The photos below show a signed nineteenth century full stock flintlock-type muzzle-loading Pennsylvania long rifle that was made by the gunsmith Daniel Benjamin Troutman, who worked in Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania before moving to Ottawa, Franklin County, Kansas. Daniel's father Benjamin Franklin Troutman was a Somerset County gunmaker who worked in Southampton Township.
The patch box, the lock bolt plate, the trigger guard, the buttstock shape, and the eagle medallion of this rifle are similar to the rifle by the same maker that is illustrated on page 141 of the 1991 book "Gunsmiths of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties". Click hereto see photos of a very similar Troutman rifle in the early stages of restoration.
I am very grateful to have these photos on Korns.org. They are included by permission of the photographer, who is the son of the owner of the rifle.
The first photo, immediately below, is a full length view of the underside of the rifle.
The following photo shows the underside of the brass trigger guard and a view of the entry pipe area.
There is no relief carving on this antique rifle, and precious little incised carving. In this photo, you can see an incised line running along near the bottom edge of the buttstock.
The following photo of the right-hand side of a portion of the forestock is included because it shows where the stock of this black powder rifle transitions from an external ramrod to an internal ramrod at the entry pipe. This transition area is seldom discussed, but interests me because it has a subtle impact on the appearance of a full stock muzzleloader.
The following photo shows the patch box of the Troutman rifle, and the wrist area. A silver inlay is incorporated on the wrist, in the region aft of the lock panel.
The next photo highlights the signature of Daniel Benjamin Troutman on the top flat of the octagon rifle barrel.
The next photo shows the engraved eagle motif on the cheekpiece inlay of the Troutman rifle.
The following photo shows a portion of the left-hand side of the forestock of the Troutman muzzle loading rifle. The barrel and the ramrod ferrules are held in place with transverse pins.
The following photo provides a slightly different view of the entry pipe area of the rifle.
The following photo is the best one I have of the lock bolt plate and associated stock panel.
The next photo shows the rebuilt gun lock on the Troutman rifle, and the associated lock panel of the curly maple stock. The cock, cock screw, frizzen, and pan do not have the same brown patina as the rest of the ferrous parts, and the cock is obviously a modern investment casting that looks like it may have been made by the CVA company, which was founded in 1971. I am certainly no expert on these old black powder rifles, but a expert with many decades of experience told me that the cock, frizzen, and pan are obviously modern replacement gun parts. The ill-fitting frizzen spring, which overhangs the wood of the stock, is obviously not original to the rifle. It isn't unusual for such an old rifle to have repairs, or to need new parts for the sake of completeness. The fact that the pan was replaced, however, means this was a flintlock reconversion. At some point in its working life, the rifle was converted to percussion, and then after it became a collectable antique it was converted back to flintlock.
