✅ SOLVED .69 Caliber Musket Identification

[coinman123]

I bought this musket today for 160 dollars, my first firearm. It looks to be converted into a percussion cap musket, from a flintlock one. Very ornate, around 57 or 58 inches long. Very cool to actually have a gun that could have fired the musket balls I find.

 

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[coinman123]

I don't see anything about the lock, stock, or brass fittings that tells me those parts haven't always been together. I don't think anything on it has been replaced.

As to the barrel... It's entirely possible that when this gun was built the gunsmith reused an old barrel and built a modern (at the time) gun with it. Gun barrels were expensive, and it would just make good sense to reuse one that was still in good shape rather than to scrap it and buy a brand new one. It doesn't bother me at all to think the barrel started out on an older flintlock that someone wanted upgraded, that was a pretty common practice.

Thanks! Someone else said that in the other forum. I'm going to mark this one solved for now. Mid 1800's fowling muzzleloader, with lock made by J. Bishop, and older barrel.

"Johnny has summarised this gun very well. It has most likely been put together probably in the late 1840s to late 50s using inexpensive components coupled with an earlier barrel. The "nipple & drum" percussion adaption was a cost effective method of converting a flintlock barrel to percussion, usually seen in America, & I suspect that this gun has been "made" in that country."

 

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[coinman123]

One more thing, I found this mark on the barrel. What do you think it means?

 

[BosnMate]

The mark is called a proof mark, which means at least the barrel, if not the entire gun was built probably either in Belgium or England. Google this ---antique firearms proof marks --- and you will get loads of information. If you can compare the proof mark on your gun with one of the many proof marks you will find in your research, many of your questions will be answered. Regarding who ever is saying your gun has been converted from flint, the lock mechanism has to be inlet into the wood. That means wood was cut away, and I see no evidence of that. I would like who ever is saying that your gun is converted from flint lock, to show me a picture of a back action flint lock that was used on anything.

 

[coinman123]

The mark is called a proof mark, which means at least the barrel, if not the entire gun was built probably either in Belgium or England. Google this ---antique firearms proof marks --- and you will get loads of information. If you can compare the proof mark on your gun with one of the many proof marks you will find in your research, many of your questions will be answered. Regarding who ever is saying your gun has been converted from flint, the lock mechanism has to be inlet into the wood. That means wood was cut away, and I see no evidence of that. I would like who ever is saying that your gun is converted from flint lock, to show me a picture of a back action flint lock that was used on anything.

Thanks! I will look into that! They said that the barrel was off of an old flintlock, converted into percussion, then put on my gun to save the money of using a new barrel. Does that sound possible? I will look up proof marks, maybe that will solve something!

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Unfortunately I can't match the proofmark to any of the lists I know of offhand, it's just a bit too worn.

There are some "back action" flintlocks.... but they are considerably different from yours as far as the shape of the lock plate. A flintlock will have a frizzen and spring on it, and yours has no place for those to mount, and no patch work on the stock to indicate that part of the lock was missing.

This is a "back action" flintlock, the term mainly refers to the mainspring being behind the hammer, but you can see it's quite a bit different from yours