Steve, there are a couple of other observations from the Reilly Collage (and this is only observations of surviving Reilly's):
-- The last noted Reilly pin-fire is 17566 dated to spring 1872 by my chart. After that...no pin-fires
-- Center-break pin-fires really did not appear to become predominant until 13033 (mid 1863).
Up to that time for Reilly's there was a lot of competition on what would sell. Reilly was also making Enfields, other muzzle loaders, breech loader rifles (Prince patent, Green Patent, etc.). This was in the midst of the bonanza from the War Between the States for UK gunmakers. So Reilly made pin-fires...but from that list of extant guns,1863 was the date they really took over the market - 1872 was the denouement.
(Of course pin fire guns were made by Reilly from 1855...but the above analysis is based on the percentage of the types of surviving guns.)
Last edited by Argo44; 04/02/21 12:37 AM.
