EXTREMELY RARE M.L. ROOD SUPERPOSED MULE EAR DOUBLE PERCUSSION RIFLE.

EXTREMELY RARE M.L. ROOD SUPERPOSED MULE EAR DOUBLE PERCUSSION RIFLE. Cal. About 45. Very rare rifle with 33″ heavy superposed bbls that has proprietary German silver Rocky Mountain front sight and a fixed Rocky Mountain style rear sight. Made without forearm and has two iron guides on each side containing what appears to be two orig brass tipped hickory ramrods. Top bbl, just above rear sight, is marked in three lines “M.L. ROOD / DENVER C.T. / WARRANTED”. Obviously the “C.T.” stands for Colorado Territory, before Colorado became a state in 1876. Mounted with uncheckered, straight grain, American walnut buttstock similar to a Kentucky rifle butt with back action lock on right side of wrist having two hammers on long arms that strike nipples on right side of bbls. Nipples are shielded with brass cones. Strikers of the hammers have large, checkered, curled spurs. Lockplate is marked “M.L. ROOD DENVER C.T”. The bbls are mounted into an oval shaped block with long top & bottom tangs with dbl set trigger and Kentucky rifle style iron serpentine trigger guard with finger rest. Hammers, when cocked, cannot be fired without the set trigger being activated. The trigger will fire either hammer or both at once. Buttstock has a Kentucky rifle style crescent iron buttplate with long top tang and a very long flat toe plate. Right side of buttstock is inlaid with a 1/2″ compass, which feature has been observed on other Rood rifles. The name M.L. Maxwell is very lightly stamped on the lower tang. Maxwell along with Rood were known to be a shooting companions and friends of Kit Carson. This may have been his Denver made rifle. Morgan L. Rood was probably born in New York and moved to Michigan at a young age where he apprenticed gunsmithing and in 1849 left Michigan with the “Wolverine Rangers” for the California Gold Rush. They arrived late and were unable to do any prospecting until 1850 when the rivers subsided after the winter rains. There is a list of this party which includes Mr. Rood’s name. There was one mention of Mr. Rood having mined $10,000 in gold dust. He wound up in Denver in the 1860s and established his gun shop there becoming a major competitor and antagonist of Carlos Gove who had a competing shop nearby. Mr. Rood was a maker of fine hunting & target rifles and shotguns and a serious competitive shooter engaging in a number of shooting matches in the area, winning most. His shop sold all the popular makes of arms of the day plus sporting goods of all types, again in competition with Mr. Gove. In Sept. 1864 his gun shop blew up only slightly injuring him but damaging his eyesight. In 1866 Mr. Rood and Mr. Gove became engaged in a very spirited exchange of insulting articles in both the Denver Gazette and Rocky Mountain News with Mr. Rood challenging Mr. Gove to ten shooting matches at various distances using their respective rifles for $100 per match. Although the tirades continued for some time there is no evidence that they ever shot a match. Mr. Rood died on Nov. 26, 1881. Accompanying this rifle are transcriptions of some of the articles posted by Mr. Gove and Mr. Rood along with copies of several ads from local newspapers for Mr. Rood’s gun shop. In addition to Mr. Rood’s manufacturing fine hunting & target rifles he also was issued a patent for a revolving firearm but if they were ever made none are known to survive. In spite of Mr. Rood’s productivity over a 20+ year period, extremely few of his firearms are known today. Mr. Rood lived in the Rocky Mountains in a time when the Great American West was being born and undoubtedly contributed to that birthing with his fine firearms. PROVENANCE: JOHN DUTCHER COLLECTION. CONDITION: Very good. Traces of orig brown remain being mostly a cleaned, mottled silver/brown patina with a few nicks & dings. Stock has some chips around the lockplate and a hairline on left side of the wrist, otherwise wood is sound and retains a hand worn patina. Top hammer arm has an old forged repair; mechanics are fine, strong sharp bores with pitting in the grooves. 4-46082 JR312 (5,000-10,000)

Auction: Firearms - Fall 2012

Please Note: All prices include the hammer price plus the buyer’s premium, which is paid by the buyer as part of the purchase price. The prices noted here after the auction are considered unofficial and do not become official until after the 46th day.

Image	Lot	Price	Description
	2233	$5,750.00	EXTREMELY RARE M.L. ROOD SUPERPOSED MULE EAR DOUBLE PERCUSSION RIFLE. Cal. About 45. Very rare rifle with 33″ heavy superposed bbls that has proprietary German silver Rocky Mountain front sight and a fixed Rocky Mountain style rear sight. Made without forearm and has two iron guides on each side containing what appears to be two orig brass tipped hickory ramrods. Top bbl, just above rear sight, is marked in three lines “M.L. ROOD / DENVER C.T. / WARRANTED”. Obviously the “C.T.” stands for Colorado Territory, before Colorado became a state in 1876. Mounted with uncheckered, straight grain, American walnut buttstock similar to a Kentucky rifle butt with back action lock on right side of wrist having two hammers on long arms that strike nipples on right side of bbls. Nipples are shielded with brass cones. Strikers of the hammers have large, checkered, curled spurs. Lockplate is marked “M.L. ROOD DENVER C.T”. The bbls are mounted into an oval shaped block with long top & bottom tangs with dbl set trigger and Kentucky rifle style iron serpentine trigger guard with finger rest. Hammers, when cocked, cannot be fired without the set trigger being activated. The trigger will fire either hammer or both at once. Buttstock has a Kentucky rifle style crescent iron buttplate with long top tang and a very long flat toe plate. Right side of buttstock is inlaid with a 1/2″ compass, which feature has been observed on other Rood rifles. The name M.L. Maxwell is very lightly stamped on the lower tang. Maxwell along with Rood were known to be a shooting companions and friends of Kit Carson. This may have been his Denver made rifle. Morgan L. Rood was probably born in New York and moved to Michigan at a young age where he apprenticed gunsmithing and in 1849 left Michigan with the “Wolverine Rangers” for the California Gold Rush. They arrived late and were unable to do any prospecting until 1850 when the rivers subsided after the winter rains. There is a list of this party which includes Mr. Rood’s name. There was one mention of Mr. Rood having mined $10,000 in gold dust. He wound up in Denver in the 1860s and established his gun shop there becoming a major competitor and antagonist of Carlos Gove who had a competing shop nearby. Mr. Rood was a maker of fine hunting & target rifles and shotguns and a serious competitive shooter engaging in a number of shooting matches in the area, winning most. His shop sold all the popular makes of arms of the day plus sporting goods of all types, again in competition with Mr. Gove. In Sept. 1864 his gun shop blew up only slightly injuring him but damaging his eyesight. In 1866 Mr. Rood and Mr. Gove became engaged in a very spirited exchange of insulting articles in both the Denver Gazette and Rocky Mountain News with Mr. Rood challenging Mr. Gove to ten shooting matches at various distances using their respective rifles for $100 per match. Although the tirades continued for some time there is no evidence that they ever shot a match. Mr. Rood died on Nov. 26, 1881. Accompanying this rifle are transcriptions of some of the articles posted by Mr. Gove and Mr. Rood along with copies of several ads from local newspapers for Mr. Rood’s gun shop. In addition to Mr. Rood’s manufacturing fine hunting & target rifles he also was issued a patent for a revolving firearm but if they were ever made none are known to survive. In spite of Mr. Rood’s productivity over a 20+ year period, extremely few of his firearms are known today. Mr. Rood lived in the Rocky Mountains in a time when the Great American West was being born and undoubtedly contributed to that birthing with his fine firearms. PROVENANCE: JOHN DUTCHER COLLECTION. CONDITION: Very good. Traces of orig brown remain being mostly a cleaned, mottled silver/brown patina with a few nicks & dings. Stock has some chips around the lockplate and a hairline on left side of the wrist, otherwise wood is sound and retains a hand worn patina. Top hammer arm has an old forged repair; mechanics are fine, strong sharp bores with pitting in the grooves. 4-46082 JR312 (5,000-10,000) Auction: Firearms - Fall 2012 Please Note: All prices include the hammer price plus the buyer’s premium, which is paid by the buyer as part of the purchase price. The prices noted here after the auction are considered unofficial and do not become official until after the 46th day.

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