In 1812 Lieutenant Colonel William Duane wrote in "The Hand Book for Rifleman" that Riflemen must be able to load with paper cartridges or loose balls. They should be trained to fire at targets 50 to 300 yards and be able to load and fire as they lay on the ground, on the run, kneeling behind cover, or any species of covered ground. A Riflemen carried his rifle, short sword, knife, cartridge box for paper cartridges, and a double riflemans pouch containing 60 loose well smoothed balls in one partition and in the other partition his turn screw, small knife, scouring brush, oil rag and patches, they did not carry tents or camp equipment in the field, as a rifleman could construct anything he needed from the forest.

We have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to produce a complete set of hardware and stock patterns that are 100% correct and exact size of the originals. We also have the original proof marks for the barrels, which we will put on your barrel if you send it to us. We believe this is the finest set of 1803 parts on the market. Please specify Series 500 A for the 1803 early production set for the 33" barrel and the Series 500 B for the 1815 production set with the 36" barrel. Our assembled locks are hardened, polished, and fine tuned. The frizzens are hardened all the way through to give you years of service, we guarantee them as long as you own the gun, or if you would rather assemble your own lock we will drill the plate at no extra charge.

This is the first official United States Rifle adopted by this country and probably the most graceful and beautiful rifle ever produced by a government arsenal.

One thing I have learned while studying these rifles is they do not vary or have different styles rifling according to the whim of the individual workmanship, as a majority of the older writers have often stated. There are in fact three different distinct design changes, with two minor changes in the first production run. For this reason I am classifying them in my catalog as follows.

The first production run had a barrel length of 33", width approximately 10 3/4" octagon on rear top with the underside of the octagon portion rounded on 1803-1804 dates, sometime in 1805 the arsenal started leaving the bottom side of the barrels octagon, like the top side, this was less labor but added more weight. The front thimble on the 1803 dated gun is quite different from all other Harpers Ferry Rifles, it is almost straight and flares sharply out in the last .180" where as the upper thimbles on the 1804 and 1806 dated guns taper and then have a small funnel like flare that is almost .380" long. All 1803 to 1806 production barrels have three wedding ring bands (two small and one large) at the octagon to round intersection of the barrels.

The stock on the 1803 to 1806 dated rifles have 2 1/4" of drop. The trigger guards on the 1803 to 1806 dated rifles are larger and have a distinctly different hand grip curve than 1814 to 1819 dated rifles. The triggers and rear thimbles also differ between these rifles. The lock plate and hammer shapes for the 1803 to 1806 are quite different from the 1814 to 1819 dated rifles. Finally only 1803 to 1806 dated rifles were serial numbered, while none of the 1814 to 1819 rifles have been found with a serial number to date.

The barrel remains the same at 33" but the octagon portion extends to approximately 11 1/4" from the breech and has only one small wedding ring band on the 1814 and later dated rifles.

The triggers on these later guns have almost a full reinforcing web behind them, the trigger grip area has a distinct curve towards the stock in the center and then outwardly with a smaller bow area.

The lock plate changed shapes and no longer had the teat like projection at the tail and the eagle stamp has "US" stamped inside of it instead of under it. The hammer spur also was straight, it no longer has the curl on the top as the 1803 to 1806 rifles. The rear thimble changed to only one wedding band on the front and one in the center.

The brass tip on the ramrod was now standard. These stocks have a full 3" drop. All wood screws were machine made, instead of hand forged and filed, as in the 1803 to 1806 rifles.

The barrel was changed to 36" in June of 1815, the round portion of the barrels average about .030 to .045 larger in diameter. The patchboxes from about mid 1814 to 1819 are approximately 1" longer in the door length than earlier rifles. The front thimble on these rifles have almost a straight taper with one small wedding band.

4 1/4" x 1.60 wide almost parallel sides

4 1/4" x 1.75 wide bell shaped towards the bottom

8" long x .950 wide bow, trigger area is larger

7 3/4" long x 1.050 wide bow. This is the most

These are 1/2" shorter and wider.

33" Double tapered spring steel