Buchmiller - Lancaster Rifle

From Web Site of another Buchmiller for sale:

FULL STOCK PENNSYLVANIA (OR ‘KENTUCKY”) PERCUSSION RIFLE- BY BUCHMILLER- LANCASTER - 44 1/8” octagon barrel, 13/16” across the flats, with .30 caliber bore having seven groove rifling. Bore is in pretty good condition with strong and sharp lands, but a bit dark and rougher in the grooves. The nipple and drum are modern replacements and we would not be surprised if a previous owner had been shooting this one. The percussion lockplate is marked “R. Buchmiller/ Lancaster” and the barrel has a neatly stamped but hard to read “The/ Lancaster Rifle.” Although not listed in Frank Sellers’ “American Gunsmiths,” the three volume “Heer Der Neue Stoeckel” identifies this as Robert Buchmiller who worked on North Queen Street, in Lancaster, PA 1861-1870. This rifle has the classic Lancaster County school design features with straight upper and lower edges to the buttstock. Dovetailed brass blade front sight and a nicely detailed notched rear sight. Clearly this was made near the end of the percussion long rifle era, but in the traditional style, except in the much smaller calibers which had become fashionable by then. By this time the long rifle had evolved into “plain [not “plains”] rifle, lacking the artistic embellishments found on the “golden age” rifles made at the beginning of the 19th Century. The full length maple stock has pretty good looking faux “tiger stripes” painted on, but worn off on the wear points so it is easy to distinguish from actual wood grain. There is a strip about ¼” wide and 10 inches long missing from the right side of barrel channel at the muzzle. The wood between the barrel tang and the lockplate has been split off and repaired, but otherwise the stock is sound and attractive. Simple brass nose cap, ramrod thimbles and other furniture. Functioning double set triggers. The irons parts have a pleasing dark finish that was probably touched up a few decades ago. Light pitting on the lockplate, and around the nipple area, but remainder of the barrel is smooth. The wood above the lock behind the nipple is rotted away from percussion cap nastiness, but hidden by the hammer so no one really will see it. This is a handsome looking example of a late “Pennsylvania” or “Kentucky” and a good representative example of the whole species for a general collector, or someone looking for a rifle for display in an old house from the late 18th to mid 19th Centuries. $950.00