Joshua Cattermole
32 Cal.
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2014
- Messages
- 48
- Reaction score
- 1
Hello all.
I'm an old member, but not posted for many years. When I first started in this hobby, and made my first posts, I was young and very naïve about old muskets. But now that I have a bit more experience and have been able to do research of my own I'd like to get some fresh opinions on one of my muskets.
This battered old long-gun, about 57 inches from muzzle to butt, looks like some common old cobbled together job from the 19th century, and I believed this too when I first purchased it. But over the years I've kept coming back to it and many of the features have piqued my curiosity, and I think there's a chance that this might be something quite special. I think that the barrel and stock may be from the 17th century. The barrel, octagon-to-round, is typical of the period, and the stock is of a similar style too, and the wood both looks and feels extremely old (I have several bits of 17th century furniture that have similar patina and colour etc), though I don't know what type of wood it is. The tang-screw going up through the trigger-guard is a feature I've seen on other muskets of that age.
The lock, of course, most certainly is some 19th century hodge-podge job, as is the really crude welded on percussion bolster. The lockplate itself has lots of unused and plugged holes that may suggest a previous lock arrangement, though the side-screw holes do not correspond with the lock, and it is only held on my a single screw, the one closest to the butt. My initial thoughts when I was younger is that this may be matchlock, but now I think it may have been a doglock originally, or certainly some kind of flintlock. The ramrod is not original, and is a lot shorter than the barrel anyway.
The ramrod channel is curious in that it is mostly internal, and not of the form conventionally using external pipes to keep the rod in place. One of the side-screw holes goes right through the ramrod channel, though a tapered rod would fit underneath it with the screw in (a friend of mine made a wooden tapered ramrod and it slides under the screw pretty well). The barrel is held to the stock by the tang screw and by a copper band. No barrel screws or pins at all. The trigger guard appears crude, though it has a lovely leaf design which is quite tasteful, and I have seen 17th century guns with similar designs.
The barrel guage (10/16ths of an inch. Though the barrel itself appears worn anyway) suggests that it is for domestic rather than military purposes, perhaps as a hunting gun or something. It is smoothbore.
The only provenance I have with this gun is that it came from an Indian armoury that got decommissioned and the contents, mostly British pieces, 19th century Indian smoothbore muskets and swords. This item likely saw use in the Indian Mutiny of 1857/8, in it's current percussion form before being confiscated after the rebellion, most likely. I don't know the origin of manufacture, though if this gun is 17th century then British, Dutch, French or Portuguese is my thought, as they had activities on the Indian subcontinent at the time.
Sorry for waffling on, but I hope my long description is helpful in determining what this gun is, and whether my own conclusions have any merit, or if I'm just hoping that I have something special when infact it's some common 19th century gun that happens to have 17th century features.
Thank you very much for your time and help with this. Cheers
All of the pictures are in the Imgur link, as I did not know how to upload the images directly to the from, as my tech skills are poor. If you need anymore pictures, please let me know and I can take them.
Old Musket - Imgur
I'm an old member, but not posted for many years. When I first started in this hobby, and made my first posts, I was young and very naïve about old muskets. But now that I have a bit more experience and have been able to do research of my own I'd like to get some fresh opinions on one of my muskets.
This battered old long-gun, about 57 inches from muzzle to butt, looks like some common old cobbled together job from the 19th century, and I believed this too when I first purchased it. But over the years I've kept coming back to it and many of the features have piqued my curiosity, and I think there's a chance that this might be something quite special. I think that the barrel and stock may be from the 17th century. The barrel, octagon-to-round, is typical of the period, and the stock is of a similar style too, and the wood both looks and feels extremely old (I have several bits of 17th century furniture that have similar patina and colour etc), though I don't know what type of wood it is. The tang-screw going up through the trigger-guard is a feature I've seen on other muskets of that age.
The lock, of course, most certainly is some 19th century hodge-podge job, as is the really crude welded on percussion bolster. The lockplate itself has lots of unused and plugged holes that may suggest a previous lock arrangement, though the side-screw holes do not correspond with the lock, and it is only held on my a single screw, the one closest to the butt. My initial thoughts when I was younger is that this may be matchlock, but now I think it may have been a doglock originally, or certainly some kind of flintlock. The ramrod is not original, and is a lot shorter than the barrel anyway.
The ramrod channel is curious in that it is mostly internal, and not of the form conventionally using external pipes to keep the rod in place. One of the side-screw holes goes right through the ramrod channel, though a tapered rod would fit underneath it with the screw in (a friend of mine made a wooden tapered ramrod and it slides under the screw pretty well). The barrel is held to the stock by the tang screw and by a copper band. No barrel screws or pins at all. The trigger guard appears crude, though it has a lovely leaf design which is quite tasteful, and I have seen 17th century guns with similar designs.
The barrel guage (10/16ths of an inch. Though the barrel itself appears worn anyway) suggests that it is for domestic rather than military purposes, perhaps as a hunting gun or something. It is smoothbore.
The only provenance I have with this gun is that it came from an Indian armoury that got decommissioned and the contents, mostly British pieces, 19th century Indian smoothbore muskets and swords. This item likely saw use in the Indian Mutiny of 1857/8, in it's current percussion form before being confiscated after the rebellion, most likely. I don't know the origin of manufacture, though if this gun is 17th century then British, Dutch, French or Portuguese is my thought, as they had activities on the Indian subcontinent at the time.
Sorry for waffling on, but I hope my long description is helpful in determining what this gun is, and whether my own conclusions have any merit, or if I'm just hoping that I have something special when infact it's some common 19th century gun that happens to have 17th century features.
Thank you very much for your time and help with this. Cheers
All of the pictures are in the Imgur link, as I did not know how to upload the images directly to the from, as my tech skills are poor. If you need anymore pictures, please let me know and I can take them.
Old Musket - Imgur
