Found this at buckle site from yesterday. Please identify.

[absosecur]

Found this at the same site as my buckle yesterday and didn't think much of it till I cleaned it. Everything in me wants to call it some type of signal cannon but not sure. It is 8 and 3/8's inches long. It is round and flared on one end and octagon and inside is threaded on the other end. Look at the pic where the octagon end is on the left and you will see a tiny hole in the side which goes all the way thru to the inside. On octagon end it looks like it's stamped with unopened tulips. It has the number 44 stamped on octagon end in one pic. The inside diameter is 5/8's of an inch. Any ideas what this is. View attachment 1393519View attachment 1393520View attachment 1393521View attachment 1393522

Hhh

 

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[BosnMate]

It's the barrel off a flint lock pistol. The clip with the hole is to hold the barrel in the stock. This is done by using a pin that passes through the wood. Is the barrel magnetic. If not, then you have a bronze barrel, and that would account for the threads still being so sharp and not corroded away. The breech plug is missing from the barrel. Which tells me that it might have been a screw barrel flint lock, which was a type that the barrel unscrewed from the breech for loading.


The barrel on the above pistol, if you look closely, is octagon to round, with a wedding band and a flared muzzle like your barrel has. Note also the bright pin in the wood where the barrel has been pinned to the stock. That clip for the pin makes me think yours is a muzzle loader, that is missing the breech plug, and not a screw barrel, because a screw barrel didn't have a wood forestock.



Above is a screw barrel. What ever you have, it's a good find, perhaps there is more of the gun there, keep looking.

 

[absosecur]

It's the barrel off a flint lock pistol. The clip with the hole is to hold the barrel in the stock. This is done by using a pin that passes through the wood. Is the barrel magnetic. If not, then you have a bronze barrel, and that would account for the threads still being so sharp and not corroded away. The breech plug is missing from the barrel. Which tells me that it might have been a screw barrel flint lock, which was a type that the barrel unscrewed from the breech for loading.

View attachment 1393538
The barrel on the above pistol, if you look closely, is octagon to round, with a wedding band and a flared muzzle like your barrel has. Note also the bright pin in the wood where the barrel has been pinned to the stock. That clip for the pin makes me think yours is a muzzle loader, that is missing the breech plug, and not a screw barrel, because a screw barrel didn't have a wood forestock.

View attachment 1393539

Above is a screw barrel. What ever you have, it's a good find, perhaps there is more of the gun there, keep looking.

The first pic of flintlock pistol is it. It is threaded and the small hole is there that goes from pan on outside to charge on inside of barrel. Thank you very much. I wonder what yr it dates.

 

[Fullstock]

Yes, it's a brass barrel for a flintlock pistol. It still has its touch hole, but the breech plug is missing.

 

[BosnMate]

I wonder what yr it dates.

Now you are dealing with a rusty memory. Percussion caps were invented in (I think) 1836, and by 1840 were in fairly common use. If, as I suspect, your barrel is bronze, that would date it earlier, it would put it in the 1700's, but in any case I doubt if many flint lock firearms were manufactured after the invention of percussion caps, so a good honest time frame is before 1830, to sometime in the mid 1700's. A bronze barrel wouldn't tie down a date, because both bronze and iron barrels were being manufactured at the same time, it's just that it seems like around the 1800's most barrels were made of iron. It's a great find, bronze would be even better, have you tried a magnet on it yet?

 

[Bruce R]

Hand cannon.

 

[absosecur]

Now you are dealing with a rusty memory. Percussion caps were invented in (I think) 1836, and by 1840 were in fairly common use. If, as I suspect, your barrel is bronze, that would date it earlier, it would put it in the 1700's, but in any case I doubt if many flint lock firearms were manufactured after the invention of percussion caps, so a good honest time frame is before 1830, to sometime in the mid 1700's. A bronze barrel wouldn't tie down a date, because both bronze and iron barrels were being manufactured at the same time, it's just that it seems like around the 1800's most barrels were made of iron. It's a great find, bronze would be even better, have you tried a magnet on it yet?

I just tried the magnet and it does not cling to barrel. So it's bronze then correct. Cool.

 

[BosnMate]

Yes, it's a bronze barrel. Great find. Tell us more about finding it, how deep? Any chance of there being more parts? What is the general area you are hunting? Not asking for any info that will give your site away, just general info, like what state. Of course iron will be badly corroded. The breech plug was probably iron. A find like that would put me on cloud 9, my first love is relic hunting.

 

[relic lover]

I want one

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