This page is part of an online project that features the old-time guns and gunsmiths of Bedford and Somerset counties, Pennsylvania.
L. Dietle
The next photo shows the 1828-dated lock bolt plate. The engraved "wing" design on the lock bolt plate is also incorporated on the powder horn.
The next photo shows the lock and the mating lock panel of the stock. The lock panel has the streamlined tail that is often encountered on rifles from nearby Bedford County, Pennsylvania.
The next photo has been lightened and sharpened for clarity, to better show the gun lock. The current owner of this rifle (a distant cousin of mine) first saw it in the collection of a Somerset County neighbor back in the 1960s. Years before then, the neighbor bought the rifle and the powder horn together from a family in Stonycreek Township. The neighbor told the current owner that this is just how he bought the rifle, with no subsequent alterations. This is fascinating, because the pan looks like it might be from a military musket, the cock is significantly more corroded than the lock plate, and the eyelet for the much newer-looking frizzen spring does not have the usual decorative elements and looks like a blacksmith repair. I hate to write down personal speculation, but this lock makes me wonder if its external parts represent "make do, or do without" repairs that were done as cheaply as possible to keep the gun functional, perhaps into the 1900s, as someone's hog killer at butchering time.
The next two photos show the dated Samuel Spangler powder horn. In the second powder horn photo, you can see a bit of the "wing" design that resembles the design on the lock bolt plate of the rifle.
