Maynard Improved Medium Range 1873 Target Rifle

This is an interesting Maynard target rifle in 38-50 Maynard calibre. The rifle features a 32" heavy "bull" target barrel and a reproduction Wm Malcolm 6 power scope. This is interesting in it's own right as it is generally not known that such scopes were used in the Civil War. Many were made by William Malcolm who was born on October 13th 1823 and died July 12th 1890, his workshop being located at Syracuse , New York.
Malcolm scopes were all made with a 3/4" tube without an enlarged eyepiece or objective lens and this particular scope has a fine cross hair reticule the narrow field of view being particularly good for target shooting. The optics on the scope are crisp and clear.
The rifle also has a Hadley device which was a patented device held in place by two small screws which converted the rifle from centre fire to rim fire as 38 rimfire was also a readily available cartridge. It is surprising to see that this has survived.
38-50 Maynard was renowned for it's accuracy and utilised a thick rim to obdurate the breech and assist in extraction. The barrel has a plum patina and is clean with an excellent bore and the walnut woodwork is very good with an oiled finish as it should be. Steel butt plate denotes quality and the mechanics are perfect.
38-50 calibre was a very popular target round in the 1870-1880's and Maynard was pre-eminent in the production of target rifles but the manufacture of the Maynard rifle involved a lot of hand finishing and in the world of mass production this eventually lead to their demise but were still being used with great success at the beginning of the 20th Century. Maynard paid particular attention to his barrels and rifling and until production stopped in the 1890's were regarded as the finest single shot target rifles money could buy.

Code: 50054