- Boyer rifle
The Boyer Rifle was a specialized over-and-under
flintlock gun with one smooth gun barrel and one rifled barrel. This allowed it to be used as either arifle or ashotgun . This variant of the Boyer rifle was created around 1800.Mechanical Description
The two barrels were rotated into firing position by releasing a hinged catch in front of the
trigger guard . There was a single lock that was used to fire using whichever barrel was currently in position.The 1800 variant was of .45
caliber . Each barrel was 36 inches long and the entire gun was 52 inches in length.Variants
There is another known variant that was created around the late 1840s that used a side-by-side barrel configuration and was fired using a
percussion cap mechanism rather than aflintlock mechanism . Although this gun was also a Boyer rifle, the gunsmith was not the same as the earlier 1800 variant.The Gunsmiths
The 1800 variant was named after its creator Daniel Boyer of
Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania . He used a D. BOYER inscription to identify his guns.The 1840 variant was named after its creator David Boyer. He also used a D. BOYER inscription to identify his guns. It is unknown whether these two men were related.
ee also
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Gun safety References
*Boyer, Neil A. "The Boyers of Easton." Washington, D.C.: Neil Boyer, 1987. pp. 73-74. An updated account of the life of David Boyer (1806-1883), gunmaker of Orwigsburg PA, is provided at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~boyerlinks/boyer_orwigsburg/david_thirdgen.html.
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