Wood species of this stock?

[Z. Buck]

So, I was bumming around the internet, looking at guns, and this catches my eye. This gun is stocked in something...different. I work with guns of all ages, every day, and this is not Birch or Beech (American or "Arctic") It's not a fruit wood, or Rosewood, or any variety of Walnut I have every played with, and it certainly ain't Maple. To me, it looks like the Oak floors out of the early 1900s houses around these parts. What do you all think? and have you seen anything else stocked in similar wood?
 

http://merzantiques.com/photo/massive-flintlock-wall-gun

[Ky-Flinter]

Perhaps Ash?  It's got that wide pattern to it.

-Ron

[David R. Pennington]

Looks like ash to me.

[Ky-Flinter]

Found this picture of an Ash stock posted previously on ALR.  Curly one too!



-Ron

[Z. Buck]

ASH! Yes, that's it!  So we have all heard of people using Ash for a stock wood, so how common was it? Especially on a "British made" "Liege proofed" wall gun?

[Stophel]

I have found ash to be fairly common on 17th and early 18th century British military guns.  Perhaps (?) less and less so as the 18th century wore on.

[Molly]

I'm with the "Ash" camp as well.  But I don't like ash or any wide grained wood.  That said, the one pictured by Ky-flinter is not all that bad.

[wormey]

I beg to disagree with the other posts.  It looks like chestnut to me.  Though uncommon there are surviving examples of American stocked muskets in chestnut.  I have an American musket stocked in chestnut.  The wood resembles oak and is fairly soft, but it was used on occasion.

[Long John]

I agree with the conclusion that it is ash.  It looks to be a parts-gun to me.  The lack of a ramrod and the hook thingy up on the fore-end suggest that it is a punt gun of sorts, used for water fowl hunting.  The gun is loaded and laid across the gunwale of a boat and fired as if it was a cannon at ducks setting on the water.

When I was a boy I saw some old antique guns like that in the sport shops along the Hudson River.  Some flint and some cap-lock.  Collectors have bought them all up now.


Best Regards,

JMC

[Arcturus]

My first thought before seeing any replies was also ash.