Help Please!!

m1grand

m1grand

CGN Regular
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Location
Cape Breton ,Nova Scotia
I have a barrel i just acquired, it is aprox.5 ft. long octagan shaped from rear aprox.24 in. into round ,it has a small hole i'm guessing firing hole in the rear it weighs aprox 12lbs from the geographical area where i live i beleave it may be French or English ? but i could be way off , also lots of pitting it may have been in the ground ,but over all in good shape .
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Have a look at the breach end for proof marks; if present they will identify what country it came from. Trouble is that they did not become mandatory in Birmingham until 1813 so it may not have any proofs.

cheers mooncoon
 
The deep pitting may be obscuring any proof marks but most probably may never have been any. What I find strange is how far back the touch hole is; I don't think I have ever seen one that far back before. I think I would be fairly hesitant to try rebuilding and shooting it.
It is also strange in having a hooked breach which I would consider quite unusual in a barrel of that age.

cheers mooncoon
 
Can you tell if it is rifled or smooth? Is the hole at the rear of the barrel threaded? Like Mooncoon I wonder about it's location. What is the approximate diameter of the bore?

sluice
 
No way to tell if it is English, French, etc. without proof marks, and with the amount of pitting, its pretty unlikely that you're going to find any. Octagon to round was pretty common. That may be the touch hole, if the barrel was rebreeched at some time, although in that case there should be another one further foreward. Can't see any signs of one. 12 lbs at 5' long is a very long, heavy barrel for a conventional shoulder gun. Perhaps the barrel is from some sort of wall gun.
 
Too small for that; punt guns run 25 to 80 lbs and a bore of around 1" to 1 1/2". Long barreled fowlers were popular in the very early 1800's and earlier and I am guessing it is from one of those. I have one for example that is 6 guage with a 52" barrel and weighs about 12 lbs.

cheers mooncoon
 
I would love to rebuild it but never fire it,I beleaveit is smooth bore and you could put a 12g shell in the end of it . There is only one hole in the side about 1/4 in from the end .I am not sure where it came from it was an estate sale .Any ideas what it is worth?
 
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