Can you identify this flintlock rifle

[Banditfromhell]

A friend's family member has passed. While clearing the house they stumbled across this relic. I can get more photos if needed. The overall length of the rifle is estimated at 5ish feet.

[stonefly-2]

A friend's family member has passed. While clearing the house they stumbled across this relic. I can get more photos if needed. The overall length of the rifle is estimated at 5ish feet.

not an expert but i'm gonna say it's a brown bess flintlock musket.

[Crunch130]

That is probably an EXTREMELY valuable piece. I am not a musket expert.

It does resemble a British "Brown Bess" or Land Pattern musket, but there are some differences (like the barrel bands). I do know the Colonial Americans repaired or reworked British muskets, French Muskets, and whatever they could get their hands on during the Revolution. Or it could be an early product of the US Springfield Armory.

Oh, and did I say it could be EXTREMELY valuable?

This piece is probably worth taking to an expert in antique firearms for ID, appraisal, partial disassembly and CAREFUL cleaning. Your average gunsmith, especially here in CA, probably does not see this sort of thing often enough to do better with it than us average amateur Mauser and Mosin collectors out here.

Please post more pix and let us know what you find out. This is really interesting, and I'm particularly curious, because starting with my mom's dad and going straight back 4 or 5 generations of fathers was a Revolutionary War soldier from Massachusetts named Timothy Baker.

Regards,
Crunch

[Cessnapilot89]

Gunworks in Pleasant Hill or Krauswerks in San Mateo would be your best bets for positive identifications.

[ThePatriot]

It might be an old American musket but something about the look of it makes me wonder if it might be an import from Africa. They made them by the truckload for years and are still fairly common. The best advice as others have said is to take it into an expert since there are so many possibilities. The lack of stamping on the lock plates makes me suspicious, or the pictures may just be too grainy to tell.

[Crunch130]

Bandit - if you're not too far away, I'd be interested in looking at it and helping research.

I'm in Tehachapi, in the mountains between Bakersfield and Mojave. Where are you located?

Crunch

[Springfield45]

It looks to me to be very similar to the Dutch import muskets from the Revolutionary war period. The barrel bands are similar and it all so has the stud that is in front of the trigger guard.


It is all so possible to be a composite musket put together with what ever parts could be obtained.

One thing that is throwing me off is that it has three barrel bands and obviously a nose cap that is not in your first picture. An extra barrel band might have been added at some point. More pictures would help and any markings on it.