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English trade musket

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eggwelder

40 Cal.
Joined
May 26, 2015
Messages
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Got this as part of a trade. Early trade gun. Stock is in rather bad shape, serpent and original lock missing. No beaver tails. Trigger slot oversized, stock bolt holes worn and enlarged.
Got a pile of lock parts with it, raw castings. Can anyone identify the circled fox? Does not match Caywood, Sitting fox. They may also use different castings and companies. It came with a couple of screws missing.
Not sure how much the gun itself is worth as it is, or is it a candidate for a rebuild? I don`t doubt my abilities to patch the wood, or build the lock.
6 small head nails on the butt plate, two ribbed ramrod pipes.large trigger guard. The current “ramrod” is a dowel. LONDON stamped on the barrel. About 69 cal., apparently is very good bore, have not checked as yet.
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Well as far as the stock goes the good news is that it can be repaired and the work isn't too challenging. Epoxy together and reinforce with pins, plug the lock bolt holes and trigger slot and reinlet, splice in a new piece of wood above the front of the lock inlet. Strip and refinish. Buy a new sideplate. I would probably just buy a complete lock. If you have a Track of the Wolf catalog (if not you need one for a reference book) the lock pictures are full sized and I would try to find one that was close or a little oversize. It's OK if you have to add wood to the lock mortise to fit a new lock as that was done back in the day. I wouldn't try to hide the repairs, just leave it like it had been repaired by a period smith.
 
Track of the Wolf has a blank / preshapped stock for both Fowlers and Trade Muskets. I’ve seen a few older trade guns restocked with those, but the work is tedious and demands patience.
 
Have you any back ground or history the Wilson NWTG? I know next to nothing about these. I did get it to be a shooter, was looking for a grouse gun when this came up for trade.
 
As a wreck with missing lock and broken stock it’s worth $250 to me. Carefully restored maybe 4x that to the right collector who understands what parts are new. But it needs a Wilson lock etc. From the Rifle Shoppe that’s $300+ assembled. I’m not sure that lock kit you have is the right timeframe.

Have you looked at the bore? Is it still loaded? Most of these have very rough bores that would be hard to restore to shooting condition.
 
So more work than it will be worth is what you are saying?
I think i`ll back burner this for a while. Lots of other stuff to worry about.
 
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