Hi Rick,
I confirm your dating of the gun although the scrolled trigger and the curved lower outline of the lock seem to suggest a date of the late 1st half of the 18th c.
I referred to all my gunmakers names sources but cannot see a chance to identify this special signature without taking off the frizzen spring.
It is not as unusual as you may assume to find lock signatures partially covered by functional parts as the lock plate was signed before the assembling process.
Best,
Michael
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