Purchased recently at auction a rather mysterious single-shot Liege Rifle of what appears to be 50 Caliber with straight rifleing all the way. It would have fired with a 5/8 inch wide percussion cap struck by the right-side hammer, which has both half-cock and full-cock features that still work. What is really strange is that the percussion cap would be fired through a form of steel block which when secured by a snap lock on the left side of the rifle, closes this form of primitive breech. The hammer would strike the percussion cap across the barrel to the left side of this block, where the cap hole is, and fire the rifle. To load, some sort of paper or metal cartridge would be inserted in the open breech with the hammer on half cock and then the breech snaps in place over it on the left, pivoting on a bolt rod on the right side. Could this be a variant of the French Pin-Fire system? It's stock is oak, it has an iron or steel straight butt plate, and its ramrod or cleaning rod is missing, but there is a long wooden tube bored into the front of the stock to hold it--I think a brass rod went here. There is also a metal release on the fight side of some type near where the cleaning rod fits in---apparently to release it. There are no provisions for a rear sight and apparently there must have been a sight on the front end of the barrel--The threads are there in the barrell. This rifle also has a 5/8" wide countersunk hole on the right side that goes only deep enough for some sort of crest--"1/4" X 5/8", now gone. It looks like a Civil War Rifle, but the Auctioneer said that it appeared to date from the 1880's and was a ball-ammunition Buffalo Rifle made for the American Plaines Areas.

What in the world do I have here? It has no fitting for a bayonet and is 3 feet 10 inches in length. When the breech is open and is upwards to the right, you can look right down the barrell towards your target. I'm sure no one has made ammunition for this rifle since 1900 or so. The rifling is straight, consisting of six sets of four straight grooves each that end at the end of the barrell. Tell me what you can, Thanks, Jim Neel