What is it and what's it worth, part II.

This rifle was on the rack in the reloading room during the fire and was heavily damaged by smoke and water. I know that it is a .54 caliber flintlock with some beautiful wood, but the metal work and fit and finish leads me to believe that it is a relatively low-value reproduction.

My 16 year old nephew loves guns and wants to be a gunsmith. I gave him another rifle that was damaged in the fire to fix up, and want to give him this one as well. He would just use them as projects and then do whatever he wants with them. But, just thought I should verify it's a low-value firearm before I give it to a teenager to try to restore.

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Can you find any markings on it at all? The woodwork is certainly sub par, but if someone recently built it that doesn't mean they didn't use good parts and just didn't know exactly it should look like. Maybe remove the lock to see what sort of quality it is, run a patch down the barrel to see how it feels, etc. You might have a nice rifle there that just needs some remodeling. Or an Indian reproduction...

It's hard to tell, but that kind of looks like a signature on top of the barrel. The first letter looks like it might be an "A".

Looks like a wonderful project

I believe the marking in the barrel is 54 CAL. The rifle looks rough but I bet it can be bought back with elbow grease. Just the project for an aspiring gunsmith. Clean up and refinish the stock, deal with the active rust and maybe brown the steel parts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rockingkj

I believe the marking in the barrel is 54 CAL.

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After taking another look I believe you are right.

Nice looking wood underneath the smokey fire damage.
I think the rifle is a gunsmith/home built affair using parts sourced from M/Loader supply places. Someones idea of what they wanted in a rifle, not necessarily following any strict 'school' of style or period as many of the builders seem to do.

The lock looks much like those made and sold under the Christian's Spring, Pennsylvania flint lock style.
There are a couple slightly different styles. The earliest doesn't use a support arm on the outside of the lock plate for the Frizzen & Screw. Just te Frizzen screw head & shank itself being the support for the Frizzen.
Looks like that may be what is on the gun. The slight Banana shaped plate, graceful hammer, flat plate w/no replated step at the rear or decorative slash cuts and the octagon shaped pan bottom.

Here's a link to pics of the Jim Chambers version of that lock in early style . Sold by Track of the Wolf M/Loader supply.
You can see they are not inexpensive at just short of $300.
https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categ.../724/1/LOCK-CS

The other parts look like simple but quality parts.
Perhaps the side plate is not inletted to it's 1/2 depth as is usually done as it is sitting quite high.
The trigger guard is 'pinned' thru the stock at the front, as were most all orig builds,,screws were expensive and many had to be hand filed out or if you owned a 'screw plate' you were lucky to be able to make some crude ones.

The bbl may be from a Thompson Center or other commercial made M/L. That caliber marking looks familiar.
Nothing wrong with that. Just check it carefully. Pull the breech plug and check it over as you would any other unkn gun you are rebuilding.

The entire piece looks like a great project waiting for some finishing up.
I would trim down those heavy wood lock panels on both sides,,way wider than they need be. It would make a much more graceful rifle.
Style the rear of the panels to match the lock plate point.
Inlet the lock bolt plate down into the wood so the plate doesn't stand so proud of the side lock panel.
Clean up the wood to bring out the nice grain.
When finishing use a solvent stain to color the wood a deep reddish brown.
This just for starters.