Accepting that it looks like a late period Philly gun, as some of the more knowledgeable guys have said, and that the new pics show the forearm is a replacement, as Fullstock pointed out, you have to wonder what else has been done.
To me, the new pictures bring up a couple of questions.
First, the bone side plates on the patchbox. The four screws holding the side plates in place are really rusted and worn, whereas the screws holding the finale in place are in much better condition. Then, why the pin placement in the sideplates? The upper pin is centered between the screw and the hinge, but the lower plate pin is up close to the hinge. Also, on the upper plate, halfway between the screw and the pin, there’s a small piece of wood inlet along the edge of the side plate, not unusual in itself, but it looks like a similar piece of wood is inlet in the same place along the lower plate as well,,,, making me wonder If the sideplates are original to the gun?
Another thought is the lock. This is a late gun and could have been either flint or percussion. I don’t see any dead giveaways that it’s been converted, well, except that the frizzen spring seems, in the pictures, to stick out past the front end of the lock. I don’t remember seeing an original flint with the end of the spring hanging out past the front of the lock like this one does.
All in all, the gun presents a lot of questions. In hand, it might tell its tale quickly to the practiced eye, but we have only these pictures, and swschultz evidently doesn’t have enough of the practiced eye if I’m not mistaken?
What we seem to know, is that it’s likely a Kuntz shop made gun. That the forearm has been replaced. Maybe the sideplates are original, maybe not. Maybe originally a flint gun,,,, maybe not.
In the end, the forearm replacement isn’t a killer and isn’t that unusual, although it could be made to look better. The lock isn’t a killer either. The frizzen spring could be replaced with a better fitting one, or the lock converted to percussion if it was determined that the gun was originally a percussion.
The side plates will take a good eyeballing to see if there’s any signs of these being fitted to an existing original side plate inlet.
And as already pointed out, the barrel has been cut back some. It could be stretched back out, but that’s a semi expensive repair, so in the end you’ll find yourself in a case of diminishing returns, and come down to just how much you like the rifle.
If you really like the gun and will be happy with it as is, or spend a bit of $$$ on repairing, realizing that you might end up with more bucks in it than it’s worth, it could be worth the price. I’d guess a high quality restoration with the barrel stretched back out, a new forearm to match the longer barrel, and whatever with the lock, will cost you a couple thousand bucks.
If you’re looking at it as an investment with an appreciable up-side upon selling it, especially as is, probably not.
Just my .02,
John
