Brown Bess identification

[Brown bess from India]

Greetings all , please feel free to move this to the relevant sub forum if I am posting this in the wrong one.

This rifle has been in the family for a while but apart from it being a brown Bess little is known. Can anyone help shed light on it ?

The length comes in at 52 inches and I took pictures of any markings I could find.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Thanks for posting the photos. It is not a Brown Bess rather something cobbled together from a mix of older or surplus British musket parts. At 52", the barrel cannot be more than 36"-37" suggesting it was cut back or possibly some carbine barrel was used. What is the size of the bore? The components are a mix of pattern 1777 Brown Bess components with those from a later "new" land pattern musket from 1809 or later. Perhaps it was issued to local Indian troops but it is not British government issue.

dave

 

[Brown bess from India]

Hi,
Thanks for posting the photos. It is not a Brown Bess rather something cobbled together from a mix of older or surplus British musket parts. At 52", the barrel cannot be more than 36"-37" suggesting it was cut back or possibly some carbine barrel was used. What is the size of the bore? The components are a mix of pattern 1777 Brown Bess components with those from a later "new" land pattern musket from 1809 or later. Perhaps it was issued to local Indian troops but it is not British government issue.

dave

Thanks for the reply I agree it’s a bit of a conundrum the barrel caries IEC markings and does not seem to have been cut down, also the lock does not really match up and might have been salvaged from a baker rifle ?
Seeing as it bears export marks from the Jaipur armory I assume it was put together from several rifles in ye olden days. As for the bore it comes in at a .75

 

[dave_person]

Thanks for the reply I agree it’s a bit of a conundrum the barrel caries IEC markings and does not seem to have been cut down, also the lock does not really match up and might have been salvaged from a baker rifle ?
Seeing as it bears export marks from the Jaipur armory I assume it was put together from several rifles in ye olden days. As for the bore it comes in at a .75

Hi,
No, it is not a Baker lock. It looks to be one from a pattern 1777 king's musket. By the time of Bakers and other British military guns in the early 19th century, the lock marking were stamped not engraved. Yours are engraved, which places the lock in the late 1770s.

dave

 

[FlinterNick]

Greetings all , please feel free to move this to the relevant sub forum if I am posting this in the wrong one.

This rifle has been in the family for a while but apart from it being a brown Bess little is known. Can anyone help shed light on it ?

The length comes in at 52 inches and I took pictures of any markings I could find.


View attachment 372575View attachment 372576

It’s a third model variant, possibly a South American or Mexican Brown Bess. Brown Bess muskets were sold to various nations participating in fighting napoleon and then sold off as surplus after the war(s). Some of their largest clients were Portugal, Latin American States independent of Spain, various trading firms such as EIC, and HBC and pre-commonwealth colonies.