Gun Identification 3 Band Musket

[ike]

:hmm: A friend showed me a wall hanger today and asked me what I knew about it. I need your help. It is a 3 Band Musket. The bore looks big enough to be about .72 cal, There is some lettering on the lock which says Pots Damm (sp) and I must assume that this gun was made in Belgium. There are some markings on the barrel but without some cleaning and magnification I cannot read them. I could not feel any riflings so it may be smooth bore but I did not have a bore light. The trigger still moves but the hammer is rusted off. It is percussion but the nipple is rusted so I could not determine size. First impression was for about a number 11 cap. He said I could bring it home and clean it up but this might decrease the value if it has any value. I would appreciate any advise or enlightenment the members here may have. Thanks.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Help us out some more. Clean off surface gunk with soap and water. Dry the barrel. Then take a pencil rubbing of the marks so you can read them more clearly. use a wide pencil, and rub the side of the graphite point over paper that covers the marks. The marks will transfer to the paper.

Then tell us what you see. There is a Potsdam, but its Not in Belgium. Its in Germany.

 

[JV Puleo]

Pottsdam is in Prussia, not Belgium. Its impossible to say much more except that a large number of M1809 muskets, converted to percussion, were imported during the Civil War. Not many were actually used, and then mostly in the early years of the war. Their purchase was the result of the emergency at the time and everyone, including the people who bought them, knew they were already long out of date. The men didn't like them and as soon as new production was available they were replaced. Many were sold after the CW as cheap shotguns.

 

[ike]

Sorry about my poor Geography knowledge. I will have access to the gun again next week and will do what you ask.

 

[BEP]

Early in the Civil War, the Union imported around 81,000 of these .72 caliber smoothbore Prussian muskets. Made at Saarn, Neisse, Potsdam and other places, they are all generally lumped together and called "Potsdam Muskets." Mostly used by militia units, prison guards, etc., they are not hard to find in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan - although they show up just about anyplace.

In decent condition, to include the original ramrod and an unusual style bayonet lug, they usually sell at the on-line auction services anywhere from $650 to $750. You'll see them listed for more but those guns generally don't sell. And decent condition ones aren't that hard to find; most never saw any front-line service.

I've got one; it's certainly a piece of our history. Definitely not up there with an 1861 Springfield but it has its place.

 

[smoothy]

Looks like the previous posts got to the meat of things before I got a chance to reply. Does your lock have F W under it with a crown? That would be Frederick Wilhem, king of Prussia. Are there any numbers stamped on some of the parts like 1830 something? I had one that was missing several parts including the hammer and two of the bands. The barrel and stock were shortened, probably "sporterized" and used as a shotgun. Soldiers unfortunate to have been given one during the Civil War hated them, and called them watermellon throwers. The military considered them "3rd rate" and replaced them as soon as they could. Pedersoli sells an early flintlock version of the "Pottsdam" musket. I just got rid of mine due to the cost of just making it look good, traded for some Krag Jorgensen parts.

 

[bangfxr]

Several years ago while at an NCO school in Iowa I was running around with a class mate that had a shop close by that he did gun repair and sold/traded antiques so on. Well he had this monster in the corner for $50.00 it was a 3 band, rear mainspring two peice flintlock musket. The barrel alone measured 60 inches and the stock was painted gloss brown.I figured it was a european import for the Bi-Centennial celibrations and afterwards was religated to the back corner of a closet. I looked at it and the only markings were the proof marks and Belgiam stamp below it. I checked it out with powder only and it functioned properly and checked to see the caliber and it was .54 and figured it would be good for doing 1812 to Mexican war reenacting and militia living history .
I got it home and realy gave it a good going over and decided I'd test it to see if it'd shot ball as well if it blew it make a good story. I called a guy that had a range I could test it and he had a tractor tire set out that he used to test barrels with a 100 foot lanyard so with 100 grains and no ball it fired fine so I run 200 and a ball and she barked with no problems no bulge so to work I went. The barrel was cut to 42" and I recrownd the muzzle end. Put a bayonet lug / front sight into place as the bayonet I had for my springfield 63 fit purfectly. Then the stock was cut to the proper length, stripped to wood and I stained it with homemade walnut stain and several coats of linseed oil. The lock was differant I'd not seen a two peice rear coil mainspring lock before but it worked. I had to redo the ram rod channel to take a repo of a Harpers Ferry ramrod.I then aquired a brass trigger guard and steel trigger for a musketoon as well as a brass butt plate. I also installed a patch box to keep my jags in. I was able to shoot and hit targets upto 70 yrds with this beast and buck-n-ball this thing would fire with no problem and it was passible with bird shot for some of the shooting events This musket saw quit a few rendevous. One day at a shoot the mainspring went south on me with a ball down :cursing: so I had to pull it. I also noticed when I was cleaning the barrel there were a couple of real small cracks :shocked2: next to the breech plug. So couple days later went to friends shop and we pulled the plug to find this thing had been cross threaded a couple times then was pinned into place this is where the cracks developed (pucker facter kicked in :shocked2: ). So we looked at the metal past the touch hole and it was good so we cut it down and rethreaded it and made a new plug out of a hardened core bolt and fashioned the other end into a breech hook and set to work on the stock to insert the other end of the hook assemly. The lock was not repairable but he had a Syler rifle lock he gave me and we added wood to the lock channel and redone the touch hole and she touches off with no problem and it looks the part of a frontier militia repaired musket. I just wont be following Gen'l Scotts manual of arms 1810 of loading. Thats why I carry a priming horn.