Frontier Firearms from the Lifetime Collection of Larry Ness

.58 caliber. 51.375" pinned octagon to round barrel with baluster turned rings at the transition. SN: NSN. Heavily oxidized brown metal, iron furniture, European hardwood stock likely of beech. Flat pointed lock in original flint with rounded iron fenced and bridled pan and rounded reinforced cock. The lock is marked with an {Elephant} motif under the pan and WARRANTED in an arc at the tail. Barrel with post-1813 Birmingham proofs and a gauge mark that is so deeply stamped it is not fully legible. The overall pattern is the classic "trade gun" of the late 18th and early 19th century, but likely produced closer to the turn of the 20th century with more simplified furniture. The classic "serpent side plate" was replaced with a simple flat iron plate, but the oversized iron triggerguard was retained. The corrugated brass thimbles were replaced with more simple sheet iron pipes but the rudimentary raised carved moldings behind the lock mortise, counterpane and around the breech plug tang were retained. In this case the barrel is extremely long, suggesting that the market this gun was intended for had particularly low quality powder and the extra length was necessary for complete burning. What appears to be the original button head iron ramrod is included. A very nice example of one of the last of the flintlock "trade guns" not intended for the use of North American Natives, but rather natives of some of the most remote regions of the world, probably for use as late as the early 20th century.