Another newbie looking for help!!

[vette]

I recently found a flintlock musket in a local gun shop that I would like your input on. It is a British military piece and has the same barrel and brass fittings that I found on line on a Brown Bess, Rings and shallow band with two proof marks at the breech. It also has a Tower G R lock. Sling sviwles and ramrod pipes are also similar as well as the iron ramrod. The face of the cock is different in that it is flat rather than convex. The barrel is only 54 inches and the stock has the raised cheek rest, like the Brown Bess, but does not have the "crease" down the side, but a conventional look. There is also a small German silver rectanglar inlay on top of the wrist and inverted vee checkering on the sides of the wrist. On top of the barrel, about 1" ftrom the breech is marked "Sharp's Extra". " Sharp" is also marked between the two proof marks that are also common to the Brown Bess. The musket is in good to very good condition. What is it, and is it worth the $650.00 asking price? Strangely, there is also a second identical musket that has been converted to caplock with a very old broken wrist repair that is very crude. Both are on consignment by a widow who set the price based on a old, oil stained, handwritten price tag that was put on by her deceased husband. I realize, this is very long, but I would really appreciate your help.

Information

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[Oatmeal Savage]

A few questions for clarification: Is the barrel keyed, pinned, or have barrel bands?


What does the triggerguard look like?

Is the comb raised or does it have a raised cheek rest on the left side of the stock?

[vette]

The barrel is pinned. Front swivel and forearm looks like your left picture. The stock looks just like a Brown Bess, but without the "crease" below the raised comb. The brass buttplate is also just like the Brown Bess. The smoothbore rough measured 3/4". The metal ramrod was threaded on the bottom with 1/2" mushroom on top. Wood around the lock was again, like the Brown Bess. I searched 84 pages on google and found three refferences to Sharp's Extra, two early flintlock muskets, and one flintlock brass barreled pistol. All had been sold at auction and gave no good description or picture. Thanks again for your assistance, Value?

[vette]

Also brass triggerguard with rear swivel in acorn motif and ringed ramrod pipes --- just like the Brown Bess

[Patrick Chadwick]

If I lived in your area, I would be tempted to find out where that shop is, and buy the gun while you are still worrying about fine details of origin and identification. Mean, I know, but I am looking for a good shootable flintlock musket, and if the shooting condition really is good, then $650.00 is a steal compared with the prices asked over here!

There are plenty of musket wall-hangers around, but from my point of view, a good shooter is rarer than a good looker.

As to the exact model, date range etc, please remember that around 1776 there was a serious misunderstanding between the original users of the Brown bess and their cousins. Many muskets must have been acquired by the Continental Army and patched up, if necessary, before being used against their original owners. In the Napoleonic Wars a lot of recycling was performed on muskets, the Prussians in particular pressing everything into service that went bang. And that included a lot of Brown Bess muskets AND parts thereof which had been supplied by the British. So "Mixmasters" were being produced long before the term was invented. Do not worry overmuch about the provenance of every tiny piece. Real guns were used, repaired with whatever was available, and used again. And the "100% matching" so beloved of modern collectors was not a criterion in times of crisis.

Patrick

[gew8805]

Photographs of the gun are essential for identification but by your description (triggerguard with rear swivel in acorn motif, German silver rectanglar inlay on top of the wrist and inverted vee checkering on the sides of the wrist) makes it sound like a fowler or a militia (extra service) musket made for the British civilian market using a military style lock. Speaking of the lock, you say it has a "Crown and GR" marking but is there a small crowned broad arrow under the pan?

[vette]

Thanks to all of you for your help and comments, purchase is pending and I hope to have this piece within a few days. I don't know how to post pictures, but as soon as I figure it out I'llget them out to you.

[Emri]

I don't know how to post pictures, but as soon as I figure it out I'llget them out to you.

Look here.

How do I post pics? - A tutorial by Wally

HTH,

Emri

[smellie]

I find it interesting that this monster has a fifty-four-inch barrel. The Long Land Musket had forty-six inches and was superceded bout 1750 or so by the Short Land Musket, a mere forty-two inches.

This interests me because I have a fowler wth a Third Model Brown Bess lock, all done up as if for the military but for the fifty-six-inch barrel and stocked right to the muzzle. It has no markings visible except for the remains of London proofs (it was in a marine environment for 180 years). It s a bolster-type percussion conversion and is an 11-bore. It can be dated positively by the name and date carved into the woodwork, so it is roughly in the 1820 - 1822 period and was made up from Napoleonic War surplus parts for the Colonial trade. The original owner was quite famous in his time as the last pirate in the New World.

I am thinking that it is possible that the gun you ARE getting might be something akin to this monster of mine. It will be good to see pics and it will be even better to know that it has a good home at last. Buy them both; Napoleon might come back and you could NEED that second shot!
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