What do I have here?

[IanH]

My father-in-law had this flintlock in his gun safe and I put it over the fireplace to replace one I took to use. He's been gone for eight years now and I never had the chance to ask him where he acquired it, but my suspicion is a gunshow somewhere. I cleaned and oiled this about five years ago and rechecked it again a couple if days ago and it seems in good order. The .36 caliber barrel has had a liner installed at some point. I didn't take it apart. The flintcock and triggers appear to have been hand forged. Stock is walnut. Inletting is good but the stock architecture is not so good to my eye. I'm thinking this is a rebuild using some "original" parts. The rear sight is some kind of homemade adjustable affair with two dovetails, the lock is engraved R. EAST on the outside and the tang bears an "E". The small, silver nameplate on the top barrel flat is blank. I have no idea what the enameled decoration dovetailed in front of the front sight is. The lock sparks well and all seems in shootable order. At some point this will probably be part of our household collection and I'd appreciate any educated guesses as to what it is, when it might have been made, and what/where the parts might have come from.

 

[IanH]

More photos.

 

[D.Summers]

It looks like a fancied up 1970's gun to me!. The nose actually looks good, but most else is screaming !973!! But, of course, according to my recent ex-wife. I'm always wrong!!

 

[Smokepole45]

Ian, I concur with you and the previous post’s opinion. It does look like a mix of new and old parts. The toe plate, patch box, star and thimbles look very much like the same ones I ordered from Dixie Gun Works for my first build in the mid 70’s. The buttplate is really crooked or perhaps it was straight before the builder cut down the roman nose the pre-shaped stock was made with. I had to do that with my Dixie stock.The shaping and incised carving looks like someone’s attempt to dress it up a bit without really studying lines and carving of early rifles. I’ll try to uploads a pic of my first rifle and a spare stock that I bought from Dixie in ‘74.

If it shoots well, let’s shoot it and enjoy it . I have a .350 ball mound and a good bunch of swaged .350 balls too if you need them to try.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

I'll go with 1960s and the parts from Dixie gun works

 

[Grenadier1758]

Yes, it's a mid-century modern interpretation of a rifle built during the American revolution. It probably has a Douglas barrel. May need to pull the lock and triggers to determine who made them.

 

[IanH]

Dixie parts, that helps a bunch, thank you gentlemen. I'm puzzled over the lined barrel and apparently hand-forged triggers and external lock parts, though. The trigger shapes are crude and remind me of other Dixie kits I've seen, I wonder if they were hand made in Spain in the '50s-'70s instead of an 18th century American workshop?

The barrel liner has been in there a while by the looks, I suppose someone made it 70 years ago from a kit and someone else reworked the rifle at a later time to shoot or sell.

 

[ZUG]

If the parts and wood are from Dixie (which most likely are) then I think the barrel is also from Dixie and might be a Numrich Arms barrel. I say this because of the other parts - low budget items. Back then a Douglas barrel would cost you some serious dollars.