Our travels took us to the Mercer Museum in Doylestown Pennsylvnia. Our visit there was facilitated by Cory Amsler the VP for collections at the museum, and our explorations took place at a nearby annex of the museum where rifles for study had been thoughtfully laid out by Cory.
Here we were able to view and handle (carefully! - note the gloves) The Edward Marshall Long Walk Rifle - an early colonial rifle of immense importance with a stellar history, and several other rifles that were unique and important. A rare swivel breech rifle was among the assembled rifles and when brought to his attention became the subject of intense interest to my colleague - Bill Paton, who is researching swivel breech rifles and plans an eventual definitive publication.
The rifle of greatest interest, however was the Marshall Rifle. Jud, Jesse and David spent several hours studying, measuring and tracing this important artifact. Details were noted which could only be appreciated by holding, handling, feeling the balance and acquiring a three dimensional "map". Jud later remarked that he never could have understood the details of the fore end portion of the rifle without this opportunity to personally handle it. Jud is a patient and giving teacher and he spent considerable time pointing out the many unique feature of this rifle to Jesse and especially David, since this was David's first chance to see and handle these museum pieces up close. One of the most important features of this rifle is the "swell" just behind the entry thimble. It is very prominent when observed from below but would easily escape notice when the rifle is examined in profile.
Many other details are shown in the following photos.
