Underhammer target rifles

An arena in which the underhammer really shines is the realm of target rifles. Everyone is pretty much in agreement that a fast-action lockwork is an essential element of the accuracy equation and most underhammer actions are indeed fast.


During the latter half of the 19th century there were a number of makers of underhammer target rifles, two of the most notable among them were the famous New York gunmaker, William Billinghurst, and to a lesser degree, his contemporary, David H. Hilliard of Cornish, New Hampshire. Yes, there were many more makers of underhammer target rifles but I would like to draw your attention to these two for a moment.

Both produced fine examples of underhammer target rifles, although quite different in their basic designs. A Google search will provide info and photos of their outstanding work for those who don't mind a bit more snooping.

Today there are a few underhammer makers who have taken some of the older designs and added their own thoughts, ideas and improvements. One such gunmaker is Tilo Dedinski of Kulback, Germany. Inspired by the work of Billinghurst, Mr. Dedinski has produced a first-class modern-day Billinghurst that has proven its worth by taking gold in international competition.

His "Billinghurst," seen here in its offhand version, is available in two configurations and calibers intended for 50-meter and 100-meter matches. You may wish to visit his website: www.dedinski.com for more information on his full line of underhammer arms.




While some makers have chosen to emulate Billinghurst's designs, it seems that the underhammer designs of Hilliard have inspired a number of other modern European gunmakers to produce and offer their own versions of his justly famous target rifles as seen in the photo to the left.

Although Europeans developed their own underhammmer systems, they have long admired the features represented in American underhammer designs and the quality of materials and construction employed by them indicates the respect that they have for American underhammers.











The Italian Artax is a very modern rendition of the percussion underhammer system and is more evidence that the underhammer concept and its development is still alive and well, both here and abroad. Below is the more traditional Artax underhammer target rifle. Unfortunately, there are no current U.S. distributors of what appears to be a very fine rifle. Clicking on the photo will allow a detailed view of the Artax. Clicking the Back button at the top left of your screen will return you to the text.

During the War Between the States, underhammer rifles were used quite successfully by a number of snipers and I believe it was the underhammer's performance on the battlefield that may have lead to their post-war use and development as target rifles.

Some have asked me about producing a (smaller bore) underhammer rifle with more influence of a target rifle than a hunting rifle. While I prefer crafting hunting rifles, I have made some rather wild target rifles based on the underhammer system, the most extreme being a .54 calibre offhand schuetzen rifle.

A reader of this blog had asked if I had photos of any of the underhammer target rifles that I had made. As it turns out, the only one that I bothered to document with photos is that schuetzen. I have included them below as an example of what can be done for anyone who wishes to venture down that road.

Good luck!



The exaggerated features of the schuetzen rifle are designed to provide the perfect ergonomic fit of rifle to shooter for 200-yard offhand shooting. The idea being that the shooter simply stands in a comfortable, unstrained offhand pose and the rifle fits the pose perfectly.

In my version the forearm provides a palm rest that keeps the left hand away from the upward swinging hammer. Or if the shooter is one who rests the forearm on his finger tips, there is a thumb hollow on the bottom of the forearm which makes for a secure support when using that hold.

While perhaps not a beauty to most, it's a pretty face that any schuetzen shooter can admire.

The extreme sculpted cheekpiece provides a very comfortable face-fitting support while the light Swiss buttplate helps hold the rifle firmly on the shoulder. This buttplate is actually quite large and flat and distributes recoil very well making the 20-shot string less fatiguing and more comfortable to shoot.


Coupled with the unusual forward-arcing finger rest, the well-proportioned thumb rest on the right side of the buttstock allows full control of the rifle by the right hand while still isolating trigger finger motion from adverse influence on the rifle while squeezing off the shot.

Again, ergonomics is the name of the game when designing the schuetzen rifle

Good sights are essential for 200-yard offhand shooting. Turning the sight disk (yes, it's wood) loosens it and allows course adjustment to get your shots on target quickly, while the calibrated thumbwheel allows for finer tuning to zero the shot. A windage adjustment screw is also provided at the rear of the tang on the right side of the sight.

The round "window" on the tang of the sight allows viewing the number settings stamped on the thumbwheel for exact repeatability in sight adjustment.

At the muzzle there is a very fine bead sight protected by an ample globe. Together with this rear aperture sight, they create the clear and precise sight picture necessary to win at this game.

Because this rifle is strictly a range rifle, loading is accomplished with a range rod, hence no ramrod, which simplified construction.

Combining the ultra fast underhammer mechanism with a good solid offhand shooting platform such as the schuetzen seen here, resulted in a very accurate rifle. And while strange looking to the novice, these rifles handle like a dream and will out-shoot the capabilities of most shooters.

Clicking on any of the images will enlarge them for easier study of details. Clicking the "Back" arrow will bring you back to the text.

John Taylor's latest underhammer

Recently I received an e-mail from another underhammer afficianado, John Taylor, who is also a builder. For those of you who need machining services for your gun projects, underhammers or otherwise, you may wish to visit John's website and give him a call.

Thanks John for your contribution to the success of this blog. It's good to hear from another builder, although this is a forum for anyone interested in underhammers - not just builders. So dear readers, send in those underhammer stories or questions and we'll share them with everyone.

Here's John's story and some pics of his latest underhammer:

Roger,

I have always liked underhammers. The first one I had was back in the mid 70s, a Numrich Hopkins & Allen 45 cal target rifle that never would group well.

I have made more than a few over the years including a brass barreled BB gun that would put a BB through a 1" board at 25 yards with 4 grains of 4F.

The latest build started out as a piece of brass water pump shaft. The 32 caliber barrel was ordered for another job many years back and never got used. It just collected dust on the shelf. The hammer and trigger are from a Numrich H&A. The front and rear sight were made by me.

The rear sight has 40 threads per inch and can be adjusted in 1/2 turn increments, the eye piece will screw in from ether side. A 1/2 turn comes out to about 1.23" at 100 yards.

The wood was rough sawn stock blanks from Gun Parts Corp. The screws and all other machine work were done by me. Engraving was done by Dale Woody of www.gunfancy.com. I had trouble getting used to the lack of recoil as my other underhammer is a 62.

Best regards,

John Taylor
www.johntaylormachine.com

What's that about Forsyth Rifling?

Recently I received an e-mail from a reader of this blog who asked about Forsyth rifling and why I use it in the rifles that I craft...

During the mid 19th Century, James Forsyth was a ballistician in the British army. As such he had a scientific understanding of the principles and dynamics that effect projectiles in flight. He was also an avid hunter and had the opportunity to hunt many species of game in India while he was stationed there. It was his keen interest in hunting, however, that spawned experimentation that led to his discovery of the most efficient rifling system for round ball hunting rifles.

Even way back then it was a well understood concept that the round ball was the best projectile for dispatching game in a quick and humane manner, while elongated projectiles were used in military rifles for the most part. Bullet expansion was not intended so it was not a factor in military bullet design. Today, however, jacketed (elongated) bullet makers strive for a design that will result in the perfectly expanded bullet. It’s interesting to note that the perfectly expanded bullet, as they depict it, attains the shape of a round ball… imagine that!

Forsyth also understood that bullet drop is a function of time, i.e. the quicker the bullet gets to the target the less time gravity has to act upon it. Therefore, a higher velocity bullet will shoot flatter than a lower velocity bullet of the same weight and shape thereby providing an extended point blank range wherein elevation guesstimation is less critical than with a slower moving bullet. But increasing the velocity of a round ball in a barrel possessing the conventional methods of rifling that were employed in most other sporting rifles resulted in merely stripping the ball from the patch and rifling and rendered horrid inaccuracy. Increased fouling from larger powder charges was also a result that made for difficult loading and further detracted from accuracy.

Being a hunter, Forsyth knew that most shots at game would be taken within a range of 200 yards maximum and usually under 100 yards. So the idea was to create a rifling design that would allow higher velocity, and thus an extended point-blank range, for those longer shots. Yet it had to provide accuracy sufficient enough to make those long shots “likely” instead of iffy. What resulted is Forsyth’s own design of rifling bearing wide shallow grooves of .005” - .007” depth with very narrow lands and a rate of rifling twist just sufficient to stabilize a large round ball for a short distance of under 200 yards.

Being a scientist, he understood that the round ball is a perfect geometric form and that a large round ball required very little rotational spin to stabilize its flight to the target. In fact, when one moves up to calibers of .58 and larger, a rifling twist of no faster than 1 turn in 100 inches will provide high velocity for flat shooting with very low stress on the rifle - with round balls and Forsyth rifling, that is. And because the grooves are wide and shallow and slow pitch, there is very little accumulation of fouling to adversely effect subsequent shots even with heavy powder charges.

The results are quite spectacular and do not exhibit any of the bad behavior that is attributed to most muzzleloading blackpowder rifles – that is difficulty in loading, accumulated fouling which leads to inaccuracy, which leads to the need of frequent cleaning, etc., etc.

The fact is, Forsyth had overcome all of our modern complaints about muzzleloading rifles over 140 years ago! So why didn’t we hear about this sooner? His wonderful book, The Sporting Rifle and Its Projectiles, was published just as cartridges were making their debut and most folks of the time quickly lost interest in muzzleloading arms. Hence, the book was lost in history and has remained virtually unknown for over a century and a half.

In my own experience of building rifles with Forsyth rifled barrels (about 200 so far), ranging from .58 to .82 caliber (but mostly .62), I have loaded and fired over 25 consecutive shots without cleaning or wiping of the bore in any manner; loading and seating the patched ball with nothing more than my thumb to start the ball into the muzzle and the loading rod to seat it upon the powder charge with one smooth stroke. Quick and simple.

“But, what about accuracy?” you ask. While my rifles will shoot very tight groups with target-loading techniques, in my opinion surgical accuracy is not needed in most big game hunting situations where shots are taken at under 100 yards. Power and ease (and quickness) of reloading were my primary objectives for a hunting rifle load.

However, shooting offhand (yes, I do test from the offhand position, too, as I need to know how well I can shoot from field positions as one rarely carries a shooting bench while stalking game) at a measured 100 yards, I could easily hit a cantaloupe-sized target with every shot. That is meat-in-the-freezer accuracy. A cantaloupe is about the size of the vital area of small deer-sized game. By the way, the vital area I'm talking about is the shoulder, not the heart/lungs as most hunters are instructed to shoot. That’ll probably raise hell with some, however, that’s another discussion for another time.

By the way, the sights on my rifle are part of the accuracy equation and consist of a simple silver blade up front and my own design "Peephorn" rear sight as seen below. The Peephorn looks like a typical buckhorn but works just like an aperture sight wherein the shooter simply centers the top of the blade in the crescent arms of the rear sight. For older eyes it's quick and accurate - especially in low light conditions.


The best performance and accuracy that I’ve experienced is obtained by using good quality blackpowder topped by an Ox-yoke wool Wonder Wad and an Ox-yoke .010" pre-lubed patch wrapped around our cast round ball. Loads easily, shoots clean and very accurately. And because there is almost no accumulated fouling in the bore, clean-up is a breeze.

If you're thinking that using a thicker patch will tighten up groups you're absolutely right. However that thicker patch also requires more effort in loading. For the ease and speed of a quicker reload while on the track of game, I'll stick with the .010" patch.

It is possible to attain 2000 fps from our .58 Faeton with the 270-grain patched round ball, and with a 100-yard zero, the mid-range trajectory is a mere +3.21 inches. This provides a point blank range of about 125 yards – just hold on center and shoot – no range calculation necessary. Some claim that if you shoot the “modern” sabot/bullet combos that they can shoot pretty flat, too.

While it's all the rage to shoot sabots and smaller bore bullets these days, I haven’t seen that all the extra fuss and gadgets have actually made for better hunters or more game in the freezer. Now don‘t get me wrong - I love to experiment, too. But, when reloading for a follow-up shot becomes so complicated or difficult that it takes your attention from the running and/or wounded game animal and has you futzing around trying to get a sabot started into the muzzle nice and straight (and then hope your bullet was properly seated therein), then straining your milk while trying to push that hard plastic pill down the bore with a too-thin ramrod all while your hands are probably cold, wet, stiff, or all the above, I can’t see any advantage.

For all the trouble involved, they won’t kill game any quicker or any deader than my round ball rifle. And in the event that I missed the mark with that first shot, I'll have my Faeton reloaded and be back on the game's trail before those other guys have reloaded and put away all their sabot-loading gadgets. Call me lazy, but I really appreciate simplicity.

For those who are still awake and curious about my experimentation...

As good as the big round ball is, sometimes I just get a wild hair to experiment. Recent inspirations were spawned from thoughts that a heavier bullet than a round ball might provide an edge on tougher game. The challenge is that a heavier bullet of the same calibre as our round ball is longer than a round ball if it is to have any significant increase in weight. And we already know that Forsyth rifling is too slow for most bullets that are much longer than a round ball. Unless, of course, that bullet is hollow based and has an extreme weight-forward design.

The photo above shows just such a bullet compared to a round ball. Both bullets are of .58 persuasion. The round ball weighs in at just under 270 grains while the wasp-waisted airgun pellet design, or "Forsyth Pellet" as I've dubbed it, tips my little Oehler at 320 grains – a significant increase over the round ball weight.

The Pellet is a two-diameter design wherein the front driving band is full groove diameter and is engraved by the rifling during the seating process. Loading it is a snap as there is little resistance in pushing the bullet down the Forsyth bore with its narrow lands. And we achieve perfect alignment in the bore every time with no effort due to the rear band being the diameter of the bore, thus it rides on the top of the lands during loading. The rear band skirt upsets upon firing to fill the grooves and provides a perfect gas seal.

And what about accuracy? My little .58 Faeton shoots both round ball and the Forsyth Pellet from an offhand pose into nice, neat 5-shot cloverleaf groups at 35 yards. The Pellet really wants to shoot accurately! It's group shot lower than the round ball group, which is to be expected, but it really wants to shoot into tight groups.

And speaking of versatility, did I mention that we can also shoot shot from the Forsyth bore?

No? Okay, maybe another time...

As I said before, Forsyth had it all figured out 150 years ago and it works well for me and mine!

For those open-minded folks who would like to read James Forsyth's wonderful book, The Sporting Rifle and Its Projectiles, the second edition is now in the public domain. If you're not able to locate it, feel free to e-mail me and I'll be happy to send it to you in e-book form.

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Introducing my new love, Faeton.

I’ve gotten several e-mails from visitors to this blog who have asked if I would share more info and photos of my current projects. While I don’t wish for this blog to become a commercial site for my work, we have not yet received any contributions from other underhammer makers, so, I guess it would be okay to do a little Show and Tell for now.

Not wishing to compete with the business that I just sold, Pacific Rifle Company, (www.pacificrifle.com), I have focused on the development of an underhammer rifle of slightly different design and materials than the beloved Zephyr for a much higher-end market. PRC buids very good rifles for the $1500 - $2500 market, while my basic Faeton starts at $2500 - and I only craft several rifles a year. So we have agreed that I am not competition in their market.

The Faeton receiver is crafted of Herculoy, an extremely tough silicon bronze alloy with strength that exceeds that of iron and even some mild steel alloys. It is NOT brass, and, in fact, I refer to it as being more like "yellow steel" - it's that tough. I like the soft, rich patination colors that this bronze acquires with use and age.


Clicking on the center of any of the photos will enlarge them for viewing detail. Return to the text by clicking the Back arrow in the upper left of your browser.

The lockwork is a refined design that is clean, simple, rugged, and finely-tuned. Unlike many ordinary underhammer designs, the Faeton's hammer incorporates a secure half-cock notch for safe carrying afield or on the range.

Like many time-honored underhammer makers of old, I prefer to utilize the trigger guard as the mainspring to simplify the design and provide cleaner, more elegant lines to the rifle. Some shooters erroneously believe that such an arrangement limits the accuracy potential of the rifle, as the argument goes, because the trigger finger or the middle finger of the shooting hand may contact the mainspring and affect the consistency of release of the trigger.

In over 150 years that has not shown to be a problem. In fact, several underhammer target rifle makers of old, including Billinghurst, Reinhard, and Brockway, and makers in the more recent past, such as Ellis and Resor, incorporated the triggerguard/mainspring design and their accuracy is legendary. To my way of thinking it is a most ingenious concept and one that I will continue to honor.

Faeton calibers range from .58,.62,.72, and the does all - kills all - 8-bore. I apply a slight taper to my barrels for better accuracy and perfect balance, and I utilize Forsyth rifling for the many benefits it provides.

The Faeton utilizes a "coned" breech for consistent ignition and improved accuracy. Any of you who are ex-military demolition probably remember the shaped charge principle. The Faeton's cone breech provides that same advantage in igniting the heavy charges it can digest. The breechplug is a full 2" long and is threaded its full length. Once installed into the barrel, the barrel is then threaded into the receiver and the two components are then torqued like a head bolt on a diesel engine into tight union just like a center-fire rifle. The result of this seemingly "extreme engineering" is unequaled durability and fine accuracy in the finished rifle.

Securing the buttstock to the receiver with a 1/2" X 8" grade 8 bolt is considered overkill by most builders, but such extreme engineering renders the Faeton very slender through the wrist, yet tough as a crowbar. The forearm, while quite slender, is also solidly built. It is not simply a hollow thin shell of wood as you might expect. It's unique construction and attachment assures that it will not loosen, crack or warp with use and age.

Yes, I guess the Faeton is over engineered which has resulted in a rifle that is best described as being tough and rugged as a Mack truck, but disguised as a sleek and sexy Ferrari with high performance to match.

By clicking on the opening photo, you can take a closer look at the Faeton's unique receiver design features including my exclusive Damascus Bronze(tm) finish of the receiver which is carried over to the buttplate. Fine engraving is also available for those who desire an even more distinctive and personal rifle.

It should also be noted that I love beautiful wood. The Faeton depicted above wears my basic grade of bastogne walnut. It's hard and dense, with nice grain. I also like very old English and Turkish walnut if the customer wishes to spring for it. However, I have little use for bland, ordinary maple or walnut, except for building fixtures or feeding the stove. If you wish for me to build a rifle for you, be prepared to review beautiful wood. It's that simple. I prefer mature, bastogne walnut exhibiting good color, character, and complex grain structure, although I will consider most any high-quality wood deemed suitable for gun making.

While most gunmakers might sand wood to a 320 or perhaps a 400 grit finish, the Faeton stock is progressively sanded with finer grits of paper to 600 grit and then polished down to a 1400 grit silky smoothness that has to be felt to really understand and appreciate what that extra work does for wood. Of course, the wood must be of the best quality to take and hold such a fineness. Then the wood grain is filled and finished with my proprietary blend of tung oil and resins.

You'll also notice in the full-length photo that the balance point of the Faeton is very close to the receiver. Combining that fine balance with it's light weight, the Faeton handles like a feather but clobbers game like a wrecking ball.

I've also developed a smaller frame (20% reduction in size and weight) for smaller bores up to .50 caliber. In fact, when the .50 is loaded with 45 - 50 grains of fffg under the 180-grain patched round ball, the result in power is about equal to the venerable .44-40 Winchester.

In addition to crafting Faetons I have been designing and prototyping a completely new underhammer rifle that features a concealed hammer and nipple which provides even greater protection to the percussion cap from inclement weather and from accidental discharge by an inadvertent blow to the hammer. I have christened this new rifle the "New Century." It will have great appeal to those underhammer shooters who prefer the aesthetic of the more "traditional" one-piece stock.

The New Century also lends itself well to more traditional design options such as a full-length stock, swamped barrel, and other features that could render a number of variations in a very sleek and beautiful rifle.

This design is also for sale to qualified parties who may be interested in expanding their present product line or for investors who may wish to enter into the muzzleloading market, not as copycats of the ordinary, but with a new and versatile product.

Interested parties may visit my site: www.rjrenner.blogspot.com, or you can contact me at: underhammers@safe-mail.net for details.

The names, Faeton, Damascus Bronze, and New Century, are trademarks of R.J. Renner; Dual Cap Ignition, Wide Body Barrel, Genuine Forsyth Rifling, Peephorn, and the comet-shaped scallop cut of the Zephyr and Faeton receivers are jointly held trademarks of Pacific Rifle Company and R.J. Renner.
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So, you want to build an underhammer...

As an underhammer designer and builder, I am disappointed at how little creativity is being expressed among the present builders of underhammer rifles. While it is generally true that there is nothing new under the sun - that all has been tried before - there exists nonetheless, vast areas of artistic expression that have not yet been explored within the realm of the humble underhammer rifle.

I believe that this stems from a certain disdain and prejudice that some shooters have toward underhammer rifles in general. Some view the inherent simplicity of the action as somehow lacking in the sophistication that more complex mechanisms display. There seems to be some idea of nobleness in the evolution of those complex lock mechanisms designed to do nothing more than ignite gunpowder. Many marvel at the intricacies of traditional sidelock designs and look to them as representing the highest form of the gunmaking art.

Because the underhammer was relatively simple and cheap to make, it was reasoned that it somehow didn’t deserve the attention to embellishment that more refined firearms displayed. After all, you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, so why would you waste your time trying? Right?

As a firearms designer I have to disagree. I don't believe that there is "nobleness" in any mechanism based upon its complexity. Anyone can complicate the hell out of any design. In my opinion the greatest challenge is to refine something to its simplest form – to its fewest number of parts while still accomplishing the task at hand. Fewer moving parts is far more impressive to the reasoning mind than a complex design. That’s where the underhammer designs - most of them anyway - really shine. Simple, rugged, and generally quite conducive to accuracy when coupled with a good barrel. To my way of thinking , it is the underhammer that may have a claim of nobleness due to the value of its utter simplicity.

So, with such desirable features in its favor, I have to wonder why many underhammer makers insist on competing in the “Who Can Make The Ugliest Underhammer Rifle?” contest. Doesn’t the underhammer deserve greater consideration? I’ve seen the work of some otherwise talented riflesmiths who will lavish hour upon hour on a Golden Age rifle or a Hawken or Vincent copy, but will really drop the ball by making a less than beautiful underhammer rifle. I say it is time to take a fresh look at the underhammer concept and create beautiful rifles.

I once had a discussion with a muzzleloading gentleman who marveled that I would dare charge over $1500 for an underhammer rifle. He insisted that there just isn’t anything there for which to charge that much money. He said that he built and sold underhammers for no more than $350 - $400 (at that time). I told him that the difference is that he built Volkswagens while I built Bentleys. He just didn’t see the lowly underhammer as being worth the effort and expenditure for quality materials. To this day he is still trying to build a cheaper underhammer!

This is not intended as a put down of anyone’s work -that's not the purpose of this discussion. I am simply throwing down the glove in challenging other makers to give the underhammer thoughtful consideration and elevate it to its rightful place among other great firearm designs.

To borrow a line from the movie, Field of Dreams, "If you build it (a truly beautiful high quality underhammer rifle) they will come (to buy it!)." That’s been my experience. I’ve included some photos of one of my higher end pieces with the hope that it will inspire others to reach a little further than the ordinary. Click on the images for a closer look.



This rifle incorporates hammer, trigger, and triggerguard from my earlier Zephyr design, but fitted to a bronze receiver (tough stuff!). The deep-relief Germanic style engraving was perfectly executed by Dale Woody (www.gunfancy.com) according to the customer's order. The stock and forearm are perfectly matched for grain and color and were crafted from 100+year old exhibition-grade Turkish walnut. The rough, un-carved wood blank alone had a retail price of $3000. So you can see that some people are willing to spend serious money to create one-of-a-kind underhammer rifles.

By the way, one of the reasons that this particular piece of wood was so pricey is because the other side of the buttstock is virtually a mirror image of this side. Rare when that happens. I like to think that whoever cut the blank knew exactly what he was doing.

Come on in – the water’s fine!

Since first posting, there have been several inquiries regarding the beautiful brass scope that I fitted to that rifle. The scope is one of six made to special order by Randy Oates of RKO Instruments. Randy normally makes his ultra-high quality scopes from tempered steel tubes and claims that he will not make any more brass-tubed scopes.

Contact me if you're in the market for such a scope and I'll track down his latest phone number for you.

Underhammer History - briefly

While few modern shooters are aware of the underhammer system, those few who are familiar with it seem to know little or nothing about its origins. Contrary to popular belief, it did not begin with Hopkins & Allen. In fact, the original Hopkins & Allen company never made underhammer arms. But I’m getting ahead of the story…

As strange as it may seem, the underhammer principle has 18th century Germanic roots and was developed to improve flintlock ignition! At first thought that may seem rather ridiculous as anyone who has ever studied or fired a flintlock knows that the priming powder would simply fall out of a pan and frizzen mounted on the bottom of a rifle. And it is just that fact that resulted in instantaneous ignition in the new mechanism. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense…

At the moment that a bottom-mounted frizzen is opened by the upward swinging flint cock, the priming powder falls freely and becomes dispersed into a sort of little cloud in the immediate proximity of the meeting of flint and frizzen – and it is just at that exact moment that it is showered with sparks from the flint. The resulting upward flash is just fractions of an inch from the flashhole and ignition is virtually instantaneous – at least in comparison to the traditional method. Unfortunately, anything that deviated from the norm at that time in history was usually considered with suspicion as being inspired by the devil and best left alone. However, once percussion caps made the scene all that seemed to change.

"Traditional" sidelocks are rather complex mechanisms and require considerable skill in design and building. In fact, most locks were trade items imported from Europe as few American gunsmiths had the skill or machinery to manufacture gun locks. This set the stage for the development of the percussion underhammer system.

Some muzzleloaders look down their noses at underhammers because they believe that they just aren't "traditional." But the fact is that they were borne and bred here in America, while the sidelock was a European development that came over on the boat. It is the underhammer that is the true, original, American percussion system, and from that perspective I believe it is accurate to say that it most certainly is "traditional."

In the early 1820s Reverend Forsyth's percussion cap made its debut on this side of the pond and underhammer development  in the newly formed united States of America began with the issuing of the very first firearms patent for a production gun to Fordyce Ruggles on November 24, 1826. Due to a fire some patent files were destroyed. However there is good evidence and it is believed and accepted that the patent was for his underhammer pistol design which became the basis of so many copy cat designs of the following two decades. Unfortunately it was the copycats who gained greater fame than did Ruggles. But it all began with Fordyce Ruggles - the father of the American underhammer. Fordyce and his brother, Adin, set up shop in Hardwick, Massachusetts in December of 1825 and the rest, as they say, is history.

With few moving parts, Ruggle's simple underhammer mechanism could be made by the frontier gunsmith or local blacksmith and with the addition of a piece of barrel, a serviceable firearm could be made rather quickly and inexpensively.

During that westward expansion there was a plethora of underhammer makers producing both singleshot and even a few repeating underhammer pistols throughout the settled East.

While underhammer pistols seem to have dominated the trade, there were a number of makers of rifles as well. Some displaying great care and skill in workmanship as seen in the example of one of Billinghurst's fine rifles, below. Many of these higher grade arms were very accurate target rifles and some were even used as sniper rifles in the War Between the States.


While many underhammers were simple, both in function and adornment, some designs were mechanically quite unique while others were downright gaudy. The one below displays both characteristics and is from an unknown maker. An interesting feature of this rifle is that the other side also bears decoration that is an exact mirror image of this side - including the patchbox lid!


Meanwhile, European gunsmiths were likewise discovering the virtues of the simple, rugged, and reliable underhammer action and also contributed much to its development.

Interestingly, virtually anyone who was anyone in the arms industry prior to 1860 seemed to have either an open or closet fascination with the simplicity and innate ruggedness of the underhammer mechanism. In fact, Jonathon Browning’s first commercial firearm was an underhammer!

Contrary to what many assume, not all underhammers were simple mechanisms. In fact, some designs, such as the Demeritt, were so complex and/or frail that one has to wonder, "What was he thinking?!"

Now I know that some of you are still waiting to hear about Hopkins & Allen and how they figure into all of this. During the 1950s and ‘60s interest in muzzleloading arms really picked up. Enter George Numrich of Numrich Arms. George had an idea that there would be a market for a simple, inexpensive muzzleloading rifle – and indeed there was. After studying some of the designs of the early underhammer makers, he decided to offer a version which combined features of some of the better aspects of those early designs along with a few twists of his own.

Having acquired the remaining assets of the old Hopkins & Allen manufacturing business - including the name - he graced his new offering with the old name and has confused shooters ever since.

For many years Numrich Arms was the only (visible) maker offering an underhammer rifle – and, yes, a pistol, too – and because so little was known of underhammers outside of collectors circles it was generally assumed that Hopkins & Allen, or Numrich Arms, invented them.

Despite the unintentional confusion generated by his application of the old H&A moniker to his own underhammer design, George made a tremendous contribution to the muzzleloading revival by providing a reasonably-priced, reasonably accurate, muzzleloading rifle which served to introduce tens of thousands of shooters to our sport.

His clever lockwork design was also one of the very few that incorporated a half-cock notch for safely carrying the piece afield. By and large, most underhammer designs of the past did not incorporate a safety notch in the hammer. Boy, would today's attorneys have a field day with that one, or what?

So now you have the story – or at least another page of it. The rest, as they say, is history. No pun intended.

For more underhammer history and trivia that is sure to make you the life of any party, you may wish to track down Herschel C. Logan's great book, THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE UNDERHAMMER GUN. It has been out of print for decades, but a good book locator may be able to track down a copy.