Southern Poor Boy Boy's fowler

[Buffalochip]

Hello,
This is my first post to this forum. Picked this little beauty up over the weekend in central Virginia. It is missing the top thimble and the lock needs a little work, but otherwise it is in great shape. I'd date it about 1860, give or take 10 years. No evidence that it was ever anything other than percussion. Breech end of barrel is octagon, remaining 2/3rds round. Decent bore. About .410 smoothbore. Weighs a little over 3lbs. I photographed it against a 20th century .410 for scale. Paid $120 for it, probably about what it is worth. Just thought it very unusual and perfectly proportioned boy's gun--probably bagged many a squirrel in the day.

[T*O*F]

I've got one exactly like it except mine has a back action lock.
Cheap hardware store gun of the day.....probably closer to 1870's-80's.
I've seen a lot of the Belgian .410 import barrels used on them and even built a gun using one of them that had never been mounted in a stock.

[Buffalochip]

You are right in that it was inexpensive (hence the term "poor boy"), but this is not a hardware store gun--which would have been mass produced. Handmade screws speak to an earlier time--or at least of a gunsmith who still built them from scratch. I'll stick with my 1850-1870 estimate.

[A.Merrill]

    T*O*F, sounds like we have the same gun. This one has a metal strap that goes around the forarm at the entry pipe and a little engraving on lock.    AL