The Jager Rifle by Fred Stutzenberger

The Jager Rifle
by Fred Stutzenberger
Forerunner of the American Longrifle
Fig. 1 – The Hesse-Cassel rifle by T.W. Pistor was the numerically most
important Jager in British service during the Revolution. (Bailey 64)
“Far from being heavy and clumsy, the German rifle was
made to fall instantly into the line of sight. The result was
a fast-handling rifle that in most cases is a far more practical hunting rifle than almost any longrifle.” (Bivins 28)
Steinschloss Büchse (translates as flintlock rifle in German)
is a general name for what we call the Jaeger or Yaeger or Jager
(in German the “J” is pronounced like a Y and the two dot
umlaut over the “ä” gives it a long a sound). None of our current terms is correct, since Jäger in German simply means hunter.
To add to the confusion, the French term chasseur also refers
to German soldiers armed with short rifles (Bailey 59). However, Jager has been frequently used to name the military version of the German short rifle as well as the soldiers who carried them. It would be confusing and cumbersome to call it
anything other than Jager (and we can do without the umlaut
too).
The European Jager-type rifles originated as wheellocks
in the 16th century. The complexity and expense of the
wheellock ignition system was no great detriment to their
adoption by the affluent European nobility. Although generally considered to be of Teutonic origin centered in Berlin, Jager-type rifles were crafted in several other centers
including Vienna, Austria, Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia, Delft,
Holland, and perhaps in Scandinavia as well. George
Shumway, in his classic series Our Germanic Rifle Heritage (Muzzle Blasts, 1991-1993) gave a good accounting
of the Jager origin and production.
By the mid-17th century, the flintlock began replacing the
wheellock. A well-constructed flintlock was about as fast as
a comparable clean, tuned wheellock, cost less, was easier to
maintain, and operated using common flint rather than iron
pyrite. From their scarcity in American history, few
wheellocks made it (or at least survived) to North America.
However, there must have been a lot of them in Europe; I was
fortunate to have viewed the collection of Franz Joseph II,
Prince of Liechtenstein, in the 1970s. There were a lot of
wheellocks among the flintlocks. Of course, a prince had the
wherewithal to employ a trained armorer to keep his weapons functional, even the finicky wheellocks.
The first craftsmen skilled in making Jager rifles came
with the heavy influx of Germans and Swiss into the Colonies starting in the 1710-1720’s [for more information see:
www.erickettenburg.com/Site_3/Joseph_Angstadt.html].
A half-century later, many Jager-type rifles came with the
German (Hessian) units employed by the British against the
American rebels. Instead of the Brown Bess smoothbore,
some of the Hessian units carried Jager-type rifles with barrels that were shorter than those of the military muskets, and
with no provision for bayonets. The rifles in some Jägercorps
were the personal property of the soldiers, so they varied
substantially in design and decoration. At the risk of overgeneralization, their rifles had a length around 45 inches, with
a 30-inch barrel, and weighed around nine pounds. Stocks had
a prominent raised cheek-rest for consistent support while
aiming, a butt-trap about six inches long for storing greased
linen patches and tools, and had swivels for mounting a sling
[for more information see: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
German_military_rifles]. Most of these rifles (Fig. 1) came
from the shop of Thomas Wilhelm Pistor in Schmalkalden
20 km north of Suhl.
Jager-style rifles must have made a favorable impression
on the British Ordnance officials. William Grice submitted a
pattern, based on the German short rifle concept, to be used by
the British Army. Uncharacteristically, it was promptly approved for official issue as the Pattern 1776 Infantry Rifle. In
January 1776, one thousand rifles were ordered by the British
War Office. The swamped octagon barrel was 30" long and had
a hooked breech. It was .62 cal. with 8-groove rifling at a pitch
of 1:58, and very close to the Jager barrel inside/outside dimensions. Although similar to the Jager in most respects, the
Pattern 1776 stock differed in its lack of both a raised
Fig. 2 – The Baker Rifle retained Jager characteristics right through its long service as the standard British rifle.
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Muzzle Blasts
Fig. 3 – A Keith Lisle steel-mounted “Working Jager.”
cheekpiece and a butt trap. Hardware differences were the narrow grip rail trigger guard, single trigger, and swivel link steel
ramrod among others. Eight hundred were delivered by William Grice, Mathias Barker, Galton & Sons, and Benjamin
Willets, all of Birmingham. Two hundred more were obtained
from Hannover, Germany. They were issued to the light company of each British regiment during the Revolution; small
numbers were probably present at most battles.
German rifles continued to influence British military
small arms. In 1799, a regiment of a thousand riflemen was
raised by the exiled Dutch Prince of Orange to be deployed
by the British as their first rifle unit of regimental size. They
were equipped with a distinctively Germanic Jager-type rifle
manufactured in Hesse-Cassel by Andreas Herman
Thornbeck (Bailey 101). Their arrival as a prescient example
of what a military rifle should be was timely, for the British
had been testing various rifling conformations for accuracy,
ease of loading, and fouling characteristics. Ezekiel Baker’s
rifling of seven rectangular grooves with a pitch of 1:120,
was adopted in 1800 to field test in various Pattern Rifles
of .62 and .69 cal. The .62 cal. Baker rifle (Fig. 2) was
used by the British against the United States (1812-1815)
and by the Mexicans at the Alamo in 1836 and in the later Mexican War (1846-48) [for more information about the Baker rifle
see: www.therifleshoppe.com/catalog_pages/english_arms/
baker_rifles.htm].
Although the British standardized the Pattern 1776 and the
Baker rifles in dimensions similar to the Jager, the Jager rifle
has effectively resisted conformity. Keith Lisle, a builder of
working Jagers [at: www.custommuzzleloaders.com/] had
these comments about the myth of the Jager: “When I started
building Jaegers, I was told they all had to be short, fat, .58
Fig. 4 – Keith’s Jager has a generous cheekpiece like the originals.
April 2014
cal., and a 31" barrel or it was NOT a Jaeger…. Then [I] got to
investigating and found out the barrel length varies from 22"
to 51", the weight is all over the place, some thicker and some
more slender, calibers from .41 cal. to .75 cal., just a lot of
variations. The detail goes from Plain Jane hunting to the most
elaborate artistic workmanship I have ever seen.” Keith’s assessment pretty well describes the spectrum of historical
variation in what is called the Jager.
Be that as it may, there has been progress to standardize
the Jager into commercially viable “kit forms.” I hate to use
the term kit since it seems pejorative and inviting to questions such as, “How did you build that pretty rifle, use a kit?”
as if the builder had neither talent nor tooling to do it on his
own. There are some nice parts assemblies from well-established suppliers out there on the web (see suppliers’ list).
Back in the ‘70s, John Bivins took the first step toward uniformity when he had an original Jager barrel (30.83" long)
copied in a joint effort by Mint Hill Rifle Works and Douglas Barrel Company. The 8-groove, 1:66 twist barrels, available in .54 and .62 caliber, were planed, tapered, and flared
by Mark Matteson to 1.125" and 1.230" breech dimensions
respectively. [Visitors to my workshop are often amazed at
the handling characteristics of the Jager. Comments such as
“Comes up really nice;” “Good tree stand gun for deer” or
“Handles like a shotgun” have been made by first-time Jager
handlers. So if you want to build a big caliber working gun
from scratch, the Jager would be an ideal candidate].
Keith Lisle builds “Working Jagers” on the premise that
“pretty is as pretty does.” The architecture, fit, and finish
(Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) are what make a rifle beautiful, not the
“make-up and jewelry” of carving and engraving. That does
not mean that Keith won’t decorate a Jager (Fig. 11, 12, 13) if
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Fig. 5 – A top-down view shows the Jager’s broad breech. Even the military Jagers had an oval thumbpiece.
Fig. 6 – Keith installs a toeplate to support that vulnerable area; the military Jagers usually had rounded toes sans toeplates.
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Muzzle Blasts
Fig. 7 – Keith thins the fore ends to accentuate the taper and flare of the swamped barrel.
Fig. 8 – A sliding wooden cover conceals a generous butt trap cavity.
April 2014
the customer requests. It’s just that fancy decoration will not
redeem a Jager that is basically challenged in its architecture
and workmanship.
I built my first Jager-type rifle thirty years ago. Since
that time, I have found that decorating a Jager is a twoedged sword; there is a potential for beauty in carving and
engraving, but it is difficult to reach the aesthetic level of
the old masters who had access to elaborate castings [refer back to Shumway’s series in Muzzle Blasts]. For example, I did a hunting scene on a sideplate that turned out
passably well as the detail of the engraving goes (Fig. 14),
yet it seemed flat compared to the beautiful castings on
the old originals. Engraving on locks, such as the nice
Chambers Jager lock, turns out a bit better (Fig. 15), but
it still was found wanting compared to the ornate lockplates
of the originals. The same goes for other pieces of hardware; if they have a complex outline, you must accommodate by engraving it to life (Fig. 16).
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Fig. 9 – The hand-forged patchbox latch spring on the Lisle Jager.
Fig. 13 – The wood speaks for itself.
Fig. 10 – The lock was patterned by R.E. Davis after an original bananashaped Jager lock.
Fig. 14 – This engraved hunting scene lacks the 3-D effect of the
original castings.
Fig. 11 – Keith’s incised carving on this patchbox lid is symmetrical Baroque. Note the latch release button (I have an 1840s German DB shotgun
with the same type button release).
Fig. 12 – An inside view
of Keith’s hand-forged
lid latch.
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Fig. 15 – Engraving dresses up the Chambers lock on this Jager built
for Schuetzen competition.
Muzzle Blasts
Fig. 16 – Engraving is essential in bringing a complex buttplate to its potential.
Fig. 17 – This Jager has the ebony ramrod, horn muzzle cap, and fore end relief carving of a rifle destined for civilian use.
Carving as a decorative medium will get you closer to the
originals on their own terms. On one of my recent Jagers
(Fig. 17), the light colored walnut allowed a bit of staining
on the simple carving to create a nice contrast (Fig. 18). The
Hapsburg Crest scrimshawed by Lamar Wilson, of Shelby,
North Carolina, on an ivory background (Fig. 19) makes a nice
contrast too, although I have not seen similar on an original.
Back in the ‘90s, George Shumway gave me a nice blueprint by L.H. Harrison copyright 1992 from which to build a
fancy Jager (see suppliers). If you leave off the “fancy,” it
would be a good visual guide to a Working Jager. Couple that
with a collection of appropriate Jager hardware (Fig. 20) and
a thick chunk of hard walnut, and you would be set to build a
April 2014
most versatile rifle. Although there are several Jager locks commercially available, mounting their parts on a plate of your
own design (Fig. 21a, 21b) might draw a few questions like
“Where did you get that lock?”
Many years ago, John Bivins lamented that, “It is surprising,
in view of the great practicality of the German rifle as a hunting
arm, that gunmakers haven’t done something to bring them
back… [O]ne handicap to gunmakers has been that no stutzen
[another name used for Jager] parts have been available and
virtually nothing suitable for a longrifle can be used on a German rifle.” I wish that John were alive today to see that the only
ingredient that needs to be added to the building of the versatile Jager is elbow grease applied by a talented hand.
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Fig. 21a – This composite of Mack Vance parts on a custom plate allows
lengthening of the lock to achieve proportionality in a big Jager.
Fig. 18 – A mist of black stain accentuates the illusion of depth in this
restrained carving. Note that the continuous molding connects the floral
designs of both ends of the French-style cheekpiece.
Fig. 21b – A gold inlay in an engraved L&R Jager lock or castings from a
small Siler lock on a bronze plate cast by John Allen will offer a bit of a
custom touch to a Jager rifle built for a lady.
Suppliers
Dixie Gun Works, Union City, TN, www.dixiegunworks.com,
731-885-0561 for Jager rifle plans.
Fig. 19 – Germanic arms often were decorated with scrimshawed inlays of
bone, antler, and ivory.
References
Bailey, DeWitt. British Military Flintlock Rifles, 1740-1840
(Lincoln, RI: Andrew Mowbray Pub., 2002).
Bivins, John. “Die Büchse für der Jäger,” Rifle Magazine
(Sept.- Oct., 1977).
Wolf, Erhard. Steinschloss-Jägerbüchsen. (Blaufelden, Germany: DWJ Verlag CmbH Publishers, 2006).
Addendum
Fig. 20 – Keith laid out an assemblage of browned hardware destined for
one of his Working Jagers.
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Since the initial submission of this manuscript, Dr. Stephen
C. Wardlaw has graciously provided some images of the J.G.
Dachtine lock from his La Chapelle Jager rifle built in the 1780s.
Keith and I were used to seeing the traditional British push/pull
safety mechanism, but when Keith alerted me to Steve’s website
(http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/antique_guns/jaeger/
jaeger.html) we were flummoxed as to the exact mechanism of
how the safety was engaged. Steve’s Dachtine lock has a movable plate that covers the whole lock plate aft of the cock. Figures 22a, 23a, 24a and 25a are self-explanatory.
Muzzle Blasts
Many thanks to Steve for a lesson in safety mechanisms. The old timers
had their tricks, more than enough to keep us “modern muzzleloaders” from
MB
thinking we have seen it all.
24a. The exterior nib is attached to a sliding plate (here in the forward
position) that covers the full rear third of the lock plate.
Addendum
continued from page 10
22a. The safety is in the disengaged position at half-cock.
23a. Inside, the safety block is retracted in its bridle slot. Note that a triangular leaf spring is nestled in the V of the sear spring.
April April
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25a. The safety block has now engaged the tumbler notch. Engagement
is stabilized in the conventional way by the interaction of the two interior nibs, one on the rear arm of the safety block and one cast into the
inner face of the triangular spring.
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