Found Gun Barrel

[frogwalking]

Jake, the son of a friend, found this gun barrel.  I am interested in what can be know, or inferred about the gun from which it came by looking at what he has.  I have made some observations, but want to see what you say.  It was found in the remains of an old collapsed shed in southern Virginia.  Here are the two best photos:





Oh.  I have seen the muzzle.  It is a 28 or 20 gauge fowler with a 48 inch bbl. and a silver turtle front sight.

[Dave B]

Cool old barrel. Any proof marks on the breach end at all?

[frogwalking]

The boy who found it is 5 years old.  He discovered the treasure very much on purpose, as he was looking for artifacts.  He spends all his available time searching for antiquities.  To answer your question, so far he has not removed any of the surface rust, so no markings of any kind are known.   What appears to be a flash hole is evident on the right hand of the breech end of the barrel is visible if one clicks on the photo.  It looks like it came from the seldom seen flintlock half stocked shotgun.





Here are the flash hole, hooked breechplug and turtle front sight, I think.

[Longknife]

I have an English half stock flintlock that has a long barrel, two barrel wedges and that type of sight. They are not really rare.  Feltwad can tell you more about the English fowling pieces than any one....Ed

[James Rogers]

It wouldn't surprise me to find Birmingham proofs and maybe a tombstone mark at the breech and marked "London" on the top. I used to have one like that and have seen many more on early 19th century guns sporting out of date mountings. Spider sight could be silver.

[Mike Brooks]

English

[frogwalking]

I guessed it dated from around 1830 or 1840.  What do you guys think?

[Mike Brooks]

Probably before that since it is flint. really hard to tell.