1861 snider, repro or not?

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Belzebuth666

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My Dad's neighbour has a snider he wanted me to take a look at,so i gladly did but i dont really have a clue about antiques, it looks to my untrained eye to be in pristine condition, so much that i think it might be a reproduction. The lock is marked 1861 but the stock is 1862 marked, is that unusual? there's also the brass chain wich i dont think belongs there.











I hope the crappy cell phone pics will be clear enough.
 
I've only been shooting for sixty-one years, so I'll take advice from the experts here, but in all that time, I've never seen a reproduction Snider of any kind.

I don't bleeve such a thing actually exists.

My only concern is that stamp on the stock, y'see the ENGLISH spelling of 'Armoury' has a letter 'u' in it, and that doesn't. Tose folks who live donw there spell 'Armory' like that.

THIS is a genuine London ArmoUry Company' stamp

http://www.antiquearmsinc.com/images/london-armoury-p53-musket-rifle-enfield-LAC-kerr-confederate-civil-war-caleb-huse-JS-Anchor/london-armoury-p53-musket-rifle-enfield-LAC-kerr-confederate-civil-war-caleb-huse-JS-Anchor-23.jpg

tac, learner here.
 
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TAC is correct: nobody has ever done a repro of a Snider, at least to my knowledge. Well, the Khyber Pass boys might have, but it would not have been that nice.

That one has all the right markings. It's genuine, for my money.

The Lock and Stock could have different dates owing to rebuilds and parts-swapping while in the Service. NOT uncommon at all. I have even seen an 1871 rifle with a swapped-in 1859 Lock.

The little brass chain belongs there: it is for the Nipple Protector so you don't mash your Nipple and Firing-Pin if you dry-fire it.

The spelling of ARMORY for the normal English ARMOURY also is disturbing but I am sure I have seen if previously, on a DC-marked Snider. I am thinking it is possible they could have had 2 stamps for the roundel, one with the American spelling. They DID do up quite a number of Enfields (same lock and stock) for the Civil War.

Nice rifle, really!

Hope this is some help.

@ TACFOLEY: Tac, I only got my first Snider 52 years ago. Yeah, I know: just a snot-nosed kid! I'm trying! S.
 
The stock looks modern (compared to the rest). There is no shrinkage and more telling no oxidization or age to the wood. The stampings kind of verify my suspicions. Beautiful gun, but I don't think the stock is 150 years old, closer to perhaps 20 years old and well cared for. Just my opinion.
 
Looks like a replacement stock compared to one of my 1861 Enfield in 577
This is the earlier model as it has the Square ended ram rod and the nut and bolt on the barrel bands .


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yep no such thing as a repro snider also the gun is not a 1861 the lock is and it says such because these guns where converted from 1853 and 1861 enfield muskets the barrels and locks were used the date on the action can differ depending on the mk it is
 
Looks excellent. Perhaps the wood was lacquer thinnerd and just given a coat of oil- "Dark proofs still in stock but rest stripped clean." That aside, it is in incredible cond.
A look at the chain design,leather, and seeing if E stamped, will show if nipple protector is original.
It is very very nice.
 
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