The rifle has had quite a bit of work done to it, which makes it more difficult to know exactly what it was like originally. The rifle looks like it was probably from southeastern KY hill country, or Tennessee, and I would lean toward Tennessee. The butt plate is a later/modern replacement, probably of an original iron butt plate that rusted out. I would speculate that the toe plate is also a replacement, originally being iron but swapped when the butt plate was swapped. Note both the butt plate and the toe plate now have rounded ends at the toe of the gun...suggesting modern parts where the restorer wasn't fully aware of what the original butt plate and toe plate looked like where they joined...perhaps from too much rust from sitting on the ground for a number of years. The rifle has a flat...not rounded... bottom on its butt, so both the toe plate and butt plate probably had flat ends where they met at the toe. Often these rifles had primary mounts in iron, i.e. butt plate, toe plate and guard, and smaller mounts such as ramrod pipes in either iron or brass, depending on what was most readily available at the time of manufacture.
The side facings are pointed toward the front, which suggests a "southern" rifle. The lock appears to be a later replacement, based on the poor fit/gap above the rear end of the lock, and the uneven strip of wood below the lock plate which gets thinner toward the front...the wood margin would be relatively the same width around the lock plate on the original lock. The side lug and percussion nipple, and brass plate between top of lock and the tang, all appear modern.
In the picture of the tang, there appears to be a "shadow" running from the back of the tang toward the comb...this could be a stain in the wood, but might also be an old mortise of a longer, TN style tang that was filled in with wood putty. The photo is slightly too fuzzy to tell for sure, but it seems to show the gun originally had a longer tang, which would strengthen the argument for being a TN rifle. The late style "inverted T" side plate also suggests a TN origin...but it was also used in a few other areas as well on later percussion half-stocked rifles.
If there are any maker's marks left on the rifle, they would be on the top barrel flat several inches behind the rear sight. If there are any traces of a name, or initials, we might be able to figure it out if you post a clear photo of what's left. Shelby Gallien
