Help Identifying an Enfield

[Jim Wimbish, 10395]

I read the view mark as a crown over the vertical letters 'RT6" and on the left side an 'S' and the right side an 'A'. So it looks like RT6 Small Arms. Is that the correct mark for Birmingham Small Arms Company? I would have guessed that RT might mean Royal Tower or something like that.

[R. McAuley 3014V]

I read the view mark as a crown over the vertical letters 'RT6" and on the left side an 'S' and the right side an 'A'. So it looks like RT6 Small Arms. Is that the correct mark for Birmingham Small Arms Company? I would have guessed that RT might mean Royal Tower or something like that.

If you have access to Pritchard & Huey (2014) The English Connection, there is a picture of the BSAT roundel that was usually stamped on the right face of the butt stock, and the view mark is similar, except having a "C" rather than the "T". The Birmingham Small Arms Company was formed in 1861 of the 15 principal arms makers in the city. They were joined in 1863 by Joseph Whitworth which enabled BSAC to manufacture the Whitworth patent rifle, becoming the de facto manufacturer of that arm.

[Jim Wimbish, 10395]

I don't have access to the Pritchett Reference. But it is clearly the Birmingham Small Arms Trade Roundel. Thanks.It was a 'B' not an 'R, although the way it was struck it looks more like an R. Is there a difference between the Birmingham Small Arms Trade and the Birmingham Small Arms Company? I'm checking online.

[R. McAuley 3014V]

Essentially, by 1855 with the advent of the modern machine-made Enfield both by the government at Enfield and subsequently by the London Armoury Company, orders for non-interchangeable "hand-made" arms dwindling, the gun trade of Birmingham were forced into a decision they must buy machinery or go out of business. At a meeting of the Birmingham Small Arms Trade in June 1861, it was resolved to form a company, "The Birmingham Small Arms Company," to make arms by machinery. Your "1862 Tower" was still a "hand-made" arm assembled from parts produced by the various contractors in the trade, as it was not until January 1863 that the new factory built at Small Heath was completed, it was not until 1865 that all of the necessary machinery was installed to enter into manufacture of the regulation Enfield rifle musket by machinery. Besides their contract with the Turkish Government, eventually for some 50,000 arms, BSAC also secured a contract for the conversion of some 100,000 muzzle-loaders into breechloaders.

http://www.rifleman.org.uk/Birmingham_Small_Arms_Co.htm

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2338574.pdf

[Jim Wimbish, 10395]

I removed the barrel and inspected the bottom of the barrel and the barrel channel for markings. The barrel channel was marked with the name JHOLMES. There was what appeared to be a G on the ramrod spoon (Georgia gun??). The barrel was also marked SARGANT, which is the same name found on the inside of the lock. So it appears that SARGANT made the gun and JHOLMES made the stock. The Sargant brothers were well known makers or military guns during this period. I found several references to them on the web. There is some writing on the barrel that was struck over at the beginning with a large 'F' and there is a slash mark through one of the letters. My Nikon did a great of making the writing more readable. If these marking mean anything to anyone let me know.