An original barrel

[rabjr]

Been going through some stuff I hadn't seen in ten years or so and uncovered this gem. It's from an original half stock fowler that was in my family for a long time. It was a caplock and dated back to 1848. Unfortunately it had seen better days by the time it got to me. It was retired sometime in the 1930's due to a broken stock and hammer. Can't remember whatever happened to the lock but I do remember it said "Warranted" on it.

I still have the butt plate, trigger guard and upper ramrod pipe and just may have to have them put into a new piece of wood someday.

The barrel is a tapered round 38 1/2" long, 1.245 at the breech, .865 at the muzzle. Bore is .690. and it weighs 4 lbs.

 

[rich pierce]

I've got one like that but 2" shorter. Mine is 12 ga. Can't seem to unbreech it and the plug is too short for my taste. Well, so's the barrel, but I'll probably make something of it someday.

 

[rabjr]

This one seems to have a short plug too. Haven't tried to unbreech it. I figure I'll let Roy sweat over that someday down the road hehe. :haha:

 

[JV Puleo]

Just as a point of interest, virtually ALL original barrels, at least all of the ones I've worked on (and thats quite a few) have breech plugs that are much shorter than those conventionally used by modern gunmakers. This includes lots of musket barrels that were proved by either the federal government or under the Massachusetts proof law of 1805 (one of the only gun-proof laws in US history). Often the original makers did not feel it necessary to have plugs that went in much more than 3/8 to 1/2 of an inch. It was the advent of conical bullets in smooth bores and in smooth bores that had been rifled that led to stouter breeches. For instance...M1816 muskets were virtually all converted to percussion and as long as they were used with round balls no complaint was registered about the breeching. When they were rifled to use .69 caliber conical bullets it was decided that the breeching wasn't sufficent which is why "rifled muskets" usually also included patent breeches like that of the Remington/Maynard conversions of the M1816.
That one looks like a recycled musket barrel...given the bore I'm almost certain of it and while I'm not going to encourage anyone to do anything they aren't comfortable with, I have never had a problem shooting original guns that appeared to be in sound condition.

Joe Puleo

 

[rabjr]

Wow Joe, thanks for pointing that out. It never dawned on me that this might be a recycled barrel.

 

[JV Puleo]

Show us the other parts...they may well be from the same original musket. Years ago I bought a rusty flint musket at an estate sale in your neck of the woods...actually a friend of mine called me and said "there's a flint musket here...real rusty...how much will you pay (sight unseen). I knew him well enough to know he could tell an original when he saw it so I said $150.
I don't know what he paid but I paid $150. It was a NE restocked French M1728 musket...and it was still loaded!

Joe

 

[rabjr]

Still trying to find the lock and stock.

 

[Wehrmacht]

Joe,

My friend here in Tallahassee,Fl. who runs the state's archaeological preservation and restoration lab says that the very first thing they do when a recovered piece is given to them is to check to see if it has a charge in the chamber.Probably 50% do!

Recently, as a result of our extremely dry weather,4 or 5 trade guns were recovered from the Apalachicola River at the site where the First Seminole War started. All had a charge!

 

[JV Puleo]

I've often wondered about why so many guns are found loaded...and I suspect that people left guns loaded much more often in the past than they would dare do so today. The one I described was at half cock (stuck there) and the top jaw was missing. It was delivered to me at work and on the way home I stopped at the local gun shop. The owner was an old friend and the first thing he said when he saw it was "that's loaded".
"How do you know" I asked
"Its at half cock, they'd leave them like that around the barn"
Well, he was right although not nearly old enough to remember flintlock guns around barns (besides, he was a city person in any case) I don't know if he'd heard that or if it was a very clever guess but when I dropped the ramrod down the barrel it stopped a good 3 inches from the bottom. I later drilled the charge out with a home made auger. It was shot, whadded with a newspaper ca. 1880.

Joe Puleo

 

[JV Puleo]

They aren't musket parts...the buttplate may be from some sort of commercial musket but it would be indestinguishable from one for a fowler. The trigger guard is a little odd, especially with that screw hole in front which would go up into the ramrod channel but I have seen it a few times, usually on fairly late fowlers so your date of 1848 is almost certainly spot on.

Joe

 

[nchawkeye]

What good is an unloaded gun????

That's why they left them loaded...

 

[chuck-ia]

Interesting barrel and parts you got there. I have an original half stock 12 guage with an oct. to round barrel, (42") kind of a welded on snail where the nipple is threaded in. It has a back action lock, (hammer is missing) but still goes to full cock and releases when the sear is pushed. Butt plate and trigger guard looks similar to yours. Mine has an under rib screwed to the barrel with pipes soldered to rib. This gun really shoulders nice, and is light weight. I am toying with the idea of duplicating this gun, I would use the original butt plate, trigger guard, entry thimble, trigger, maybe under rib and pipes. I would probably buy a back action lock from L+R. Would be kind of a fun project, the only bad thing about it is it would not be a flintlock. Might drop down to a 20 guage barrel too. flinch