Hi,
This is a fairly easy question to answer. First, don't kid yourself into thinking colonial troops walked off with their ordnance issued Brown Besses or colony issued commercial muskets after the F&I war and Pontiac's rebellion. Those guns were returned to stores. They may have carried off French muskets as booty but not many British muskets. So a militiaman just prior to the Rev War likely would have a civilian fowler converted to military use, a French model 1728 or possibly 1746 musket, or a locally produced musket made from surplus Brown Bess, or French musket parts. A few pattern 1730/40 and pattern 1742 Brown Besses may have circulated among them. Then early in 1775 colonial rebels broke into the colonial arsenals, such as Turtle Bay, NY and privateers took British supply ships such as the "Nancy". A lot more Brown Besses became available and those would have been Patterns 1730/40, 1742, and 1756 long land muskets. In addition, there likely would be some older commercially-made muskets in some of those arsenals as well. That would be particularly true for New York. Early in the conflict, American soldiers were starved for serviceable muskets, which is why there was a push to make Committee of Safety and other locally manufactured guns such as those by the Hills family in western CT. Once a reliable supply line to France was established, the need for locally made muskets diminished a lot. So to sum up, if you are set on a Brown Bess for a militiaman just prior and during the Rev War , your choices of British Brown Bess patterns are the 1730/40, 1742, and 1756, all long land muskets. The patterns 1742 and 1756 would be the most common at that time. There would not be any short land muskets, like what the Pedersoli attempts to be, except perhaps for some older muskets with shortened barrels. Forget the Willets marked lock. It is incorrectly marked. Willets is not known to provide locks to British ordnance until 1762.
dave
