W. Pennepacker

[4V50 Gary]

Anybody ever hear of a gunmaker by that name? I'm cleaning a percussion gun that has, "W. Pennepacker" stamped on the barrel. The crescent shaped buttplate and trigger guard are iron, the lock is off a Civil War era Enfield and there is a grease hole in the stock. I'll post pictures when the director downloads them from the camera.

[4V50 Gary]

Found W. Pennepacker in Joe Kindig's book. It led me to believe that he only made the barrel since the gun itself is of the Southern Iron Mounted Rifle. The greasehole is much like those made by the Gillespie family of NC.

[4V50 Gary]

Used Frog's Lube to remove dirt and rust from the exterior of the barrel. Took a micrometer to it and it came out as 0.365" from land to land. So, it's a thirty-six caliber squirrel gun. Didn't have a jag or I would have figured out the twist too.

[4V50 Gary]

Just finished reassembling the rifle.

The tumbler was the toughest part to remove. I couldn't pry the hammer more than a dime's width out. The lockplate and hammer were deposited in the ultrasonic cleaner for 45 min. at 30 C. Afterward it was placed into a vise (thumbler rotated such that the vise jaws could be as close as possible) and a punch placed into the screw hole. A few whacks and the tumbler and fly came out. Everything was scrubbed with Frog's Lube and a lot of dried up grease/dirt removed from the screw hole in the hammer. Then the tumbler fell in quite easily. The lock was reassembled (sans mainspring that was broken) and the hammer placed atop the tumbler. It was then squeezed together in a vise padded with lead jaws. It's that tight of a fit.

Gun was reassembled today with the two parts of the mainspring (museum doesn't have the money to replace the spring) so as to keep the parts intact.

Did some research and I think it was made by John Gillespie of Georgia. The unique teardrop shape greasehole was the clue.

[bedbugbilly]

Don't know about anyone else but I would sure like to see some photos of it - sounds like an interesting rifle.

[4V50 Gary]

I'll work on the pictures. Maybe tomorrow. I wrote a living descendent and want to share images of it to see what he thinks about the possibility of his ancestor making it.

Mind you, it's a very plain Iron Mounted Southern Rifle. Only one thimble/pipe, no band/nose cap, no cheekpiece, no inlay. It's very much a working man's squirrel gun (used calipers to measure out land to land 0.365").

[4V50 Gary]

Pictures. I never got the before conservation pictures from the director. The following series of images are all taken after the conservation work was completed.

The first one is an overall image of the rifle. Barrel is about 30" long.

The second image shows the crescent shaped buttplate and the teardrop shaped grease hole.

The third image shows the salvaged P-53 Enfield lock and the hand forged iron trigger guard.

[4V50 Gary]

More pictures.

First image is a close up of lock.

Second view showing more of the lock and the trigger guard.

Third view shows the P-53 Enfield Escutheon. That machine screw going through it is the only machine screw used (apart from those in the lock) to hold the gun together. The rest are wood screws. Bad eyes and inability to see prevented me from getting an image of the "W. Pennepacker" stamped on the left flat (11 o'clock from top flat) of the barrel.

[4V50 Gary]

The top view of the buttplate shows its unfaceted. It is hand forged.
The overhead view image for someone is a thumbnail picture that is too blury to post.

You can partially see the lollipop tang in one of these images.

The hide glue holding the repair only held one part of the stock (there's a sliver that came out and had to be glued in). I might glue it again and then rubber band it.

[bedbugbilly]

Gary - Thanks for the photos - that's a great rifle! Plain but looks like excellent work and i love the lines of it.

For some reason, I've never been drawn to what I would call "fancy" rifles. I love the good old "Southern" rifles that were just "plain honest rifles" - made to be a functional tool. I love looking at them!

Years ago, when I was going to Friendship on a regular basis, I always made it a point to stop at Myron Carlson's booth and usually ended up spending a couple of hours with him just "jawing". Both he and his wife were wonderful people. I always enjoyed seeing what Myron was working on - his Bean rifles were a thing of beauty - plain, graceful and just sort of "melted" into your arms. I loved his "miniature" Beans as well. He made some beautiful hand forged furniture for Beans and Virginia rifles. I bought a set of his hand forged furniture for a Virginia Rifle I was building. I got the rifle done, (a flintier) shot it a few times and then took it to a gun show just for display. A guy came along and made an offer I couldn't refuse - and I regret it now. I was going to pick up a couple of sets of Myron's Bean rifle furniture - then he got sick and passed away. A very fine gentleman.

Will be interesting to hear what else you find out on this rifle. I think it's a great example!

[4V50 Gary]

I've exchanged several emails with T. Dennis Glazener, a descendant of Gillespie. The style of the stock, buttplate, trigger guard and the teardrop greasehole are characteristic of a Gillespie. He suggested that I look at the trigger plate to see if it came to a point (pentagon shape instead of rectangular). It did. It's a Gillespie.