Wonderful Civil War Era Allen & Wheelock Drop Breech 42 Rimfire Rifle

Up for sale is a wonderful, antique Allen & Wheelock drop breech single shot rifle chambered in about 42 caliber rimfire. Part round, part octagon barrel measures 26 1/8" in length with a bright, strong mostly very good bore with some minor frosting and a handful of isolated light to moderate pits near the muzzle. Barrel retains about 85% original blue with some mottled staining, scattered handling marks, freckling and some areas of gray toning loss with most of that being near the muzzle. Receiver assembly retains about 80% original case color with freckling, staining and thinning and toning loss with what looks to be a thin layer of added varnish over the top. Buttplate still shows some faint case color with the majority having toned to mostly shades of patina with staining. Smooth wood forend and straight grip buttstock show some attractive grain pattern with a satin finish and both show scattered small handling marks and impression along with a few grain checks in the butt. Buttstock unfortunately has a complete hairline split running from the right rear of the bottom tang, forming a U shape to the top right rear of the upper tang which does flex, but remains mounted to the receiver. Rifle is sighed with a wedge shaped blade front sight and sporting leaf rear and the upper tang has a screw in plug where a disc sight would have been installed. Hammer holds at half and full cock, breech block appears to lock up well, the manual extractor is still present and the linkage on the inside of the action shows wonderful fire blue when the action is open. Top barrel flat is marked “Allen & Wheelock/Allens Patent Sept 18 1860”. Built sometime from about 1860 into the 1870's. Should find a nice home in your collection.