Rifle Trigger ID and Era??

[Ed-D]

Because you all constantly amaze me in ID'ing things and dating things...

 

[nsdq]

can we get a top view of the guts

 

[Ed-D]

Done...

 

[Kieth-Tx]

Looks like it might be off a old percussion pistol.

 

[BosnMate]

The trigger is in the trigger guard backwards, the lever has to rise up to trip the sear, pulling on the trigger in the position it is in would cause the lever to pull down into the trigger guard instead of up. If the trigger is pictured mounted like it's supposed to be, it would have to be for a different type of mechanism than an early firearm.

 

[Ed-D]

The position of the trigger is exactly as it came out of the ground. Also, very doubtful for 1700's unless it was a family heirloom. I'm in north Texas and the area was settled in mid to late 1800's. I have found a couple of old shot gun shell brass nearby. They were REM UMC Nitro Club No. 12 (no daisy pattern around the primer). I've been told that is dated 1893-1911.

 

[BosnMate]

The trigger is in the trigger guard backwards, the lever has to rise up to trip the sear, pulling on the trigger in the position it is in would cause the lever to pull down into the trigger guard instead of up. If the trigger is pictured mounted like it's supposed to be, it would have to be for a different type of mechanism than an early firearm.

Here's what I'm talking about.The first picture is a muzzloading trigger, second picture shows it pulled in the firing position, and the third photo shows the inside of the lock. The arrow pointing left shows the part that engages the trigger. The arrow pointing up shows the sear. When the gun is cocked the sear goes into the notch in the tumbler, when the trigger rises up, the lever disengages from the notch and the hammer falls. Note that the mechanism operates off of flat springs. There were no coil springs until the late 1800's.

 

[BosnMate]

The position of the trigger is exactly as it came out of the ground. Also, very doubtful for 1700's unless it was a family heirloom. I'm in north Texas and the area was settled in mid to late 1800's. I have found a couple of old shot gun shell brass nearby. They were REM UMC Nitro Club No. 12 (no daisy pattern around the primer). I've been told that is dated 1893-1911.

Then the trigger can't be pulled from the position it's in, therefore it has to have had some other additional sort of mechanism. Also, it looks like there is a small point sticking up on the back of the trigger, and if that is the remains of a coil spring, then the trigger dates to the late 1800's, and I have no idea what type of firearm it's off of, except that it looks to me like it was mounted to a wooden stock, and wood stocked muzzle loading pistols, to the best of my knowledge, weren't made with coil springs until very recently on some repo's of the old guns. Very recently meaning they started making lots of repo's around the time of the 76 bicentennial, so you could have a modern repo of a ML pistol trigger.

 

[Ed-D]

You could be right Boats. One thing that I wondered about was the line down the center of the piece. Wouldn't that indicate it being molded? I'm not an expert in those things...

 

[BosnMate]

I don't know about the line, but it was probably sand cast.

 

[Paleopilot]

Looks like something I've seen on a crossbow