Enfield Musket?

[R. Porter]

Well this arrived today!

I won it at auction a few weeks ago. It was listed as an unknown gun. I did a little research and thought, "this looks like a Pattern 1842 musket!" and bid on it. I won. Now that it has arrived, I'm noticing all sorts of things that don't match a Pattern 1842. Things that I don't see at all are stamps on the barrel or on the stock, except for the number 466 on the lower stock.

Unlike the 1842, this gun has the barrel held in by pins, not wedges. The barrel length looks like about 37.5 inches rather than over 39 inches. The butt plate looks a little different.

The ramrod looks wrong and it feels like it is in that channel to stay! The nose cap is not stepped. The barrel is thin-walled and looks like it could be .69 caliber rather than .74 caliber.

The ramrod pipes look wrong.

The lock plate and percussion bolster look a little different. The lock plate appears to have a single poorly drawn line around its perimeter and some numbers stamped behind the hammer.

Here is a view of the side opposite the lock.

Here is a view of the trigger guard.

This shows repairs to the wood around the barrel tang.

So what do I have here? Is it a parts gun? Was it something made in a far flung corner of Britain's colonial empire? Is it something that might have been used in the American Civil War?

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

Looks like one of those hand made products of the shade-tree gunsmiths of Peshawar Pakistan. There's a great articles from the 1960s reprinted on the old guns website.
The author, as I recall, mentions how these guys knew there should be some markings and so they took a stamp or two and just stamped a few letters or numbers in a row here and there, as on your lockplate

 

[Old Soldier]

Jeff in Ohio is right. It doesn't look like one. it is a cross between an enfield P53 lock and breech area, a badly cast EIC barrel and the forestock and barrel fixings of a EIC type F musket. It certainly is not Enfield. The last British ones like this with 'Enfield' on them was the P1845 Extra Service with a pinned barrel (no bands) and brass furnature - and didn't leave Britain! The lock pin cups (LH holding the lock) are not inset either. The state of the barrel suggests local made copy, it is such a mixture of issue types..

 

[gary]

Concur with both above. That entry pipe looks Brown Bess. Cobbled togther by some unidentified American gunsmith from salvaged parts.

Nothing wrong with that though. La Veta has an "English made rifle" which my buddy and I immediately identified as a southern iron-mounted rifle. I later figured the maker was one of two Gillespe bros who salvaged the lock, got a Remington barrel and made their own buttplate and trigger guard.

I'd use coconut oil and a nickel (five cent piece) to remove all that stuff from the metal work. It won't harm the patina. Afterward treat with Renaissance Wax. I used distilled water and cotton to gently clean the stock. Not wet, but damp cotton. You don't want to the stock to get soaking wett. Gently rub. Then Renaissance Wax (Woodcraft store or Amazon).

 

[Old Soldier]

It ain't what ya got, it's the way that ya do it! I have had some real cheap stuff, it is how I learned about gun smithing. I am currently 'doing' and old British Pattern 1845 (Extra Service) musket. It has been left somewhere damp some time. The metal parts are OK, but the wood has been rotted and wormed. I am testing my woodworking skills, but it does need some work doing - and not using filler!! Just to show you have nothing to worry about, Here is my rather ... 'eaten' stock. Whey not just get a new stock? It still has all the old stampings and marks - and the right-hand side is fine!!

 

[R. Porter]

It ain't what ya got, it's the way that ya do it! I have had some real cheap stuff, it is how I learned about gun smithing. I am currently 'doing' and old British Pattern 1845 (Extra Service) musket. It has been left somewhere damp some time. The metal parts are OK, but the wood has been rotted and wormed. I am testing my woodworking skills, but it does need some work doing - and not using filler!! Just to show you have nothing to worry about, Here is my rather ... 'eaten' stock. Whey not just get a new stock? It still has all the old stampings and marks - and the right-hand side is fine!!

View attachment 590833
View attachment 590835

Eeeeew! That stock looks pretty rough.

 

[gary]

Wallace Gusler, Gunsmith of Colonial Williams star, once taught a three day museum conservation class. I wish I had enrolled.

 

[Old Soldier]

Eeeeew! That stock looks pretty rough.

I had a similat problem with an old French (and Arab) Gras, parts of the stock had turned to carbon! Cutting the black parts free and replacement wood did it and worked fine, but this one is much more extensive, but it is possible.

The Gras.