Anyone ever seen the second carbine in attached photo

[ewmail15]

I've been trying for several months to make a connection with anyone at Russian firearms-related museums. Last month, I tried full translations of my prior email content via google translate - to info@sestroretsk.spb.ru (Sestroretsk Armory). Today, I finally received a reply from a Konstantin. He stated he lives in a small town Ivanovo near Moscow, and his attached email was all that was provided. I replied with a slew of questions. He might be an employee at the armory or one of the two/three other firearms-related Russian museums I emailed over the months.

I checked all my Merrill, Latrobe & Thomas photos, but found none with such an awkward hammer, and two-screw only patchbox, and lockplate lever cover(?) as with the second firearm in the attached photo. Maybe this was ta prototype he made while honing his gunsmithing skills at the Sestroretsk Armory in the mid-1850's.

Anyone seen any of these firearms?

[ewmail15]

Not a Merrill. Bummer. Neat info nonetheless.

1. Museum location :
https://www.google.ru/maps/place/%D0....9766453?hl=ru


2. Museum site: http://xn--80ablhhepdp1a2ae9h.xn--p1...enal/index.php
Interactive exhibition. Step-by-step on the white rings.


3. Hammer is "cossack's hammer" like is Russian Cossack Rifle M1860 by Tanner & Co (Liege, Belgium).
4. Also, the same hammer has a Peabody prototype Russian contract rifle (see attached).


5. I am not an Armory worker. I am a "redneck" and farmer from Southern Russia, Krasnodar region.

6. My hobby is cossack's firearms and I collecte info about it.


7. On lock plate you can see ... russian factory mark "ТОЗ - 1858 г" (Tula Armoury Plant). IMHO, it is the pre-production version for testing.

[ewmail15]

Check out my page with an unmarked, prototype Merrill full stock sporting rifle. Initial search of my site didn't turn up a match to the one in Ivanovo, Russia. When I found the full stock sporting rifle, I knew I had a match. The more connections, the better chance I'll find evidence of Merrill's apprenticeship in St. Petersburg's Sestroretsk Armor, and two unsubstantiated references to his meeting with Tsar Alexander II and subsequent Merrill firearms sale in the mid-1860's.

https://jameshmerrilltribute.smugmug...ifle-unmarked/

[rflmskt]

Looks like a Russian 1855 carbine...maybe with a rotary cap magazine or some type of primer feed?

https://collections.royalarmouries.o...ect-10809.html