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View Full Version : Man's inhumanity to musket!



wolf57
04-30-2008, 12:03 PM
I was talking to a old fellow about the N-SSA and he said that he had an old musket in the basement that he might trade. I followed him down and in the dim light saw a sort of great looking M 1842 that had been turned into a lamp years ago. The fellow said that he had picked it up at a sale of some sort years ago. After a little trading I took it home. The barrel is 36 in. long, the lock works, 1851 date, copper mid band and I am not sure if it has a butt plate yet. So what do you guys think? Should we stretch it, make a 30 in Macon alteration, just take it out back and shoot the poor thing or leave it as an example of man's inhumanity to muskets? I have found that one can never have to many smoothbores. Hope the photobucket pics work.
Bert, 1st Reg. Eng
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF6942.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF6942.jpg)
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF6943.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF6943.jpg)
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF6944.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF6944.jpg)
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF6948.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF6948.jpg)
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF6950.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF6950.jpg)

Steve Sharpe 0236
04-30-2008, 01:49 PM
That is just wrong!

Rick Dunbrook, 08555V
04-30-2008, 03:52 PM
As one of the TV judges says on his show, " It's wrong, It's wrong, it's wrong!!!!!"

wolf57
04-30-2008, 08:40 PM
whoever did this put this Springfield into about 2 in. of concrete...It may be like working on a fossil getting the stock and hopefully the butt plate out. There may be hope yet.
Bert

Harry
04-30-2008, 09:37 PM
That reminds me of the 1980s comedy film The Great Outdoors when John Candy shoots the bear in the butt with the old muzzleloader rifle/lamp.

William H. Shuey
04-30-2008, 10:04 PM
"Never trust a peasant with gold or a horse"!

Bill Shuey

Bob Eschbach, 3380v
04-30-2008, 10:11 PM
Bert, I have a couple of nice lampshades I let you have. Bob

Jim Strang
04-30-2008, 10:26 PM
Take lots of pictures during the excavation. Might make a nice photo-story page in the Skirmish Line!

Tim Lyne
05-01-2008, 07:42 AM
Should the "artist" who did this be positiviely identified, I think their butt should be placed in concrete as well. Maybe they can become a useful appliance, a coffee table, parking pier, etc. Making a lamp of them would probably be the "brightest" thing they'd ever become...

Tim Lyne
Knap's Batt.
#2952V

John Holland
05-01-2008, 10:13 AM
Tim,

You have missed the potential of this great discovery! It presents a completely new collecting genre...Gun Lamps ! ! ! Why, in my years of experience, I have seen many of them go unrecognized for their worthiness to be collected, or accumulated as the case may be. I have seen an Austrian Flint Lock Musket (with a lovely 1930's double light fixture), a German Dreyse 1862 Needle Fire (beautifully polished brass fittings), a near unfired Swiss Vetterli (with only 1" sawed off the butt to sit flat on the stand), a diminutive Springfield .45-70 Cadet (with the muzzle neatly threaded for the light fixture), an Austrian Lorenz (with a hole drilled through the breech plug for the lamp cord), and lastly an Austrian Lorenz with a Wanzel conversion (and a cord hole drilled through the barrel). OK....maybe I did buy a few of them. It is a great way to keep "the wife' off guard. You can picture it now....."John, did you buy another gun? No Honey, I just bought another reading lamp for the Den."

JDH

Tim Lyne
05-01-2008, 10:45 AM
Mr. Holland:
Actually, you may be on to something here John... F'rinstance, we wouldn't need to jam all those annoying team events into daylight hours at Nationals! With the proliferation of these modified arms of which you obviously think sooooo highly, we could shoot around the clock and potentially be done with Nationals in a mere 48 hours!

Just as an example we could schedule the smoothbore team events for say, 2:30 a.m. (I know Knap's would be willing to bend our 8:00 p.m. curfew regulations a bit for this...) The SAC would need to approve bulb wattage, length of lamp cord, and the use of four thousand portable generators running continuously, but it is a workable idea.

Thanks John! Now, about this land deal...

John Holland
05-01-2008, 11:40 AM
Tim,

Why, we could use these newly discovered collectibles to provide lighting throughout the entire campsite! It will only require some 30-40 miles of extension cords. Just think how rustic the entire grounds could look! I can see it now....a full 1/2 mile of 1816's lighting Confederate Road, and a row of 1858 Remington revolvers mounted in simulated loading stands with each barrel sporting a 25 watt bulb for ambience during evening hours. The potential to dress up the grounds is limitless!

On another note, for competitive purposes, the SAC will probably require the proper bulb for each arm, such as large bulbs for large bore arms, etc.

JDH

Tim Lyne
05-01-2008, 12:13 PM
I'm fine with all of this, but...we would need some assurance that all of the arms are original; they really knew how to make lamps back then.

Also: I insist on nothing but pull-chains or clicky switches; none of those "clappers!" You've hung around with Brady, so you know the kind of applause he gets everywhere he goes. Can you imagine a half-mile of original 1816's, Remington Navies and Joslyn rifles winking on and off? We'd all wind up going into seizures...

Anyway, that's MY 2 cents to get this off the gound!

Tim Lyne
Knap's Batt. (unless I've been voted out...)
#2952V

Muley Gil
05-02-2008, 09:38 PM
Bert,

You need to find another outfit, maybe a "light" infantry unit. :D

R. McAuley 3014V
05-02-2008, 11:48 PM
CENSORED

Jim Strang
05-05-2008, 06:59 PM
Did you do your Archeology 101 - concrete cracking - yet?? Just curious how it went...

wolf57
05-06-2008, 09:59 AM
Well is is interesting and going ok. After breaking up the concrete I found a nice looking rod stuck through the stock next to the butt plate. Maybe a push rod from a model T ?? Who knows?? The stock seems to be in good shape although it seems that the concrete has sucked all the oil out of the stock. The but plate is in great shape and not pitted. The varnish, grease and dirt protected the other parts. There is a "EA" carved into the stock. This is almost like getting a T Rex bone out of a rock.
Bert
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF7184.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF7184.jpg)
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF7187.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF7187.jpg)
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF7189.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF7189.jpg)
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wo ... CF7191.jpg (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/wolf57_2006/DSCF7191.jpg)