Musket Trigger Guard

[aka da Prof]

--so, this past week I hunted a drained lake in down State N.Y. that my oldest coin came from 10 years ago when last drained, a William& Mary half cent,© 1698, along with 6-8 'faceless copper discs. I was hoping for Silver this time out---nope. BUT!! I did retrieve a Brass Trigger Guard from under 10'' of mud. I have looked over hundreds of images but have yet to I.D. this model. I know some if you experts will be able to do that here!!. I also dug this N.J Copper, 1787!!!in rather good condition for being under water sense 1870, along with 'small change', chipped off 'faceless' copper, a white metal medallion from the London Expo of 1853 with Victoria and Albert on the face, Crystal Palace on the back. along with lures,plugs, spinners and lead sinkers. As this lake was only half drained this time, only 4-6 basements were exposed as well as the roads connecting, I hit the homesites hard the last time out, so this time I took to the roads, but only the medallion came from there. On my last night out, and I did work till way past dark, I came to a cellar I had not seen from across the feeding stream, and that is where the N.J. copper came from--- I gotta get back before it really freezes up this year, only four hours away---thanks for your help in I.D.ing the Guard-- ♬♬ da Prof ♬♬
-hope these pix are better for I.D.

 

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[aka da Prof]

I should mention also that four col buttons, no back marks, came out and many cool pontel bottoms, and some new change---

 

[l.cutler]

Well it is definitely not a musket triggerguard, looks to be from a rifle. The problem is, for the most part it wasn't like today where there are different "models" and the parts are identifiable to that model. Many gunmakers made there own and they varied from gun to gun. It does however look to me like it is from a late Pennsylvania style or maybe Ohio. Probably 1800 or so up through the 1850's. I think the NJ copper is a Maris obverse 64, the reverse picture is too blurry to tell for sure what it is. If you could post a better picture it would help. If Don in SJ doesn't spot this, I would PM him to be sure of the variety and so he could add it to his database of dug NJ coppers.

 

[aka da Prof]

thanks for the reply I.c., not being an arms enthusiast, (except for my ground hog 'critter gitter'), I'll have to google more on what you mention Musket vs rifle-- and perhaps find my guard under ages there. As for the copper, I have an old digi Nikon I take pics through a magnifier lens and can get on as clear as the first pic. have read that some of the 3 Mil that were commissioned, some were minted in Newburgh, N.Y., just across the Hudson from where this was dug- I would love to know more and hope that Don in SJ can help. I'll post a better pic after the coffee kicks in this am--

 

[aka da Prof]

thanks for the reply I.c., not being an arms enthusiast, (except for my ground hog 'critter gitter'), I'll have to google more on what you mention Musket vs rifle-- and perhaps find my guard under ages there. As for the copper, I have an old digi Nikon I take pics through a magnifier lens and can get on as clear as the first pic. have read that some of the 3 Mil that were commissioned, some were minted in Newburgh, N.Y., just across the Hudson from where this was dug- I would love to know more and hope that Don in SJ can help. I'll post a better pic after the coffee kicks in this am--
--p.s.- right, should have posted as 'Muzzle Loader'-- thanks for the clarification.-- so this arm would have taken a 'mini ball'??
pss, perhaps I should google local arms makers from that Newbergh-Danbury area--

 

[l.cutler]

In a nutshell, a musket was a smoothbore military arm of large caliber. A rifle had a rifled barrel and was usually for civilian, sporting use. Don is the man when it comes to NJ coppers and has been compiling a database of ground found New Jerseys, he probably would have spotted it by now if NJ copper was in the title. Ironpatch is another member who is very good at IDing the old coppers.

 

[BosnMate]

Go to Leman rifle on google images, and check out the trigger guards.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en....0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.11.1424.MG_Tjz57txg

 

[aka da Prof]

!!! YES!! this is the closest I've seen yet-- I'll check there sit and hope to put a 'SOLVED' (good enough for me) sticker on it!! thank you, Bosnmate!!-
---it's really tough to know fer sure-- most guards have the 'posts' that stabilize the guard in the stock, there not sign of them on the 'remnant' I have, still I'll google the company. And some day go to a black powder meet for more info-