Tell me more! New-to-me 1862 P53

Very, very nice rifle musket, and great photography to boot!

Someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe your barrel bands are on backwards. The screwheads should be on the other side.
 
Since you have it apart, I suspect the two screws in the back of trigger guard are reversed, meaning the one in the rear will better fit the front hole. These were polished with screws in place, and so the screw head would have more or less roundness toward the edge - I think the guard is flatter at the front hole, but the screw with the flatter head is now in the rear hold!

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Hello, sorry...I know nothing about this but WOW that's cool...where did you find it??? I am not a gun guy at all...but to have something like this to display is Amazing! I love history...and " hands on " finds like this are the best. Now I'm excited😁
 
Thanks very much for all of the replies, Gentlemen. The photos of bands and screws show the condition in which the rifle came to me so I was careful to put everything back "as it was" - I just tried swapping the screws and while fit isn't perfect as-shown in the images, it is notably poorer when they are reversed. Perhaps just a musket assembled on a Friday afternoon...

Swapped the bands and they fit at least as well, and probably slightly better - thanks for the heads-up!
 
Nope, the screws on that trigger guard were put into place, and then, and only then, was the final polish and shaping done, consisting of a sanding and polishing of wood, brass guard and screws, all in place and all sanded together for a perfectly smooth profile - so the fit was perfect. If not perfectly smooth, then not all original or screws moved from one place to another. The photo your posted shows a poor fit of screws to guard.
Now, who can know if those are the original screws or not. But I would suggest, and this is knowledge I've learned over decades, that you should also see what happens when you back off the screw 180 decrees, or tighten it 180s degrees and see how it fits.
This is a One Hundred Fifty Dollar valued bit of advice, meaning that if those screws obviously don't fit well, the value of your rifle-musket is at least One Hundred Fifty Dollars less than if they fit well.
 
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