Identify badly butchered Tennessee rifle

[TNBandit]

Have a chance to buy this relic and I have no clue if it has any value at all. It's beat all to hell, had the barrel cut off and sights added, rusty, missing the hammer, etc. The only markings I can find are on the lock plate. J. A. Mitermair if I'm reading it correctly. The stock is typical Tennessee mountain rifle style. Has a sliding patchbox at one time.

It is rifled and may have been converted from a flintlock. Anyone heard of this maker ?

 

[TFoley]

Sir, that is just about the saddest thing I've ever seen on this forum, bar none.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Can't help. I hope you have some salvageable parts there for a new rebuild.

 

[PluggedNickel]

Cut the butt off, and shorten the barrel some more, and you'll have the world's only "Mare's Leg" muzzle loader. But, then you'd be wanted, dead or alive!

 

[SDSmlf]

Maybe not a lot monetary value, but still a neat piece with a working gun’s history, whatever it may be. Definitely not a safe queen. If the price is right, buy it, confirm it’s not loaded, wipe the cobwebs off (DO NOT clean and polish it up), toss out the new piece of wood covering the patchbox hole and then display it. It has earned the right to easy retirement.

 

[wcubed]

Fix it up, and shoot it! Or send it to me, and I will.

Coach guns are a lot of fun...

 

[TNBandit]

Thanks guys. It's at a local auction house. I might try to grab it if it's cheap.

 

[TNBandit]

Well I left a bid of 40 bucks on it just to hang on the wall and someone wanted it more than I did. And so it goes..