Question about barrel stamping

fahnenschmied · 22nd September 2009, 01:58 PM

Pardon me rolling out this question as my first post, but the museum that I work for is making a new exhibit and I happened to notice an old gun that was planned to be displayed. The tag proclaimed it to be a "Pennsylvania long rifle" but I knew this to be untrue, because it had a shortened fowler barrel. It is a gun that has been restocked sometime in the early 1820s or so, in a German-american style, but as I don't worship at the American Long Rifle Shrine, I don't know which style or school it would be from. The work was surely done by an American somewhere here. But that is not my question. What interested me was the barrel and remnant of the trigger guard. To judge from the length of the octagonal portion of the breech, it must have been a barrel of considerable lenth, about five or so feet....its cut down to about 36 -38 inches now. About twenty or sixteen bore in size - smaller than 12. No visible proof marks that I know, the only mark visible on the barrel - short of unstocking it - is a punch mark about 4 by 8 millimeters with the figure of a standing man holding some kind of spear. I was hopeful someone knew this mark or could possibly direct me to an online guide to such marks....I can't find much myself.
The other part of this rebuilt gun that is probably original to it is the trigger guard. The front finial is surely from the 1720s to the 1740s; but the rear of the guard has been modified to resembled a longrifle guard. Sorry no photos are at hand. Possibly the rammer pipes are original to that, but the lock is from the 1820s so no help there!
I feel this must have been something like a "long fowler", but I'd like to have a better idea of where this barrel came from.

I stumbled on this forum looking for decent pictures of old guns to build, I am totally amazed at the photos found here of handcannons, matchlocks and the accoutrements for them - far better than any book I've ever seen - or any museum I've been to!
I just hope somebody can help me with a "modern" gun question.

many thanks,

Dave

22nd September 2009, 01:58 PM	#1
fahnenschmied Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 12	Question about barrel stamping Pardon me rolling out this question as my first post, but the museum that I work for is making a new exhibit and I happened to notice an old gun that was planned to be displayed. The tag proclaimed it to be a "Pennsylvania long rifle" but I knew this to be untrue, because it had a shortened fowler barrel. It is a gun that has been restocked sometime in the early 1820s or so, in a German-american style, but as I don't worship at the American Long Rifle Shrine, I don't know which style or school it would be from. The work was surely done by an American somewhere here. But that is not my question. What interested me was the barrel and remnant of the trigger guard. To judge from the length of the octagonal portion of the breech, it must have been a barrel of considerable lenth, about five or so feet....its cut down to about 36 -38 inches now. About twenty or sixteen bore in size - smaller than 12. No visible proof marks that I know, the only mark visible on the barrel - short of unstocking it - is a punch mark about 4 by 8 millimeters with the figure of a standing man holding some kind of spear. I was hopeful someone knew this mark or could possibly direct me to an online guide to such marks....I can't find much myself. The other part of this rebuilt gun that is probably original to it is the trigger guard. The front finial is surely from the 1720s to the 1740s; but the rear of the guard has been modified to resembled a longrifle guard. Sorry no photos are at hand. Possibly the rammer pipes are original to that, but the lock is from the 1820s so no help there! I feel this must have been something like a "long fowler", but I'd like to have a better idea of where this barrel came from. I stumbled on this forum looking for decent pictures of old guns to build, I am totally amazed at the photos found here of handcannons, matchlocks and the accoutrements for them - far better than any book I've ever seen - or any museum I've been to! I just hope somebody can help me with a "modern" gun question. many thanks, Dave