Can you Identify this Old Musket

Loyer

Loyer

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SW Ontario
I don't have my old reference book "European Guns of Civil War" anymore and I know this old musket with "H & S" on the lock plate was listed in it. I can't make out the other marks (proof and a rack number)

It was a US Civil War secondary musket from Europe.

Can someone with the book look this up for me and let me know the model of gun it is?

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If I understand it correctly, the Belgium cone method is a hole drilled on the top side of the barrel and a percussion nipple brazed over the hole.
I am still sure it is European.
 
Unless I am mistaken, if it is american, it would have an eagle and a V stamped near the breach. I would think your other choice is a Charleville either a conversion or perhaps built as a percussion gun. The french proof marks were variations of crossed palm leaves but also fairly lightly engraved and so probably missing on your gun, assuming they were once there. I vaguely think that Charlevilles were 69 caliber (when smoothbore) so the bore diameter might tell you whether it is US or french made

cheers mooncoon
 
Beech stock suggests European origin. I think it is one of the thousands of assorted muskets imported from the Continent early in the Civil War.
There should have been proof marks.
The two top bands seem rather close together. How long is the barrel?
 
She is a beauty, and in obviously unmessed with condition!!!

You get to strip her down and clean her up, maybe the 1st one to do so in 150 years.


She kinda strikes me as whats commonly referred to as a Potsdam, she could be that or any number of European flintlock musket converted to percussion in like fashion.

The grip area "with the ridges" makes me think French for some reason.....Perhaps a converted late pattern charleville???

When you strip her check for proofs...and hopefully you'll post them:)
 
It may be an amalgam of 2 or even 3? different rifles. Looking at the wonderful pics in "Arms and Equipment of the Union", it appears to have the front end of a Saxon Model 1857 rifle musket imported by the thousand from Dresden, Germany early in the war by a northern army desperate for any kind of rifle. The brass front sight also matches the Saxon Model.

On the other hand, the lockplate much more closely matches that of the Austrian Lorenz Rifle, also imported by the north at the beginning of the Civil War. The two bands also tie in with the Lorenz.

Looks to me, therefore, like a European import circa 1860. Do you know the bore size? The Saxon Model was 58 caliber and the Lorenz model, originally .54 caliber, was rebored to take the standard .58 caliber minie ball. Looks like you might have something interesting there.
 
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