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couple of old rifles my grandfather left me

qwik88

qwik88

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Nice Springfield. It's a model 1842. The lock plate is dated 1849. I believe a few hundred thousand were produced untill 1855 at the Harpers Ferry arsenal.
It's a .69cal smoothbore. with a 42 inch barrel.
A very early percussion cap model that was perhaps the first to be adopted by the military.
It was most certainly used in the civil war. My guess anyway.
 
qwik88 said:
any idea if its worth anything? not really into the old stuff like that
Click to expand...

Well it's kind of hard to say. But everything is worth something.
The picks are'nt all that great.
I'm not sure what the market is like for these right now.
If it can shoot or not makes a difference.
If it's been refinished or not.
I think depending on condition a model 1842 can fetch $400 to $900ish.
 
ok seems like somthing i might be able to trade for a nice hand gun when it comes time any other info any one could tell me would be greatly apprisiated esp on the elg
 
Any chance you could post more pictures? The barrel bands and hammer just look... Off. It may be cut down? It's hard to give any kind of ballpark on value based on those pictures. Also, shine a flashlight down the muzzle and see if it was rifled. I don't see any sights in the photos, and sights were usually added on rifled '42s. But it's possible they weren't added, or they were removed.

Right now, my money is on a cut-down sold as surplus after the Civil War.
 
If you can measure it, the barrel should be ~42 inches overall should be ~58. If it's original length, it'll be worth more than if it was cut down. Cut down muskets can usually be restored, but it's money. Also, it looks like there are a couple cracks near the rear of the lockplate, and the wrist may have been repaired which will bring it down a bit. These guns will always have value, though. Like Salty said, most '42s saw service in the Civil War, at least briefly. There weren't enough muskets to go around in the first couple years of the war, so all serviceable (and some not-so-serviceable) military weapons were pressed into immediate service until production of the '61 Springfield could be ramped up to meet demand.
 
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Ohhh, sorry. I just figured out there are in fact pictures of two different muskets. I thought you'd only uploaded pictures of the Springfield. Okay, yes. That's a '42. Looks to be in pretty good shape. I'll try to find you some info on the Belgian.
 
belguim looks like a copy of a later springfield looking at the hammer and lockplate. The 49 (M1842) springfield would have seen heavy use with the irish brigade as all of the regiments with it, except the 28th mass (who were issued 1853 british enfields) were issued it as Thomas Meager loved them. They used it to fire the buck and ball shot (one .69 cal round ball, and 3 small .32(?) cal round balls, to great effect at bloody lane at antietam sept 1862. Time the war came around in april 1861, most regiments would have begun getting 1855 springfields, or even the newer 61 springfields as well as enfields. few other regiments would have been issued the 42, as most wanted the rifled barrels for accuracy.

the 42 springfield looks to be cut down. as the space between the front "sight" band (there is a nub as a sight there) and first retaining band looks short (gun is longer than later springfields). missing rear sling swivel, and looks like the percussion nipple is broken. it definitly would be graded as "attic" condition.

would need better pics of belguim rifle to fully ID it
 
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now that i got my ltc i would like to sell these to fund my first pistol buy but seeing how i got them from my grandfather who passed how would i go about this?
 
Just be sure you really want to sell heirlooms...once they are gone, you don't want to look back 10 years from now and say "man, I really wish I still had those guns"

You'll probably have to file an FA10 to register them as yours, and then you can transfer them like any other firearm. I could be wrong here, though, these things are complicated, sometimes.
 
Keystone said:
Just be sure you really want to sell heirlooms...once they are gone, you don't want to look back 10 years from now and say "man, I really wish I still had those guns"

You'll probably have to file an FA10 to register them as yours, and then you can transfer them like any other firearm. I could be wrong here, though, these things are complicated, sometimes.
Click to expand...
An FA10 for a 150+ year old musket? I hope you are kidding. [thinking]

CLMN
 

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