Small boy's flintlock

[ntqlvr1948]

I assume this gun was made for a boy. Has a 25 caliber smoothbore. Barrel is 25 inches long. Gun is very well made and probably never fired. I always thought it was maybe French or English but I am not sure what it is. No markings on it at all.  Guns total length is 40 inches. Has a front and rear sight.  Any ideas?












geojson lat long

[WESTbury]

I think you have a great looking piece.

When I was a kid back in the 50's, I had a plastic Davy Crockett Kentucky Rifle. Things were very obviously better in the "Old Days"!

[Seth Isaacson]

That's very cool. Reminded me of this tiny musket complete with bayonet that looks like it would fit my 2 year old daughter. It looks like it has a pocket pistol sized lock and is fully functional.
https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/87/274/liege-proofed-childs-model-1777-flintlock-musket-with-bayonet

[45-110]

Very nice quality piece, I like it!

[Hungry Horse]

 It looks like a miniature chiefs grade trade gun. Occasionally these were given to a chief for his young son. I would suspect due to this ones fine condition, it was never presented to the chief, for one reason or another. If that is what it is, its very rare in any condition.

Hungry Horse

[ntqlvr1948]

The lock is a little over 4 and 1/2 inches long and from the style and the finial on the frizzen spring it looks circa 1760's

[Pukka Bundook]

A couple of overall shots would be very nice, 1948.

I have never seen that sideplate before, though it reminds me a little of one by Verncombe of Bristol.

[ntqlvr1948]

here's a side shot

[ntqlvr1948]

Or perhaps it was made for a lady to shoot

[Steve Collward]

Nice looking flintlock.  What it the length of pull?

[smart dog]

Hi,
Very interesting piece.  I don't think it is English and there look to be proof marks on the barrel.  Seeing those would help a lot.  I am inclined to think it is Dutch, however, the wood looks to me to be American black walnut.

dave

[ntqlvr1948]

Length of pull is 12 and 1/2 inches

[Bill Paton]

I calculated the length of pull at 13” from the full length photo and 40” overall length. This seems long for a lady’s or child’s rifle. In measuring the LOP of 21 original full sized jaeger wender rifles, I find a range of 12 5/8” to 14 1/8” and a mean of 13.3/8”. Might this be a gun meant for pest control or some such, only requiring small loads of shot?

Addendum: Noting the above actual LOP measurement of 12 1/2”, that puts the LOP at the low end of an adult rifle, and makes the child’s rifle more plausible.

Bill Paton

[Bob Roller]

whatever it is it shows attention to detail and a well made gun from conception to the first time it was fired.
In 1955,my last rear in High school I made a scaled down 22 caliber muzzle loader for E.M.Farris and about
2 years ago I got a call from a man in ,Louisiana that owned that little gun.I think the lock was from P.I.Spence
and so were the triggers.It was patterned after a target rifle with no rib or rod.This was done in the wood work shop
of Huntington High School and nobody thought anything about such a project and now the classic old building is a
high end group of apartments for  retirees and the new school has NO facility for teaching hand skills of any kind.
Bob Roller