1842 Austrian musket???

Europium

Cadet
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Location
Utah
I purchased this musket from GunBroker and was told it's a 1842 Austrian .70 caliber. Is this correct? The action seems to function fine. It also came with the ramrod. I assume it's covered in patina. I did move the barrel band and noticed it was shiny. Do I leave the patina or restore? Any info or history would be greatly be appreciated.
Let me know if you need any more pictures.

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Welcome From THE Heart of Dixie. paging @johan_steele . What you need to do is post BEFORE you buy.
 
You have an Engineer's Musket, likely in .71 calibre. I'm unsure of their usage in the ACW as there is considerable confusion over exacty what models were imported other than the M1854 Lorenz & M1854 Jaeger. I would suggest investing in a bottle of Kramer's Best and after giving her a through cleaning follow the directions and apply Kramer's. She will look better after 6-8 coats but I would strongly caution against even thinking of shooting her. I'm not one for removing patina and over cleaning a weapon to attempt to restore it to what she looked like when issued always seems wrong to me.

https://www.kramerize.com/
 
The conversion from tubelock using the bolster with the clean-out screw was done by H. E. Leman of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Leman converted U. S. flintlock and Austrian tubelock muskets to percussion in 1861 and 1862.
 
The question of restore or keep patina comes to your choice. What do you want to do with it. If it was mine I would clean it, oil the surface occasionally and try to find the correct ram rod. That is a cleaning ram rod, not a muzzle loading ram rod. By the way, nice rifle.
 
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Thanks for the help everyone. I collect mostly mosin-nagant, eddystone and mauser type stuff. Thought I would branch off a bit. Being from Utah, we don't have any civil war history or sites. Don't worry, I am not crazy enough to shoot it. What type of bullet did it use? I would like to make a small period correct display.
 
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Get some Kamers to clean it, but don't get too heavy handed and over clean it. It looks good. I like it.
 
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Welcome! Enjoy your new requisition! Looking forward to your perspectives in our discussions!
 
The metal is pitted enough that if you will never get it to look like the spot under the band. Clean it like you have been advised, you will be surprised how much better it will look.
 
This was posted while I was out of the country on travel, and I just saw it.

You have an interesting piece. The musket is a nominal .69 caliber Muster 1842 Austrian Army (k.k. Army) smoothbore musket. It was used by line and Grenz (border) infantry in the k.k. Army. The engineers used the Muster 1844 Extra Corps carbine. This example, based upon the hooked bayonet lug, was manufactured as a flintlock musket prior to 1838, and was transformed to tubelock during the subsequent production of M1842 muskets. It is one of the 25,000 M1842s that were sold in the original tubelock to MG Fremont by the the New York City firme of Kruse, Drexel, and Schmidt in 1861. Fifteen thousand of them were issued to Fremont's troops in Missouri in tubelock, and 10,000 were sent to Cincinnati to be transformed to percussion by Eagle Iron Works. This one is one of the 15,000. Approximately 8,000 surviving weapons were later sent to Henry Eichholtz Leman of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where in 1862 they were transformed from tubelock to smoothbore percussion under contract with Frankfort Arsenal. The Prussian style breech used by Leman in the transformation is quite distinctive.

Regards,
Don Dixon
 
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