The Ferguson Rifle

[Blu]

I thought there may be a few folks on here that find this interesting.

http://www.11thpa.org/ferguson.html

This also.

http://www.ushistory.org/brandywine/special/art09.htm

Blu

[whoowhoop]

This rifle always fascinated me as a child. Whenever I read about it, it made me want to shoot one. Sadly, never handled one, nor likely

[Sandgroper]

Didn't one of Fergusson's men (or maybe Fergusson himself) have George Washington lined up, but didn't take the shot because it was "unsporting?"

[dave_303]

It was Ferguson himself, but as the story goes he decided to be gentlemanly and revealed that he was there, so Washington legged it.

There are a few repros knocking about Derbyshire arms may make one, but it will cost.
The screw breech was ingenious and ahead of its time but was flawed. It usually fouled badly after 10 shots and became nigh on impossible to operate and the stock around that area had a tendency of splitting which is why almost all remaining examples have a strengthening band there

[Sandgroper]

It was Ferguson himself, but as the story goes he decided to be gentlemanly and revealed that he was there, so Washington legged it.

There are a few repros knocking about Derbyshire arms may make one, but it will cost.
The screw breech was ingenious and ahead of its time but was flawed. It usually fouled badly after 10 shots and became nigh on impossible to operate and the stock around that area had a tendency of splitting which is why almost all remaining examples have a strengthening band there

According to the article Blu linked to Ferguson solved the problem of fouling.

"Durs" Egg, a Swiss-born London gunmaker, had made several rifles for Ferguson in 1770 on Warsop's system. On these, though, the plugs were attached rigidly to each rifle's trigger guard. This assembly became the plug wrench, rather than using a separate wrench as Ferguson had done in the West Indies. Although a substantial improvement over a separate wrench, the trigger guard required twelve turns to completely uncover the chamber. And the threads of the long plug fouled badly. Fewer than ten accurate shots were possible before cleaning the breech was necessary.

Returning to Britain in 1774, Ferguson sought to correct these defects by using a multiple-start, one-pitch breech and plug. Instead of turning a single-start threaded plug twelve times, he would turn a ten- or twelve-start threaded plug once. A problem was finding gunmakers who were able to make a tight multistart, one-pitch thread in 1775.

A design refinement was that his breech plug's threads were interrupted with vertical slots. Fouling that would collect on the threads would be forced into these cavities, then fall off the threads upon opening the action. Fouling that did not fall off was accessible to be wiped off.

[ResearchPress]

There was another book published on Fergusin and his rifle last year:
"Every Insult and Indignity"
The Life, Genius and Legacy of Major Patrick Ferguson
with an exploration of the Care and Feeding of
Patrick Ferguson’s Breech Loading Ordnance Rifle.

See: http://www.everyinsultandindignity.com/

See also the MLAGBs 'Black Powder' magazine Winter 2011. There's an article by the authors of the above book on-line:
http://www.mlagb.com/blackpowder/index.htm

David