6/8/2022 – Frontier Firearms from the Lifetime Collection of Larry Ness

.60 caliber. 40″ wedge-retained barrel. SN: NSN. Browned finish, brass furniture, hardwood half-stock with raised cheek rest. A neat example of the post Civil War recycling of obsolete guns and their parts. The barrel is from a U.S. Model 1863 or 1864 Rifle Musket with the eagle ground off the bolster and the faint remnants of the  “V/P/{Eagle Head}” proofs at the breech with “LEMAN” stamped over them in individual dies. Single-screw percussion lock with simple engraving is marked “LEMAN/LANCTR PA”. Simple commercial brass furniture include a crescent buttplate, a plain toe plate, a finger extension triggerguard, a forend cap and an entry pipe. Barrel with half-length lug added underneath with a pair of plain iron pipes with a brass tipped wood ramrod. Iron blade front sight. While the most common variant of the post-Civil War longarm altered to “shotgun” is the half-stocked, shortened and smooth-bored rifle musket, this is a much more elegant variation of the same concept. Guns like this were made in huge quantities for sale to settlers heading west in the post-Civil War period. While made in huge numbers, the survival of these inexpensive settler guns is uncommon in anything but well worn condition. Nice ones like this rarely appear on the market.