name which I am pretty sure indicates a contraction. When I checked google maps for Weyerburgstrasse I came up with a street in Sinzig Germany. Nothing definite yet. thanks, Larry
I may get up my courage and pull the lock off, but I am hesitant to do so.
A German speaker would be highly unlikely to put the street (e.g., Weyerburgstrasse) rather than the town. A lot of those German makers were small-town craftsmen, as opposed to the concentrated numbers in London, Birmingham, and such. Moreover, a German-speaker was abbreviating it, it would almost certainly read "Weyerburgstr.", particularly since it appears the maker did it in gold.
A skim of google's entries and German Wikipedia tells me the Austrian Weyerburg is a pretty small town, current population 144, in the Hollabrunn area of Lower Austria (Niederoesterreich) north of the Danube. There is, however, a castle which has been inhabited since the Middle Ages, indicating there was some money there. The pictures of the area indicate an agricultural rural area, probably not much changed from 150 or so years ago. From the minimalist maps I can get right now, it seems not too far from Vienna, too. I'll have to look at more detailed maps later - my train is pulling in.
And "Keidusch" sounds way more Austrian than Pfalzisch to me.
So, my opinion is "Austrian".
Great rifle, I've seen a few of these short two-barrel swivel rifles and they all show great workmanship.
I can't find "Keidusch in any of my books but I'm sure Weyerburg is the Austrian town mentioned above. Although if you search with with an umlaut over the "Y" ..nothing.
These safety / cap protectors sometimes work by gravity as the hammer is cocked but because this rifle is a O/U I'm clueless, please tell us ;-).
Indeed, the nipple covers are impressive but I think that we thought that the loaded indicators originated with the breech-loader but if those tabs on the sides are as I think, their origin goes back quite a bit further.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
If yu are referring to the raised panels on the breech that have a small projection to the front I looked at them more closely just now and they do not seem to have any purpose. they dont move in any direction. I put a wooden ramrod down the bores but could not feel any interior projection and again they did not seem to move.
I googled Schloss Weyerburg and got some good ground shots of it. It seems a fairly substantial place and widipedia says it belonged to the Schoenborn family, so lots of money there
Just like on a boxlock, if you load it those pins should protrude and it would indicate it was loaded.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
The nipple covers are held in place by friction only
Raimey,
The protruding pins on a "boxlock" are cocking indicators,not loaded indicators.
Mike
Being a exact mirror or what's on the muzzle-loader it is true that those are typically cocking indicators. But BSW had a variant out the back of the frame that were indeed load indicators as were some other variants found on early hammerguns. I believe the term loaded was possibly written on the sides of the strikers?
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
I have a BSW with the loaded indicators out the back of the "balls" of the action, but they look completely different from the usual cocking indicators on the side of the action. They do protrude to the rear when the chambers are loaded. They protrude only a short amount, so much so that there is no room to put any writing at all on them to spell out "loaded." Maybe somehow on the hammer guns, but not on this scalloped back boxlock. This gun does not have the cocking indicators on the action sides. I also have a post war Simson labeled gun with both the loaded indicators on top of the "balls" of the action and cocking indicators on the side.
Maybe I wish I could restart this effort as I seem to have injected confusion, but I'm glad many are reading & following along. With the lock configuration, the pins all but have to be a loaded type indicator. In GGCA's Nr. 34 Fall 2007 there is an article on a Caspar Schaller Suhl percussion with similar nipple covers.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
Raimey,
I appreciate your observations, but I am still confused as to which pins you are referring to. I am going to try to find someone who has a fiber optic inspection camera (i think the bore is large enough to allow it) and see if I can find any protrusion in the bore that would be acted on by the charge to cause a pin to pop out.
Larry
I could easily be all wet on this. If so, I still wonder their function.
If you had a wad of the appropriate size you could check to see if it presses the pin out. But you would have to have a worm to extract it.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
I'll get back to you on this issue. Larry
In my opinion, if a "pin" did go into the barrel,it would quickly get fouled up by the blackpowder residue.
Mike
I'll agree that it would be a pressure issue but you know how novel the continental makers are. And I know that it is not there just to catch your eye. So do tell there wild game chili cooker, it's function is what say you? Why is a pin and not simply a screw.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
I am happy that this thread generated the comments that it did as it gave me a reason to more closely examine the inner working of the rifle. I am; however, going to have to reverse my statement that the nipple guard is retained by friction, it isn't. That pin in question transverses that side plate and terminates in a cam. The nipple guard is attached to the pin by the nut. when the nipple guard is swung forward off of the nipple the whole unit rotates and acts on a spring loaded pawl that is retained on the plate by the screw and pins that you see directly under the nipple bolster. I didn't get any photos of the mechanism as I am reluctant to try to remove the screws that retain the fore stock pieces. I would like to thank everyone who has or will participate in this thread as it has been a great learning event for me.
Well, it's been a pleasure having you come here and giving us the chance to discover something about a neat gun. Stick around. There's something to learn here every day.
Raimey,
Rather than my opinion,see Larry21556's description of the actual function of the"pin".My concern was not for the pressure anyway,rather it was for the BP residue and corrosion fouling any movement of a pin.
Mike
