John Bivens Contemporary Wheel Lock Rifle .54 Calibre
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| | 31" octagonal, slightly swamped, damascus barrel hand-forged by Robert |
| | Griffith with dovetailed front sight, 1 standing and 1 folding leaf rear sight, |
| | gold-bushed touch hole, with three gold-inlaid poincon bearing touchmarks |
| | of Griffith, Bivens and Goodwin. Finish-profiled and round-bottom rifled by |
| | Dick & Don Getz with a 1:66 twist. Stocked to the muzzle with fully figured |
| | European walnut by John Bivens with ebony forend tip, raised scroll |
| | carving at ramrod junction, raised shell carving ahead of sculptured |
| | triggerguard, raised-carved grotesque head at standing breech, raised- |
| | carved scroll at either end of the ebony-highlighted cheekpiece. Sculptured |
| | wheelock action of bright polished steel with sliding wheel-cover safety, |
| | made by Helmut Viet. Lock and buttplate engraved and stock silver-wire- |
| | inlaid by Dan Goodwin. D-shaped three-dimensional sculptured |
| | triggerguard forged by Doug Ryan. Heavily-domed buttplate forged by |
| | Wallace Gussler with extended carved heel-extension. Balustrade ramrod |
| | thimbles turned by Jack Haugh. Set triggers made by John Bivens and Mark |
| | Silver. Pierced leather sling by Lewis Sanchez. Load: 70gr FFG and Speer |
| | .530" swaged ball. Pull: 13". Weight: 9lbs, 12oz. Overall length: 46 1/2". Built |
| | 1979. Mirror-bright bore. Virtually new condition save for some scratches in |
| | the stock at the wrist. Ex: Eric Johanson collection. Pictured: Minneapolis |
| | Museum, Three Centuries of Tradition, pages 48 - 51. Weil, Contemporary |
| | Makers of Muzzle Loading Firearms, pages 36 - 41. Bleile, American |
| | Engravers, pages 55 - 56. And, articles by Bivens in Rifle Magazine, Sept- |
| | Oct 1979, pp 20-23 & 58, and American Rifleman, January 1980, pp 34 - 37. |
From: Three Centuries of Tradition, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2003 Pages 48 - 51
From the American Rifleman, January 1980:
From Rifle Magazine, Sept - Oct, 1979:
The finished barrel; a spiral, forge-welded around a mandrel into a rough tube; the process pictured on page 23 of the above article in Rifle magazine Full length and detail photos:
From Robert Weil, Contemporary Makers of Muzzle Loading Firearms, 1980, pages 36 - 41:
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