ALR Museum needs your help: Unknown 090210-1

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

This gun presented below is unusual and worthy of presentation. We are completely stumped as to who might have made it and where it was made.
Having "some" merit we decided to post it, in hopes that others could help identify its maker, region, etc. Perhaps someone has a similar rifle. Please post your comments here with a "reply".

To be sure you find the right gun, posted under "Unknown Makers..Brass furniture" here is the URL

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=3261.0

Thank you for your help.
Hurricane

[Dphariss]

Does not appear to have been used much. At least not with corrosive caps. Little chlorate pitting around the nipple. Little wood damage.
Front sight reminds me of one seen on a Sharps shipped to Cooper in Bozeman MT about 1871 same basic blade slot.
Hard to tell when much less who.
Could be pre-Civil War could be 1920s restock. 

Dan

[mr. no gold]

Weren't all period percussion caps corrosive? Looks like the barrel was cut back to get rid of the eaten up breech. The gun shows consideable useage (or abuse). It appears that it was made as a nice tight little upper susq region gun and then modified considerably during the period of use; things like additional inlays chunked into the wood. nails used for barrel pins, missing inlays and so on, aside from the huge cut back on the barrel length.
One other possibility for the big trim is that it could have been altered for the Western Trail, or as Kindig theorized, an aging owner had it shortened to make it easier to use.
Some random thoughts.
Dick

[Curt J]

 The lack of corrosion at the breech, plus the two sets of barrel-pin holes I see, assures me that this rifle has been set back. The wood that has been added around the drum also supports this. It apparently originally had a bolster, which was lost with the section of barrel taken off the breech end when it was set back. It's very possible that a maker's name was also lost with that section of barrel. It's an interesting rifle, too bad it can't talk!

[Tony Clark]

Yes, I was thinking what Curt said. Maybe when they moved the barrel back, "they" also worked over the entire piece to bring her back a little. I get the feeling maybe that is when the inlays were added. Looks like the one inlay behind the cheeckpiece is covering a crack or perhaps reinforcing it in some way. I get a feeling that this work may have been done not that long ago, that may be why the piece looks quite clean. I also get a feeling that the barrel may pre-date the entire piece. Regards, TC