The rifle was built using parts fromThe Rifle Shoppeand are very high quality. See Object Online Collection Musket Marked "U.STATES" Thanks for reading! While he recuperated, his Experimental Rifle Corps was subsequently disbanded. Ferguson Breechloading Flintlock Rifle repro - NRA Museum Your email address will not be published. 2dly, He fired six shots in one minute. The weapon had front and rear sights calibrated for ranges from 100 to 500 yards, though 300 was probably its effective limit. The Ferguson Rifle (Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures): A Novel Patrick Ferguson's Rifle Recreated - The Firearm Blog Some of the improvements that Ferguson made to La Chaumettes earlier system are discussed above. OK, not really, but the Ferguson rifle greatly increased the rate of fire for its users via its screw-thread, breech loading system. A technical marvel more than 50 years ahead of its time, this breech-loader received its baptism of fire at Brandywine Creek outside Philadelphia on Sept. 1, 1777. Just want to be sure. NPS Publications: Popular Study Series Drawing on the designs of French gunsmith Isaac de Chaumette and English inventor John Warsop, Ferguson envisioned a breech-loading weapon that needed no ramrod, could be reloaded at the walk, and had more than twice the range of a common musket. Your observation that Fergusons company simultaneously had both rifles and muskets in action seems to be borne out by these entries. Roughly one hundred of the Ordnance rifles were manufactured by four British gun firms, Durs Egg being the most notable, and issued to Ferguson's unit when its members were drawn from numerous light infantry units in General Howe's army. Typically, the surviving rifles have a number of common features including the multi-start breech plug, trigger guard lever, the presence of one of two unusual patterns of rear sight and a bayonet lug beneath the barrel. Fergusons company took part in the fighting in New Jersey in June 1777before General Howe withdrew his army from that region and regrouped to take a different approach to Philadelphia. After his death some of London and Birminghams finest gunsmiths, including Egg, Henry Nock, and Joseph Hunt, made Ferguson-pattern rifles in relatively small numbers for both military and hunting purposes. Cornet Ferguson then spent two years at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, an institution that specialised in training artillery and engineer officers, an indication of the young mans intelligence. . Alongside the Loyalist light infantry battalion, the Queens Rangers led by Maj. James Wemyss, Fergusons riflemen pushed back American light infantry under Brig. Ferguson Flintlock Rifle. WASHINGTON Progress made on the new museum at Kings Mountain National Military Park, South Carolina, is worthy of record, and the fact that the Service possesses a Ferguson rifle to put into that museum constitutes special note within the record. Wemyss Rangers suffered heavily, losing fourteen killed along with ten officers and forty-four other ranks wounded, while Fergusons corps suffered just two killed and six woundedincluding Ferguson himself. Enjoyed the article. Soldiers carrying newly-developed breechloading Ferguson rifles, like this one, fought alongside the British light infantry at Paoli. As pretty as it is, it is still a rifle and a rifle has to shoot. The Master General of Ordnance had initially directed the future focus of rifle production should be on the Ferguson breech-loader rather than the Jaeger-pattern; however, if larger scale production had begun, the rifles would only have been destined for light troops, the elite, disciplined well-trained, skirmishers who were best suited to their use. La Chaumette had originally developed his screw breech rifle in the early 1700s, with his Fusil qui se charge par la culasse or roughly translated rifle which is loaded by the breech first appearing in 1704. Unlike earlier breechblocks, his weapon incorporated a screw mechanism into the trigger guard with a handle that could not detach, become lost, or get in the way when not in use. Patrick Ferguson and His Rifle - Journal of the American Revolution Four years later, he was killed at the Battle of King's Mountain, North Carolina. 12: Rifles and Riflemen at the Battle of Kings Mountain Testing the Ferguson Rifle Modern Marksman Attains High Precision With Arm of 1776* By Dr. Alfred F. Hopkins, formerly Field Curator, Museum Division, Washington. He was shot in the right arm, his elbow shattered by a musket ball. Keen to experiment, Ferguson was given a small detachment of six men from the 25th Regiment of Foot to train in the use of his rifle and on October 1, he gave a demonstration for King George III at Windsor. NRA Museums - GUN OF THE DAY - The Ferguson Rifle The Ferguson rifle Did George Washington Swear at Charles Lee During the Battle of Monmouth. [27] It took a year for Ferguson to recuperate, requiring numerous painful surgeries removing bone fragments to save his arm from amputation. An account of the demonstration was published in the Annual Register, a yearly almanac of notable events; under the disadvantages of heavy rain and a high wind, performed the following four things, none of which had ever been accomplished with any other small arms. However, through the research efforts of DeWitt Bailey and others, the properly made reproduction Ferguson rifle, made according to Patrick Ferguson's specifications of the 1770s, can fire beyond sixty shots. While some erroneously believe the rifle was destined to replace the Short Land Pattern musket in general service, this is not the case. Frustratingly, the Rifle Company lost both their officers the day after Brandywine; Ferguson to wounds and Delancey to promotion within the Loyalist corps. One single turn rotation of the trigger gaurd opens the breech chamber. Adoption of the Ferguson in large numbers would have required a wholesale and exhaustive reevaluation of the tactics and maneuvers of the day: an exceedingly difficult thing to do in wartime. report the surviving rifles were apparently put in storage in New York. [28]Bailey, British Military Flintlock Rifles, 54. However, please clarify the last sentence in the first paragraph: In an age when three or four rounds a minute from a trained infantryman was regarded as an impressive standard, six, or even seven, accurate shots a minute had the potential to be tactically ground breaking. As I outline on my Charleville Musket Firing webpage, 3-4 rounds per minute was an average for a musket. [10] In April 1776, Fergusons attempts to interest to British Armys senior officers in his breechloading rifle began to bear fruit. Ferguson himself was a proponent of light infantry, even suggesting that half the army in America should be light infantry, but I do not believe he intended his rifle to be issued to every soldier. The threaded breech pin is attached to the trigger guard which also serves as a crank. My apologies for the typo in the della Gatta date! Outstanding article on a subject about which Ive been long curious! It was substantially lighter, weighing around 7.5 pounds to the muskets 10.5 pounds. Its dimensions approximated those of the Baker Rifle, which won fame in the Napoleonic Wars. The rifle is mentioned several times in Geoffrey Watson's book. it is fantastic workmanship. Just superb! Whether considered an assault rifle or America's rifle, the AR-15 is emblematic of gun culture in the United States: Gun enthusiasts herald it for its versatility and power, whereas gun . To prove the potency of his invention, Patrick Ferguson conducted a series of tests in which he, with a high degree of accuracy, fired 6 shots per minute at a target 200 yards distant from a stationary position, and 4 shots per minute while advancing at a marching pace. [14]Quoted in Bryan Brown and Ricky Roberts, Every Insult and Indignity: The Life Genius and Legacy of Major Patrick Ferguson, (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2011), Chap. Thank you for the kind words. View history The Ferguson rifle was one of the first breech-loading rifles to be put into service by the British military. In July 1778, an order was issued to the army for the return of all Ferguson rifles still in use to the Ordnance Office for repair and probably storage. Ferguson was reputedly one of the armys finest marksmen and by the time he arrived in North America he was well versed in the light infantry tactics of the day, including skirmishing, scouting and irregular warfare. [37] Interestingly, a Commissary of Artillery ordnance stores return from November 1779 to May 1781, found in the Sir Henry Clinton Papers, notes that 200 serviceable rifles were issued to a Capt. When the breech was closed, those same threads gave a good gas seal because matching threading was built into the barrel. I dont believe any survive, from Gattas painting its suggested they had an almost cutlass like blade to them rather than straight like the later baker rifles. Born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1744, Ferguson was respected as much for his humanity as his initiative. Ferguson Rifle - The Armourers Bench The two of the surviving rifles believed to have been used by Fergusons experimental corps have a number of cracks and breaks in their stocks; whether these occurred during service or in the years afterwards is unknown but the wrists and wood surrounding the breech and lock are fragile. Its superior firepower was unappreciated at the time because it was too expensive and took longer to produce the four gunsmiths making Ferguson's Ordnance Rifle could not make 100 in 6 months at four times the cost per arm of a musket. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window), The Ferguson Rifle The British Weapon That Might Have Changed the Outcome of the American Revolution, Bellerophons Champion: Pennywhistle at Trafalgar, These Arent Men, Theyre Demons! The French Foreign Legions Desperate Defence of Camarn , The Best of Wellington Five of the Iron Dukes Victories That Surpass Waterloo, The Ferguson Rifle The British Weapon That Might Have Changed the Outcome of the American Revolution faujibratsden, From Longbows to Spitfires Nine Weapons that Made Britain Great - MilitaryHistoryNow.com, Operation Foxley Inside the Abortive Allied Plot to Assassinate the Fhrer, The Death of an Army How One of Americas Worst Generals Produced the Deadliest Peacetime Military Disaster in U.S. History. Once I saw the care, the quality craftmanship, and attention to detail, I quickly came to the conclusion that I had to have Josh build my Ferguson. [45] A hollow or reservoir behind the plug also helped direct fouling out of the action; not all surviving examples have this. Ferguson's 1776 patent covered improvements to a breech-loading rifle that had been patented in 1721 by Isaac de la Chaumette, a French . 3dly, He fired four times per minute advancing at the same time at the rate of four miles in the hour. Like the British 1776 Jaeger-pattern rifles, Fergusons rifle used special double-strength or double glazed rifle powder. An upward clockwise turn sealed the breech. This meant the breech could be opened by completing just one full revolution of the trigger guard which was attached to the base of the plug, and acted as a lever.

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