Before the war of 1812, the British government commissioned 50 special rifles to be built by the firm of
Egg and Manton. The intention was to present these rifles to the Iroquois chiefs in Canada in the hopes that the would remain loyal to the crown during the war of 1812. However before the rifles were completed and presented, the war had ended in British defeat. As a result these rifles were never presented but were kept in the royal armory. To date as far as I know only two or three of these rifles have ever come to be in private ownership.
While at the Firearms Engravers Guild of America show in Reno Nevada in 2006 I put this rifle on exhibit. By coincidence, the private owner of one of those rifles saw this rifle. His first comment was “ you copied my gun”
.
One of my ethical standards is to never make an exact copy of an other gun. I believe every gun I build should be unique and one of a kind. It is my desire that when some one owns one of my firearms he will be able to say there is no other like it in the world. For this reason, there are minor differences between this rifle and one of the original Durrs Egg Iroquois chief rifles. My initials are inlaid in pure 24k gold on the Breech. There are also minor differences in the engraving. These are intentional according to the information I have. The originals were .550 cal. This rifle is .54 caliber. |
