British smoothbore carbines in Civil War

brcampbe

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Sep 5, 2017
Which British smoothbore carbines are known to have been used in the war? I recently picked up a Pattern 1840 Constabulary Carbine here in N. America which is an unexpected find here on this side of the pond, especially not bearing sold out of service marks that were common late 1870s/1880s. I do wonder if this little carbine could be something that was sold to the importers early in the conflict? It's small size would have made it a decent cavalry weapon.

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Beautiful piece. Thanks for sharing. I've read that some smoothbore British carbines were used, particularly early on. Sorry I can't recall the source or more details.
 
I am very wary of any smoothbore Brit arm as so many have come out of Afghanistan the last few years with the added knowledge there are some rather shady folks cleaning, polishing and antiquing them to sell as ACW arms.
 
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I am very wary of any smoothbore Brit arm as so many have come out of Afghanistan the last few years with the added knowledge there are some rather shady folks cleaning, polishing and antiquing them to sell as ACW arms.

I spent a lot of time in Afghanistan, I did not see any smoothbore percussion weapons there except for the occasional Baker pattern East India Company brown bess. What you will find in Afghanistan in the Bazaars are cobbled together P53s (and sometimes nice ones too), Enfield short rifles, Snider Enfields, Martini Henrys, Jezails, and the occasional Brunswick rifle from British Indian service. I never once encountered P39s, P42s, or the like in carbine format.
 
I have absolutely no knowledge about these, but it appears from the photos that someone liked to use fine steel wool to polish up the brass.

Otherwise the brass would have a patina or even verdigris present.

My Dad inherited from his Dad an 1873 Trapdoor Springfield .45-70 that had hung for many years on the wall in Grandpa's downstairs home bar. He could not wait to "pretty" it up. [Grandpa was friends with a few cops (Detroit MI) and even displayed a set of brass knuckles one had given to him as part of a confiscation they did, and Grandpa always kept them polished up while having a few shots of whiskey in the evening. Different day and age.]

Such was the rage in the 60's, and the Herter's/Waseca MN catalog only fed into that mindset.

Luckily he did not try to re-blue it.

Sorry for being off-topic. Back to our regularly scheduled program...

Jim
 
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