peashooter85:This Old Musket —- Springfield M1840,My dad and I salvaged this old musket from the flo
peashooter85:This Old Musket —- Springfield M1840,My dad and I salvaged this old musket from the flood of 1996. My great aunts basement was flooded, and this old piece spent several days under feet of water and mud. My great uncle, who had passed away at the time, was a gunsmith and antiques collector, and we salvaged a lot of interesting stuff from that basement. It is a Harpers Ferry 1840 smoothbore musket, .69 caliber. Originally it was produced as a flintlock but later it was upgraded into a percussionlock musket, the barrel remained a smoothbore. Some rust and nice patina, not bad condition. Unfortunately someone seems to have cut down the wooden front fore-end of the stock, which decreases value. When my dad retires he says he is going to clean up and restore this old musket. That will be awesome. -- source link