WThe 1792 contract rifle is not a specific model of gun, rather it is a modern way to categorize a collection of rifles bought by the United States government in that year. United States 1792 contract rifles are Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifles with a 42-inch octagon barrel in .49 caliber, with a patch box built into the buttstock. What distinguishes them from civilian rifles is that they were bought by the government under military contract.
WThe Ballard Rifle was a single shot, breechloading longarm used during the late American Civil War by Kentucky volunteers.
WThe Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket was a .577 calibre Minié-type muzzle-loading rifled musket, used by the British Empire from 1853 to 1867; after which many were replaced in service by the cartridge-loaded Snider–Enfield rifle.
WThe Fayetteville Rifle was a 2 banded rifle produced at the Confederate States Arsenal in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The machinery which produced these weapons was primarily that captured at the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, which was previously used to produce the US Model 1855 Rifle.
WThe Gallager carbine is an American black powder breechloading rifle produced in the American Civil War.
WThe Hawken rifle is a muzzle-loading rifle built by the Hawken brothers that was used on the prairies and in the Rocky Mountains of the United States during the early frontier days. It has become synonymous with the "plains rifle", the buffalo gun, and the fur trapper's gun. Developed in the 1820s, it was eventually displaced by breechloaders and lever-action rifles which flourished after the Civil War.
WThe M1819 Hall rifle was a single-shot breech-loading rifle designed by John Hancock Hall, patented on May 21, 1811, and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1819. It was preceded by the Harpers Ferry M1803. It used a pivoting chamber breech design and was made with either flintlock or percussion cap ignition systems. The years of production were from the 1820s to the 1840s at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. This was the first breech-loading rifle to be adopted in large numbers by any nation's army, but not the first breech-loading military rifle – the Ferguson rifle was used briefly by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War. The Hall rifle remained overshadowed by common muskets and muzzleloading rifles which were still prevalent until the Civil War. The early flintlocks were mostly converted to percussion ignition.
WThe M1841 Mississippi rifle is a muzzle-loading percussion rifle used in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.
WThe Merrill carbine was a breechloader firearm designed by Baltimore, Maryland gunsmith and inventor James H. Merrill. It was one of several firearms either manufactured or altered by Merrill in fulfillment of contracts with the Union government during the U.S. Civil War.
WThe U.S. M1814 rifle was designed by Robert T. Wickham. The manufacturing was contracted out to Henry Deringer and R. Johnson to make rifles for use by the military.
WThe M1817 common rifle was a flintlock muzzle-loaded weapon issued due to the Dept. of Ordnance's order of 1814, produced by Henry Deringer and used from the 1820s to 1840s at the American frontier. Unlike the half octagon barreled M1814 common rifle that preceded it, it had a barrel that was round for most of its length. The 36-inch barrel was rifled for .54 caliber bullets. For rifling it had seven grooves. Like the M1814 common rifle, it had a large oval patch box in the stock, however the stock dropped steeper than on the M1814 common rifle.
WThe Pattern 1861 Enfield musketoon was a short-barrel version of the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket, having a faster rifling twist rate, along with more rifling grooves, which made it more accurate than the original rifle. The shorter rifle was therefore easier to carry and reload.
WThe Richmond rifle was a rifled musket produced by the Richmond Armory in Richmond, Virginia, for use by the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
WSharps rifles are a series of large-bore, single-shot, falling-block, breech-loading rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848, and ceasing production in 1881. They were renowned for long-range accuracy. By 1874 the rifle was available in a variety of calibers, and it was one of the few designs successfully to be adapted to metallic cartridge use. The Sharps rifles became icons of the American Old West due to their appearances in many Western-genre films and books. Perhaps as a result, several rifle companies offer reproductions of the Sharps rifle.
WThe Springfield Model 1855 was a rifle musket widely used in the American Civil War. It exploited the advantages of the new conical Minié ball, which could be deadly at over 1,000 yards. About 60,000 of these rifles were made, and it was a standard infantry weapon for Union and Confederates alike, until the Springfield Model 1861 supplanted it, obviating the use of the insufficiently waterproof Maynard tape primer.
WThe Springfield Model 1861 was a Minié-type rifled musket shoulder-arm used by the United States Army and Marine Corps during the American Civil War. Commonly referred to as the "Springfield", it was the most widely used U.S. Army weapon during the Civil War, favored for its range, accuracy, and reliability.
WThe Springfield Model 1863 was a .58 caliber rifled musket manufactured by the Springfield Armory and independent contractors between 1863 and 1865.
WThe Starr carbine was a breechloading single-shot rifle used by the United States Army. Designed in 1858, the Starr was primarily used by cavalry soldiers in the American Civil War.