The US 1792 Contract Rifle,In the early 1790’s the newly formed US Government had no means to

The US 1792 Contract Rifle,In the early 1790’s the newly formed US Government had no means to produce standardized arms for the military.  Before 1795 the Springfield Armory was mostly a repository to store arms and contributed little to weapons production, the Harpers Ferry Armory was not founded until 1794 and did not begin earnest production until around 1800.  While the US Army had adequate amounts of smoothbore muskets, mostly of French or British make, there were few rifles to arm the army’s rifle regiments.  The rifle of choice in 18th century was the Pennsylvania long rifle, which become the Kentucky long rifle when Pennsylvania gunsmiths moved their trade to Kentucky.  Thus in 1792, the US Army contracted several dozen gunsmiths around the Lancaster region of Pennsylvania to produce long rifles for military issue. Many of these gunmakers were descendants of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) immigrants who had been making Lancaster pattern rifles for several generations. For standardization sake, the army specified that the rifle have an identical lock system, a maple stock, a patchbox, a 44 ½ inch long barrel bored to .47 caliber.  Later, specifications were changed to a 42 inch barrel of .49 caliber.  Regardless of the specifications, no two rifles were exactly the same as each were hand made one at a time by an individual gunsmiths.  As a result, parts between rifles were not interchangeable.  The rifles were little different from civilian long rifles, with the exception that they were simpler and less decorated in order to increase production.Approximately 3,500 rifles were produced by the Lancaster gunsmiths between 1792 and 1794, but had a short service life as they were phased out with the development of the Harper’s Ferry Model 1803.  Most were sold to civilians around the early 19th century.  A modified formm of the 1792 contract rifle was used as the rifle of choice for Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery in 1803.  Meriwether Lewis chose 15 rifles of 300 in stock at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal.  He then ordered the barrels shortened  by 6 to 8 inches, and the barrels rebored to .54 caliber.  Lewis’ new “short rifle” would provide inspiration for the Harper’s Ferry Model 1803. -- source link

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