Please help IDing a Percussion Rifle

[jsdarcy]

I am new to this forum and this is my first post here.
My girlfriend's mom had this hanging above her fireplace for a couple of decades. She recently moved to a much smaller home after her husband passed on and is going through everything to see what she should keep. She asked me if I would find out as much about it as possible.
Any information/suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[JV Puleo]

Its Austrian, a pattern imported to the US in large quantity during the Civil War. Not being at home I can't look up the exact model but they were among the better thought of imported arms, second to the British Enfield types and considered much superior to the Prussian smoothbores that were also imported at the beginning of the CW.

 

[Zonie]

The gun appears to be an 1854 Austrian Lorenze as JV Puleo suggested.

During the Civil War these arms were imported by both the Union and the Confederacy the Union receiving 226,924 and the Confederacy receiving over 100,000.

The gun was originally a .54 caliber arm which could not be used with the .58 caliber bullets common to both the North and the South and many were re-bored and rifled for the larger caliber after receipt.

As the rifling commonly in use in the .58 caliber Rifled Muskets made in America during the war usually 3 groove and your gun has many more rifling grooves it would appear to me that it is unaltered by the Americans.

Some of the later shipments were delivered in the .58 caliber having been reworked in Austria and if the bore size of your gun is .58 it may have been one of these.

The quality of the guns purchased by the Americans varied from very good to extremely poor. The were after all considered obsolete by the Austrians.

The initials scratched into the side panel were most likely done after the gun was sold off to the civilian population after the war was over.

I have no documentation about the guns current value but as the general condition of your gun doesn't seem to be very good I would think that it wouldn't be very high.

If your girlfriends mother doesn't want to keep the gun and you are interested in having a piece of history (and you can afford it) you might consider offering a few hundred dollars for it.
I wouldn't go higher than that.

 

[Tumblernotch]

It's actually an Austrian Jaeger. There should be a 3 digit number on the lockplate (such as 860) that will give you the date of manufacture. For some reason the Austrians didn't use 1 in their dates, so the above number would mean 1860. One of these with this date is found in Hill and Anthony's book. They say this model was made from 1858 to 1862 though I believe production may have started earlier. I don't have enough references to pin it down.

It should be .54 cal. though many were bored up to .58. It should also be rifled with 4 shallow grooves, which obviously this one isn't. There should also be a bayonet lug under the barrel with a diamond shape to it to accomodate the spiral slot in the bayonet socket. Some of these rifles had a lug on the side for a yataghan style bayonet. I don't see either on this gun, so it's possible that the sight base is the lug same as on the Lorenz. Look at the shape of it and see if it appears to be diamond shaped.

Look for markings on the barrel. Many were made by Fruwirth in Vienna (Wien) and so marked. Some will also have Liege, Belgium proof marks on the barrel. I once owned a '54 Lorenz with them. They have also been found on Jaegers.

 

[jsdarcy]

Is this what you mean?
I found this from another image.

Looking at this image, it seems that there are two locations with "J H" ? "L L" and also a "7" above a "1".

There also seems to be a single "7" on the buttplate.

I will be passing on all this excellent information to her. I have always been curious about muzzleloaders and plan at some point to purchase a percussion rifle kit to put together and shoot. I have never been very interested in owning antiques and expect that she will be able to find someone that will appreciate it much more than I.

Thank you all very much for the information.

Edit:
I just found a stamp on the lower section of the butt plate in another image with "54" on it in case this is relevant.

 

[Tumblernotch]

That is a bayonet lug. One description of that rifle that I have shows the lug on the very bottom. Some of the jaegers also used the front sight base like the Lorenz rifles and muskets.

You'll probably find some more numbers on various parts and screws. The Lorenz I used to have had matching serial numbers and file marks on almost every part including the brass headed ramrod. There's also a good chance you'll find marks, some of them pencil marks, in the barrel channel and other places on the stock that are covered by the furniture. Some are serials, others are assemblers' marks and inspectors' marks.