Early Queen Anne Musket

[deepcreekdale]

I do a lot of building for serious re-enactors (ie those that don't show up with T/C Hawkens at F&I war events) and wanted to build something a little different, representing a possible rebuild of an old worn out militia musket for trade or sale to settlers. Black Walnut stock, Rice 10 ga smoothbore barrel, TRS Dog lock, buttplate and trigger guard from sheet brass. Basically this is derived from the first example in Neumanns Battle Weapons of the American Revolution (1MM) with a shorter barrel.





The buttplate is nailed on with handmade nails. (The nails are aligned the angle of the picture makes them look cattywompus)


Simple sheet brass side plate


Something tricky with these types of builds is getting the proper "look" to them. Not sure how close I got with this one, although I like it.  Jim Kibler once mentioned how he was striving for a "workmanlike" appearance in his builds and that in some ways, that can be more difficult than doing a perfectly made specimen. A gun like this would have been made quickly and cheaply, but by someone who knew what he was doing. He would not go for a perfect finish with perfectly polished brass or metal and perfect inlets. For us, a conundrum is that our customers have much higher expectations than for example, a poor farmer, moving west after being released from his indenture would have.

[deepcreekdale]

Here are some shots of the lock for those not familiar with doglocks. By the way, this is a true "Queen Anne" lock. Many lock makers sell locks labeled as Queen Anne locks and they are excellent locks. But, old Anne died early in the 1700's and most of those locks would date 40--50 years after her death. Any Queen Anne lock would have the initials AR and the coat of arms over it




These locks do not have an internal half cock notch, they are kept at half cock by a "dog" or catch.


At full cock the dog drops away, allowing the cock to fall when the trigger is pulled. While more secure than an internal halfcock notch, it does need to manually be placed into position for halfcock.



This thing does spark! I find TRS locks, when made following their instructions, some of the best sparking locks on the market.

[Daryl]

Nice Musket, deepcreekdale. One to be proud of.
I like the black walnut. It turned out very well.

[rich pierce]

Nice work!

[smart dog]

Hi Deepcreekdale,
Nice simple and credible musket.  I have the same issue trying to finish military guns so they don't look too finely finished.  I have my routine building procedures down such that making a gun look clean, crisp, and finely finished is as easy as making one that looks more crudely made. It really is not so much skill as doing tasks in the right order and using the right tools. For muskets, I now finish them with just medium fine files and scraping.  I try to work fast and not worry overly about tool marks and scratches.  I really have a hard time with some crude colonial work.  I just cannot bring myself to attach misshapen lumps of metal or do carving and engraving that looks like it was drawn by an 8-year old regardless of how historically correct it is.   
Again, really nice job.
dave   

[Tim Crosby]

 I like the look and the idea behind it. I may have missed it; how long is the barrel? Unstained RR always seem to draw the eye.

   Tim

[deepcreekdale]

I like the look and the idea behind it. I may have missed it; how long is the barrel? Unstained RR always seem to draw the eye.

   Tim

Barrel is 34 inches. A little shorter than a musket barrel. i find reenactors like shorter barrels as they make more noise with blank loads! I agree with you on unstained RR's drawing the eye which can be a plus or a minus I guess but I have issues with stained ones as well. What color would look right? In the old days did anyone really bother to stain them? After use they get a nice grey look to them though, just hard to get on a new one. All I did to this one was, after sanding and whiskering to make it nice and smooth was give it a coat of Antique Mahogany Brie Wax so it won't tend to stick. That tends to tone down the bright wood a little.

[Robert Wolfe]

Nice. I used the same lock on an early parts gun. It is slow but throws plenty of sparks.  Very nice musket. Thanks for posting

[Craig Wilcox]

VERY nice work, Dale, and accomplished in a "workmanlike manner".  Appreciate you showing it.

I do like the steel (iron?) nails against the brass buttplate.

[alacran]

Actually that is very nice and not crudely made at all. A military musket was not made by one man. The stocker would use the parts he was given by the folks who filed the lock, and the folks  who forged the barrel and those who who made the mountings. All these would be assembled to meet a pattern. The finish was probably applied by some one else. If a military arm it had to meet an inspectors standard, and then have a final proof test.  Very nice Dale.