Old fowler/musket/smooth rifle........

[JohnHBryan]

I have another one for you guys, stand by for pics.....  Opinions and thoughts welcome.

[JohnHBryan]

[JohnHBryan]

[JohnHBryan]

[JohnHBryan]

[JohnHBryan]

And that's it...  I suppose it wouldn't be a musket, not sure why I said that.  Octagon to round with a subtle transition.  Rear sight.  Pretty thick bore compared to a lot of fowlers.  Sling swivels.  Can't see any markings on the barrel, other than a few lines near the tang.  Somewhat petite and light.

Obviously missing the forestock.  Look at the swamp on the end of the barrel.  That's not just the photograph.

[Eric Kettenburg]

That's a fairly common type of German smoothbore and - while I can't say for absolute certain without examining the barrel - it very well may have always been a half stock.  The Germans were making quite a lot of half-stocked smoothbores pretty early in the 18th century, with the forward pipes attached to (typically) brass decorative escutcheons as spacers soldered or brazed to the underside of the forward barrel portion.  Very neat stuff.

[Mike Brooks]

One of the Germanic countries for sure, past that or exactly where beats me. I'd vote for original 1/2 stock as well, I have a German fowling gun done the same way, except mine has about 4" of rifling at the  very funneled muzzle, no riflings farther down.  Lots of cast off eh? You could shoot around corners with that much! I like the sheet brass buttplate too, you'd expect to see a cast one. I like the cheek carving as well, would look gun on a contemporary "early colonial gun".
 Thanks for sharing.

[Eric Kettenburg]

George Shumway always liked to comment on pieces like this that they would be excellent examples of the type of plainer or provincial German work that could translate extremely easily as an American piece.  This is certainly the case here, although I'm fairly positive it's German and was originally a half stock (which curiously enough does not seem to have 'jumped the pond' until much later).

[Pukka Bundook]

I think we can say by the apparently   closely spaced  ramrod pipes (Entry pipe and one just forward, now detached), that it was indeed half stocked and Germanic.
This style of stocking up seems to have been practiced even in the earliest years of the 18th C.   Often a sling swivel will also be attached to the short fore-end.
A nice find.

R.

[Elnathan]

I have a half-stock European shotgun from around 1840, but evidently made with some recycled 18th century parts, that has a front sling swivel mounting virtually identical to this one, if any additional confirmation is needed.

[Dan'l 1946]

The loose ramrod pipe doesn't match the others. Is that usual?                                 
 

[Pukka Bundook]

Dan'l,

I thought by what I could seen that it matched the entry pipe.
  Those up front look like they've been knocked off and stuck back a few times.  Maybe they are replacements.

[JohnHBryan]

Thanks.  Appreciate it.  That actually looks like it would be a good design. That explains the flared muzzle.