How long was percussion used?

[garra]

I will see if I can link the pictures. I did contact S&S for a nipple, waiting for answer. TOW was no help.

]Link [/url]

 

[Shine]

That's not an Austrian Lorenz

 

[bpd303]

Don't think it's a Potsdam either.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Actually, rumor has it some are still used today. :shocked2: :grin:

Sadly this is so; although there are several flintlock groups that volunteer to improve world conditions.

 

[bpd303]

I'm thinking a French MLE1840.

Need a full length view both sides.

 

[Dphar]

The worlds militaries converted to percussion circa 1840, civilians really started converting in the 1820s especially shotguns in England.
ML muskets like the one pictured here were made for export to various colonies for a very long time, especially in Belgium. Natives in Africa were using such arms into the 1960s and sometime in the 60s there was an article in something like Guns and Ammo detailing a native gunsmith making flintlocks using vehicle steering shafts as barrels (prior to 1967 in the US there was a long tube that ran from the steering wheel to the steering gear). It as pretty deadly in head on crashes and even pickups had collapsible columns in 1967.
Don't know when these muskets, in various forms and bore sizes (I have seen them as large as 4 bore) went out of production but suspect it was sometime in the 1940s? Maybe later. Or they were exporting military surplus....

Dan

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

I will see if I can link the pictures. I did contact S&S for a nipple, waiting for answer. TOW was no help.

]Link [/url]

As I said in my previous post, a back action rather than standard lock. Definitely a French M1840 going by the shape of the percussion bolster.

You mention that the barrel has been cut crookedly and that it has a hole for a front sight. It is a former military musket that was chopped shorter and a bead front sight added to make it a shotgun, a common fate of many military muskets after being declared surplus in the post CW period. Maybe done in this country after having sat in a Federal Arsenal after it's use in training Yankee troops. Despite the fact that they were durable and well designed and manufactured military arms, the French muskets imported to this country were almost exclusively brought in by the North and were rated as 4th Class Arms due to their non-standard caliber. In other words, the standard US (and CS) .69 caliber ammunition was ineffective in the large bores. They saw almost no issue to fighting forces.

 

[Va.Manuf.06]

Forgot to add, this is what your musket used to look like:

http://www.littlegun.info/arme%20francaise/collection%20fusils/a%20a%20collection%20fusils%201842%20gb.htm

 

[Jason Lewis]

Actually, rumor has it some are still used today. :shocked2: :grin:

Sadly this is so; although there are several flintlock groups that volunteer to improve world conditions.

clever!

 

[crockett]

That's a nice looking firearm and appears to be in very good shape. We here mostly shoot replicas and you are dealing with an antique. You need some expertise in that area. The NRA has a monthly magazine called Men At Arms that deals only with collecting old firearms. There are lots of ads from antique gun brokers and appraisers. You could email them a photo and probably get an answer easily.

 

[garra]

Thanks for that bit of information. I am a NRA member so I will check their site to see what's up on that magazine.

 

[crockett]

Where I live in FL they have Men at Arms in the bookstores- Books-a-million is one.

 

[garra]

Thanks, that information explains a lot about it's current condition. It also explains why it is in such good condition wood and metal wise except for the cutting down on the barrel and fore stock. The barrel ended up as a 34" unit. I plan on facing the end off square on a friend's lathe to tidy up the angled cut. I made a new blade sight for it and will solder that on the location where the hole for the old bead was. I just won a solder on dovetail base on e-bay, so I can work out some sort of rear sight for it. Didn't want to cut a dove tail in there barrel as I just don't know how thick it is where I want to place it. I did find a name on it under the butt plate, H. H. Marshall 3-4-1933. Maybe he is the one that made a shotgun out of it.

gg