A kind birthday gift for arriving at 30 years, a very kind one, I've wanted something like this since I was a teenager and now I have one! It's great!

My family agreed to pay half of something from a local gun show that I decided to go to in order to buy myself a birthday gift for my upcoming 30th birthday and this one is definitely a good one. I talked with the old guy selling a variety of muzzleloaders and he seemed impressed enough that I knew so much about underhammers that he offered to take 50% off the original price. So I walked out having only spent about a quarter of what the original price was.

This is an underhammer muzzleloader. They were part of the huge period of caplock experimentation between the 1820s and 1860s and are an interesting variety specific to the United States. Obviously, the hammer is under the action which has a good few advantages. You don't have any hammer or capflash in your face being a big advantage.

The other big advantage is how simple these guns are mechanically speaking with regards to the lock It has 2 parts and a spring for the lock
The spring is the trigger guard, its a flat spring. So it both guards the trigger and is the spring that powers the hammer
the hammer is held by a simple 1 piece trigger, no springs for the trigger, it just has notches to catch the hammer
so they were cheap and easy to make and maintain which, in Oregon in the 1840s was important.

I have for a long time also seen these as a good direction for drek firearms, especially seeing as I am revisiting aspects of the canon having one of these I think is good for reference. I think they make a lot of sense for a hunter, seeing that the lock being on the bottom makes the ergonomics of aiming easier for a drek. The simplicity of the lock and particularly the minimum of springs makes it a friendly design for small groups and tribal workshops shared by clans. It's a good option

Be well