Thank you Mark, Jonathan and Michl; much obliged for your input.
Ironically the previous owner of this gun, despite being a man from the timber trade, didn't look at its stock with a keen eye. When i phoned him this morning, he didn't reject the ash probability but he favoured walnut.
He promised to have a professional look to it next time he comes around.
I appreciate your thoughts on this gun characteristics Mark. I see what you mean about its rusticity being of colonial provenance, but i would stand by a homeland work. Hard times also occurred over here during this period and blacksmiths in the interior of the country could admittedly used such simplicity methods, inherited from ancient traditions. Local blunderbuss production, by means of salvaged components, was a fashion in those days. I am rather surprised, and pleased, that this specific example appears to have all components consistent with eachother and typicaly Portuguese, instead of an 'international' clumsy cocktail, except for the lock, which is almost obliging.
Pity it doesn't seem to have belonged in a pirate gear, Mark
. But, who knows for sure ? A modest crew man wouldn't afford a luxury brass barreled piece, right
?