[GWarden]

Would anyone have any info on J.W. Weichold and his BP round ball bench rifles. Picked up one this weekend at a gun show. Rifle is .52 call round ball with false muzzle and starter.
If anyone has one of his rifles, would like to contact you. Thanks for your assistance.
Bob
Iowa

 

[@bullseye]

Appearantly he is well known and his 1950's bench rifles are highly regarded. I like to search online for things like this because I love bp guns. I don't know if he ever made slug guns or not. I would check the twist of the rifling. You say .52 caliber roundball , which is probably right ...but two piece slugs are used for this caliber in slug gun competition also. A photo would be nice. Is it an underhammer rifle? There was plenty of information online about J.W. Weichold. I think he lives in Ohio where bench rest shooting has a rich history. I had posted some information I gleened about slug guns in the magazine/periodical section if you want to look. Thanks for drawing this gunmaker to my attention. I can't help much but it is interesting to me. There is alot of information about (antique) target bench rifles etc. in Ohio here and it was very educational to me.
http://www.aolrc.org/

 

[GWarden]

Appearantly he is well known and his 1950's bench rifles are highly regarded. I like to search online for things like this because I love bp guns. I don't know if he ever made slug guns or not. I would check the twist of the rifling. You say .52 caliber roundball , which is probably right ...but two piece slugs are used for this caliber in slug gun competition also. A photo would be nice. Is it an underhammer rifle? There was plenty of information online about J.W. Weichold. I think he lives in Ohio where bench rest shooting has a rich history. I had posted some information I gleened about slug guns in the magazine/periodical section if you want to look. Thanks for drawing this gunmaker to my attention. I can't help much but it is interesting to me. There is alot of information about (antique) target bench rifles etc. in Ohio here and it was very educational to me.
http://www.aolrc.org/

Bullseye
Thank you for the info. This is a new shooting venue for me. I have been a shooter of the single shot rifle in 32/40 and 38/55 , breech seating my bullets and have greatly enjoyed this in BP and have been very successful with the 32/40. I will try and post some photos of the rifle. The material that came with the rifle mentioned only round ball. The end of the false muzzle was not set for using cross patches or other ways I have seen the slug guns set up for patching. You may be totally correct that this is a slug gun rifle. Thank you for your assistance. The fella I purchased this from is a collector and historian of Iowa black powder guns and gunmakers. His father also was a dealer in BP rifles, and he told me this was only the second rifle like this he had ever seen in Iowa.
I contacted a friend that builds BP rifles and does gunsmithing, he was more excited than I was about the rifle, he advised the action was worth more than what I paid for the rifle. Have a pleasant evening.
Bob
Iowa

 

[GWarden]

Appearantly he is well known and his 1950's bench rifles are highly regarded. I like to search online for things like this because I love bp guns. I don't know if he ever made slug guns or not. I would check the twist of the rifling. You say .52 caliber roundball , which is probably right ...but two piece slugs are used for this caliber in slug gun competition also. A photo would be nice. Is it an underhammer rifle? There was plenty of information online about J.W. Weichold. I think he lives in Ohio where bench rest shooting has a rich history. I had posted some information I gleened about slug guns in the magazine/periodical section if you want to look. Thanks for drawing this gunmaker to my attention. I can't help much but it is interesting to me. There is alot of information about (antique) target bench rifles etc. in Ohio here and it was very educational to me.
http://www.aolrc.org/

Bullseye
I checked the twist rate on the bbl, seems to be close to 1:52
Bob