🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Musket Trigger Guard?

fyrffytr1

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Mar 5, 2010
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Found this today at a peanut field I have permission on. It is brass with an iron trigger and would measure about 7"s long if straight. It is missing a piece at the front. Half a screw hole remains. I can make out the numbers 0 2 on the back of the tang. They are upside down in the first picture. Any help IDing what gun it came from would be greatly appreciated.
 

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Your find's peculiar construction, having a brass trigger-guard loop which is made separately and attached to the "strap" part, is very similar to the US Harper's Ferry 1812 Flintlock musket. BUT, the HF 1812's brass trigger-guard loop had a provision for a sling-strap loop... which is completely absent from yours. See the photo below.
 

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Thanks for the reply. The lack of a sling swivel attachment has me stumped. I wonder if it could have attached at the front mounting screw?
If it has you stumped it must be a rare one or maybe a reproduction?
 

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It has been tentatively identified as a Springfield model 1873 trigger guard. They were made with and without the sling swivel provision.
 

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According to Al Frasca who is "TheCannonballGuy" of rifles, my trigger guard is from a Springfield carbine. That would explain the lack of a sling swivel provision on the bow. The carbine had a slide ring on a bar attached to the side of the receiver. I am not sure of a time frame yet. More research is in order.
 

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The search is on again. I misread Als e-mail and I now think it is not a Springfield trigger guard at all. It is either a carbine or cadet rifle from another manufacturer. I can't find one with the "lugs" where the bow goes through the tang the same as mine. All I have found are elongated front lugs. Both lugs on mine are the same size. And, it is all brass construction.
 

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