antique guns anyone?

[jred321]

does anyone know anything about antique guns or know anywhere i can find out some info on one? we were cleaning out my grandfather's house and found all kinds of cool stuff. one thing he had was an old flintlock gun that was either his father's or older and i'm trying to get some info about it and an approximate value. i poked around a little bit but haven't been able to find one that looks like it. here are some pictures, the end is wood, flintlock piece, and then the barrel is like hexagonal with a wood powder packer thingy underneath it. any info is appreciated

 

[xelderx]

Are there any markings on the gun?

 

[jred321]

i asked my uncle and he said no, i honestly didn't look for myself though but i'm guessing there isn't much. i'll look again next time i'm down there (probably tomorrow) but i wouldn't count on it

 

[xelderx]

my grandfather is pretty good with antique firearms. He might have a good idea where it came from.

 

[jred321]

nice, let me know if he knows anything thanks

 

[winty87]

Do you have a Cabella's near you?

 

[jred321]

no idea what that is, so probably not

 

[SciFiMan]

Should be books on it in the library. I know I've seen some at Barnes & Noble.

 

[winty87]

my dad has a couple flint locks but not that old. he built his own and he knows some stuff about them. But with out any markings or serial numbers on it. its highly unlikely that your going to get a book and identify its age. Take it to Cabela's the antique place in there, those guys know EVERYTHING.

 

[novAKs47]

Interesting piece. It's primered and ignited on the bottom. I've never seen that design before. Hmmmm.....time for me to ask around.

 

[novAKs47]

You can also post this in the Guns&Ammo magazine forums.http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zeromain?id=5

I'm sure someone there will know.

 

[jred321]

sweet, thanks, i'll give it a try

 

[slayer4u]

looks 17th century but people were making rifles like that well into the 19th century. without markings it's very difficult to tell. Even small time gunsmiths stamped thier work. most likley it was made by the owner. see if you can find any hidden engravings. Gunsmiths usually marked thier work with a punch or a sharp tool.

 

[Roywhitep5]

is it rifled or smooth bored? i've never seen a firing mechanism like that.

 

[jred321]

i don't know if it's rifled or smooth, i'll check it out tomorrow and look more for stampings. my great grandfather was from russia so for all i know it came from over there. i couldn't figure out how it fires either, it wouldn't lock in any way so if you pulled the trigger it would make the flint piece fire.

 

[slayer4u]

I did some looking up and found it may be older than I thoght The design of the firing mechanism is called a flash pan. it was common in weopons pre 13th century. I doubt it is that old but the design is extreemly primitive at best. The flas pan design alowed powder to fall down onto the flint through a hole in the bottom of the barrol the original design required you touch the powder with a match but later designs used the flint lock. The problem was not enough powder was exposed to be consistant that's why most flintlocks are on top. If indeed this came from russia that would explain why it is so primitive. even today some parts of russia cartrige rifles do not exist.

 

[xelderx]

I was looking at the same thing. Even 17-18th century Russian flintlock firearms have the firing mechanism on the top. It would appear that it pre-dates that. We can't assume that it's Russian, but thats a good place to start looking.

 

[slayer4u]

I've got a ******* library on these rifles here. If it's a known firearm I will find it in my books. so far that's all I've found. I love colecting these. I have one of the first winchester rifles ever made. I have an original cattlemans carbine(not one of those cheap replicas you find in a cabellas catalog). I have only seen one rifle of this design and My friend payed 10k for it. It never leaves it's case and it is stored at in a stricly controled envirement.I have one rifle that hasn't been fired in over a century. I can't wait to find out the origin of this one. I'll probably be reading all night.lol

 

[jred321]

thanks for the help guys, i looked at it today and i couldn't find any markings or stampings or anything. the inside of the barrel, as far as i could tell, looks just like the outside so not rifled but i couldn't really see that far into it. thanks again

 

[slayer4u]

That pretty much coensides with what I have found. If it is what I think it is then you have a very rare piece. I read through all my books on russian firearms and nothing came up except that russian gunsmiths were still using the design up into the 1800s.. Most europian rifles had switched to flintlocks on the side by the early 1400s and by the mid 1400 they were all on top.In the late 1600s to early1700s gunsmiths around the world were using that design because it was so easy to make. Rifled barrels were not common until the early 19th century so I think we can assume it was made befor then. So far I beleve that it is a "home made" rifle made by the owners local gunsmith. It is not a practical design for warfare as it deos not fire consistantly. I think it is safe to assume this was a hunting rifle. If you could measure the caliber for us maybe I could turn up more.