Guns International #: 102144962
Seller's Inventory #: RBE0522

Category - Antique Rifles - Percussion - Military Rifles - Antique

Category
Antique Rifles - Percussion
Military Rifles - Antique

Westley Richards Monkey Tail Carbine .451/.483

Description:
Here we have the most successful of all British made capping breech loaders – the Monkey Tail - by one of the greatest gun makers in the world – Westley Richards, established in 1812 and surviving the passage of time and still with us today more than 200 years later!
A capping breechloader is a transitional breech loading system developed in the mid-nineteenth century. It is loaded at the breech and fired with a percussion cap. It is one of the stages of firearm design between percussion muzzle loading guns and the self-contained center-fire cartridge.
The gun is known as the Monkey Tail because of Westley Richards’ patented design of the breech opening system which is a lift lever in the position of the upper tang that resembles – you guessed it – a monkey tail.  
The genius of Westley Richard’s design is in the use of a greased felt sealing wad that was glued onto the base of the paper cartridge. When the gun is fired, the blast from the percussion cap blasts through the paper cartridge and ignites the powder which blows the wad rearwards expanding it against the plunger in the breech mechanism, thereby sealing the breech. When the next cartridge is loaded, the wad left behind from the previous cartridge is pushed ahead of the bullet into the throat of the rifling, helping to clean the bore ahead of the bullet from the next shot.
These guns are well known and sought after by collectors the world around. Marked .451/.483 Caliber
Fine bore.
 

SOLD

Antique: Yes