Author Topic: what is it ?  (Read 4719 times)

Offline Captchee

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 768
what is it ?
« on: November 30, 2010, 01:49:32 AM »
 im posting this for another fella so please bare with me

 ok here is a question for you all .
 im thinking its a late 19th century  smoothbore.

 but  it seems that some think it may be a millitary rifle thats been bored out .
 bore is .633
32 inch barrel. Front sight is a brass screw, slot still in top....

side of lock 1864, US,AMOSKE....Mfg com, Man.......lr, NH barrle is marked 258 on the barrel flat  bottom of the barrel , center is WW and at back by tang under is R.S.A. The WW could have something between or tied into them. The R could be a K or H even.

[/quote]






anyone have any thoughts

California Kid

  • Guest
Re: what is it ?
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2010, 02:04:39 AM »
Looks like a cut down and rebored rifled musket from the civil war.

Offline T*O*F

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5123
Re: what is it ?
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2010, 02:16:57 AM »
Amoskeag Manufacturing Co, New Hampshire.  Was a military contractor during the Civil War.  (See 1863 at below link)
http://www.manchesterhistoric.org/Amoskeag.pdf

See also:
http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/admin/product_details.php?itemID=19358

The gun you have is a "hillbilly shotgun"......A Civil War musket that has been sporterized for civilian use.
Dave Kanger

If religion is opium for the masses, the internet is a crack, pixel-huffing orgy that deafens the brain, numbs the senses and scrambles our peer list to include every anonymous loser, twisted deviant, and freak as well as people we normally wouldn't give the time of day.
-S.M. Tomlinson

Offline Captchee

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 768
Re: what is it ?
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2010, 03:00:08 AM »
 thanks fellas . before i saw the photos  i thought it was a  parts gun . but then when i saw the photos . sean that underrib , nose cap  and all . i wasnt sure it wasnt an import  or a parts  gun that someone put a lot more work into then normal

Offline Nate McKenzie

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1019
  • Luzerne Co. PA
    • Nathan McKenzie Gunmaker
Re: what is it ?
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2010, 06:29:33 AM »
Originally your rifle was an 1861 Special Model which was a non standard Model 1861 rifle musket  that was made by Colt, Amoskeag, and Lamson, Goodnow & Yale on Enfield producing tooling purchased from Robbins & Lawrence when it went bankrupt because of canceled British Enfield contracts when the Crimean War suddenly ended. The 1861 Special Model had some improvements that were later incorporated into the Model 1863 rifle musket.

rost495

  • Guest
Re: what is it ?
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2010, 06:36:32 AM »
I"m the other fellow, that just got approved to the board....

Any idea as to the value?  It belongs to a gal from work who's husband got cancer and left us quickly.  I'd like to buy it, can't afford much, but certainly don't want to give her a raw deal at all.

Thanks, Jeff

Offline B Shipman

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1928
    • W.G. Shipman Gunmaker
Re: what is it ?
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2010, 08:32:09 AM »
Civil War guns of all types were " sporterized" by the trainload and sold by companies like Bannermans to the general public for cheap prices. Their value is not great.

rost495

  • Guest
Re: what is it ?
« Reply #7 on: November 30, 2010, 11:32:46 PM »
Not great as in 200 bucks?  Not great as in 300 bucks?

Offline T*O*F

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5123
Re: what is it ?
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2010, 05:04:24 AM »
The gun is worth less than the sum of its parts.  It's done better than most and might.  However, parted out and sold separately, it's worth twice as much as the gun alone.
Dave Kanger

If religion is opium for the masses, the internet is a crack, pixel-huffing orgy that deafens the brain, numbs the senses and scrambles our peer list to include every anonymous loser, twisted deviant, and freak as well as people we normally wouldn't give the time of day.
-S.M. Tomlinson