help IDing

[buckwheat]

found this at yardsale. would like some help with IDing and when it was made.
one source told me it might be pre civil war. do not think it is that old. http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/DSC_02942.jpg
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/DSC_0296.jpg
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/DSC_0300.jpg
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/DSC_0222.jpg
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/DSC_0220.jpg
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/closeup1.jpg
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/closeup2.jpg

any help would be appreciated

 

[Norinco]

My guess is a no name trade gun of some sort. It could even be a 20th century Belgian gun.

 

[TFoley]

My guess is a no name trade gun of some sort. It could even be a 20th century Belgian gun.

I agree - cheap gun to being with, and Belgian made -

The intertwined EL is a rarely-seen optional provisional proof, from the Liege Belgiun proof-house, and in use between 1898 and 1924.

The 15.5 stamp is the approximate bore size in millimeters - an undersized 16 gauge.

The U/star might mean that it was made originally for sale in France, and the GC is unknown, but might be an inspector's initials.

The back-action lock style is typically French or Belgian, of that time.

If you bought it, buy also three penny nails, and

1. Insert two in a handy wall about three feet apart, and place the piece on them.

2. AFTER cutting one short and driving it down the nipple so you are not chancing shooting it.

tac
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund

 

[Stumpkiller]

The intertwined script "EL" is a Belgian preliminary proof mark. If it passed it should have an "LEG" in an egg under a crown stamped on the barrel.
http://www.phoenixinvestmentarms.com/archives/Proofmarks.pdf

 

[buckwheat]

could this mark on top of barrel be the LEG with crown, maybe?
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/mark.jpg

thanks for all the replies

 

[buckwheat]

any thoughts about this mark underneath buttplate?
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/DSC_0224.jpg

 

[TFoley]

could this mark on top of barrel be the LEG with crown, maybe?
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/mark.jpg

thanks for all the replies

Yup, that's it.

Got any more marks you can show us, please?

tac

 

[TFoley]

any thoughts about this mark underneath buttplate?
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc463/butwheat443/DSC_0224.jpg[/quote]

Initial of the workman who assembled it, most likely.

Often a pencilled initial, here a couple or three strokes of a screwdriver.

tac

 

[buckwheat]

no more marks

 

[curator]

You have a Belgian trade musket marketed to African tribesmen in the Congo during the colonial period after the turn of the century. These were imported into the US in the late 50s and early 60s by the Stoeger Company (Gun Bible)

 

[buckwheat]

1850-1860's?

 

[TFoley]

Please re-read my post -

'The intertwined EL is a rarely-seen optional provisional proof, from the Liege Belgiun proof-house, and in use between 1898 and 1924...'

Curator means late 1950s and early 1960s.

Stoeger did not exist in the 1850's...

tac