springfield musket question

[colonelxyz]

Good day gentlemen.A few yrs ago i picked up an old flint to perc. conversion musket stamped with 1832 springfield, stock chopped and in pretty rough shape(had been used to hold a barn door open).I set it aside as a future project.Well the other day i pulled it out n began taking a closer look at it.Everything about it says US but the barrel.It appears to be of French origin.It is approx. .72 cal octagonal to smooth,smooth bore 46 1/4 length and a fleur de lit stamped on it.My question is was it common practice for armouries to modify old french stock n call it there own.Any comments would help.tks

 

[Okwaho]

As to this type of alteration,I doubt strongly that it was done in an American armory. It sounds like a Model 1816 which fell upon hard times and was reworked into a shot gun by a private gunsmith or an owner with some gunsmithing[url] experience.In[/url] this country we see a lot of CW era muskets with chopped stocks and bored out smooth and used as shotguns or if originally smooth bored as was the case with the Model 1816 then simply used with a shortened stock.They do make nice wall hangers and unless pics should show something else then that is precisely what I would do with such a gun.One other thought is that the French barrel may be worth more than the rest of the gun and that parting it out ia another viable alternative.
Tom Patton

 

[Wehrmacht]

Tom,

Given that the South was prohibited from owing muskets and only shotguns during yankee occupation and reconstruction, is this abundance of bored out to smoothbore muskets a regional thing or is it widespread? Just wonderin' :hmm:

 

[JV Puleo]

It was a common practice for earlier arms - usually French arms, to be rebuilt in in US government armories - but nowhere as late as 1832 (see Schmidt, US Military Flintlocks). I suspect that the barrel is a replacement and/or the entire gun was made up of parts. It could also be that the lock is a replacement and the rest of the gun is French. Pictures would help but I once had a M1766 French musket with the lock replaced by one from one of the contract muskets of 1799.
As to the use of muskets and rifles bored smooth - these were probably the most common form of privately owned firearm in the country - everywhere in the country - until almost the beginning of the 20th century. Long after the introduction of repeating arms old muskets continued to be sold to farmers, householders - anyone who could use a servicable gun and didin't have, or didn't want to spend, very much money.

 

[colonelxyz]

First i want to thank you for your responses.But i may have mis led u a bit in my discription of the barrel. I will try to clarify things.Wish i could post pic but my funds set aside for a camera always seem to make there way toward another project. :grin: The barrel is 46 1/4" long,the exterior is octagonal to smooth,approx. 9 1/2" octagonal section that ends with an indented ring the whole circumferance, approx. 4" from that ring toward muzzle are two more rings indented 1/2" apart.The barrel tapers toward muzzle n has bayonet lug on top approx.1 1/2" from end.The interior diameter of muzzle is .72 cal.The nipple is attached to a cylindrical piece added to the side of the barrel,in place of vent hole.Hope this is a better description.

 

[Okwaho]

The conversion of old CW muskets to shot guns wasn't just a regional thing. I just happen to have seen several down here but I assume it was also done in the North and more were carried West.Those old .58 cal. barrels made for great and cheap shotguns. I believe,too, that Bannerman may have sold some of these both chopped and otherwise.
Tom Patton

 

[JV Puleo]

The barrel is too long and of the wrong configuration to be from an American musket...I'm not entirely certain about an early French one...say a Model 1717. The presence of a bayonet lug, in any case, identifies it as having been originally for military purposes. I'm afraid without some idea of the guns appearance its impossible to go further than than...from what you have said I would guess a French musket with a replaced lock...A very interesting gun actually. I have heard it said that there are far more early (i.e. mid 18th century) French arms in North America than there are in France...someting thats not surprising actually.
At one point I had a M1728 marked according to an inventory taken of arms in Canada in 1742. The lock on that gun was replaced but the Canadian government bought it from me in any case for one of their museums.

 

[JV Puleo]

Tom,
Boy are you right there. I'm currently laying out a book that will have a wealth of information on the arms sent west in the years after the CW and a huge majority of them were surpluss muskets, cut down and otherwise. I suspect, however that Schuyler, Hartley & Graham were responsible for far more than Bannermans was...SH&G came earlier and were a major wholesale supplier to western dealers where Bannerman really didn't hit his stride until the very end of the century.
Joe Puleo

 

[colonelxyz]

I have managed to borrow my brothers camera for an evening ,heres a couple pics of the barrel.

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