Breaking the bonds of economic enslavement in the industrial German Ruhr for the wilds of an Illinois homestead, in-law Philip Schoenholz was so happy he included his new bird gun and hunting pouch in this ca1860 portrait. Because unless you were a rural Forstmeister, only aristocrats owned guns and hunted game in Germany then, and from his matted hair, his winded look, and the facial expression of his other love, Elizabetha, he had to be dragged in from the fields by his adult sons for the portrait. ;)
Is this rifle a so called 'Stutzen' or 'Stutzer'? It looks a little like a 'Drilling' but i'm not sure if this kind of hunting rifle was yet invented at that time. I'm not really good when it comes to rifle history.
Regards from Germany
Frank - Grandpa was a forest ranger in Masuren, East Prussia
I don't know when drillings originated, but the cylindrical bit under the double barrel is probably the ramrod. This shotgun is a front loader if the date is correct.
