Barn find

[RobE30]

While searching through an old barn in Bucks county (w/ owners permission) I found this. The owner said I could have it as trade for some landscaping I had done for them. Its kind of beat up but still very cool.

[franko2490]

looks cool

[Nick325is]

Nice find. Care to trade for anything?

[Vedubin01]

can you clean it up a bit and get some better pictures?

[GaryE30]

I'm at work and the pictures don't show up. What is it?

[SamE30e]

I'm at work and the pictures don't show up. What is it?

A very old fancy gun.

[mrsleeve]

looks like an old replica match lock musket

[Alkasquawlik]

What's the difference between a match lock and a flint lock?
I was gonna say it looks like a flint lick, until I saw mrsleeve's post

[HiTheNameIsBJ]

Matchlocks held a slow burning wick in the brass clamp on the right side. Flint locks hold and strikes a piece of flint into a flash pan. Flint locks replaced matchlocks.

[mrsleeve]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Flint lock has a chunk of flint held in the jaws of the hammer the strikes a piece of steel right above the pan.

This one dose not have the piece of steel for 1 and the hammer on this one holds a smoldering (read always lit) chunk of cord (or back in the old days called match). You see the pan in the 3rd pic right where the hammer comes down. That has a small door that swings open to expose the flash pan. Pull the trigger an the smoldering rope falls into it and bang it goes. Flint locks work much the same way, swing the door open and the sparks made from the flint on the steel fall into the pan and bang.

Match locks were the 1st viable small firearms to be deployed in great numbers. But they were unreliable when the weather was ill, or humid, IE the match would go out.

So the flint lock was developed that would make sparks in the pouring rain and pan was engineered as so it would work in wetter conditions as well. The match lock invented in the early 1400's in Germany and was only a supplement to the cross bow till the mid 1500's when it was the primary weapon. It was short lived though, as the Flint lock was developed in the early 1600's, by the french and many other countries had their own variations of it.

The flint lock was the primary weapon all the way till shorty before the US civil war when they went to the percussion cap (developed in 1805, did not see wide distribution till the mid part of the century) and then shortly after that the modern metallic cartridge that did see limited use in the US civil war.

there is your quick history lesson for today.

[RobE30]

Wow! Thanks for the history lesson man ;) Tonight I'm going to clean it up and I'll get some more detailed pics. My grandmother has one that looks almost identical to it. My grandfather brought it home w/ him from japan when he was stationed there in WW2, so I'm wondering if is japanese in origin? Hopefully when I start removing the crud and grime I'll find some sort of ID. It does look like it is missing a few peices where the hammer comes down....

[mrsleeve]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Other than clamp that holds the match cord that looks about right.

Judging by whats left of the decoration its prolly very similar to what you grandma has.

[RobE30]

It's a shame it is in such poor condition.... Hopefully it'll clean up ok. It will NEVER fire again though. It'll look cool hanging in my "man cave"/ music room:)

[CreagerPhotography]

Don't clean it!

Find out some more history on the gun. Unless you never plan on selling it and just want to have a very cool rifle to hang on the wall.
There are plenty of collectors out there that might be able to help you out. This rifle might be worth something in it's current condition. Keep the patina on the gun.

Just my two cents.

[RobE30]

I wasn't going to do a "hard core" cleaning, just brush the barn shit off of it. Would oiling (murphys oil soap and warm water) hurt the value? It really is quite filthy