The Solid Silver Butt Plate for the Flintlock has been Found and it’s Beautiful!!

[SC Keith]

The flintlock site has just given up the part I wanted to find most of all! I was able to return to the swampy area where an old causeway crossed during the 1700s, and finally recover the butt plate that I had hoped would be there. I had begun to think that it would remain hidden from me forever, and I would always wonder if it was inscribed or what it’s motif would look like. Now I know!

John King was one of London’s finest silversmiths when he made this flintlock rifle butt plate in 1774 as indicated by the hallmark information on the plate. King was supplying his silver gun mounts to the finest gunmakers in Europe during the second half of the 18th century. Thanks for coming along with me here on my hunts to recover the Revolutionary War era silver flintlock!!
Keith

 

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[nkellam22]

That is truly amazing.
You have to take a couple of photos with all the pieces together!

 

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[CoinFetcher]

I don’t even know what I’m looking at, but I’m in love!

What a cool find, thank you for sharing

 

[Jose The Goon]

That is awesome. You should post all the pieces to this gun in one thread. I, for one would like to see them together.

I understand your concerns. I'm sure others feel the same.
Because of the nature of the find/finds by "SC Keith", the stories, pictures, comments & informative posts by other members in each individual thread are worthy of their own spotlight, BUT, the individual threads can become lost in the shuffle for those members (like yourself) wishing to follow the stories & pictures in their sequence & entirety. I think the best way to do it would be to post links to each individual thread, in the order they were created, in the Banner threadwith a note instructing people to see those other threads if they so desire to follow the story along how it has unfolded & continues to unfold. As more finds are discovered, & are posted in their own new thread, that new thread can be added to the Banner thread. I don't know if posting links to other threads in the Banner thread is appropriate or allowed. Maybe the TNet moderators can chime in on this. In the meantime, I'm trying to consolidate the finds Keith is making onto 1 thumbnail
frame as was posted here a few posts ago. I don't know how clear they are though. Each individual find of this special sequence deserves it's own thumbnail frame & I will try to continue to make enlargements of each as they come in & add each one to the consolidated thumbnail. Happy Hunting !!

 

[Donnie B from VA]

Congratulations! All of those pieces are museum quality finds. You should have four banners.

 

[treblehunter]

wow such a beautiful piece! Congrats, banner vote even if you have other banners with the other parts of that historic gun

 

[mindcrime1988]

That is awesome. Many kudos to you for being persistent. That's how you do it!
Many congrats to you on the excellent finds.

 

[Gaspipe]

I rarely think much of the entire “Banner” thing; in the case of this find I make an exception. Fantastic and historic.

 

[Bubba65]

Wow what a Beauty!!! Congrats!!!!

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Damn!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SC Keith]

WOW, WOW, WOW! You did it, I'm so happy for you.
I wish I could have been there to witness you recovering that butt plate. . . I don't know what to say, it's beyond words

I really appreciate your following of the recoveries Watercolor! Your interest helped to motivate me to keep searching!!

Go look for the rammer guides, THEN find a gunsmith to make a complete gun with your parts. Not the iron ones of course.

. I am on a quest now to find the rammer guides now as I look for a top flintlock gunsmith to make this gun.

Probably a once in everybody's lifetimes! Wow. I'm just left at a loss for words sufficient. I agree with Smokey. It would be well worth the investment to find the most renown gunsmith and the finest piece of walnut to see a a firearm worthy of those silver pieces of art.

. This project gives me even more motivation to find the rammer guides and is a great idea!

Extremely thrilled for you Keith on such a spectacular find in seemingly perfect shape! The journey is just beginning now as you try to determine who would throw such an object d'art into the swamp and why. I hope to see it in person sometime when I'm next down in your beautiful state. I had a wonderful time in Charleston last year even though I didn't get a chance to detect.

Yes PM me on your next visit to SC and we meet up!!

FANTASTIC !! HUGE CONGRATS !! So happy for you that you finally found it ! It is gorgeous !! Looks to be very heavy. How much does it weigh ?? Since the beginning of your finds until now, I thought your relic was a Flintlock Pistol, not a "musket/long gun/rifle". I couldn't tell by your image of the barrel. I know from searching about Joseph Heylin that he made pistols, muskets, blunderbusses, fowling guns etc. & used John King for the silver pieces. So judging from your butt plate, it looks like it isn't from a pistol after all.
The image I've been making has the wrong text but I can easily change things. Let me know if you would like something different & I will gladly make the adjustments. But for now, the image in this post has the old text but your latest find is included. I increased the "canvas" size from 1220 x 920 pixels to 2400 x 1600 in order to squeeze in more pieces & keep the clarity. It's great that the images that you post are 4000 to 5000 pixels & very clear. They can be "enlarged down" & keep their sharpness of clarity.
In regards to your post in the other thread when you found the thumb plate, & for any of our "TNET" members who might be interested, I use a free internet download from "GIMP - GNU IMAGE MANIPULATION PROGRAM"
It has tons of tools & functions but I only use a few for making the images I post. I started doing it a few years ago to "clean up" & enlarge old family photos suitable for framing. GIMP has its own tutorials on its website & there are great Youtube tutorials on the net. I just Google; "How do I do such & such using GIMP?" People are very helpful.
It's not that complicated but it does take a little practice to get the hang of it. It's like learning how to use a different type of metal detector or learning to play a musical instrument. What takes the most time is cutting an image out of another image and saving it to a picture file & properly following a handful of steps, then those images can be pasted onto other images in layers. Like anything, if you do it enough, it becomes second nature. I'm not an artist by any means. I couldn't draw a picture or paint a painting to save my life. My cellphone is an antique that I just use to make or receive calls in an emergency. I use an old desktop HP computer with a manual mouse & I still haven't upgraded out of Windows 7. But I enjoy fiddling around with GIMP late at night for pictures etc. for family & friends. I really enjoy your story & finds. Very worthy of a little "GIMPING
AROUND" with. Makes me feel creative. Anyone can do it if interested. Keep those parts coming !!!
A very beautiful, historic find ! You deserve it for all the effort in the mud & muck you are putting in.
Thanks for sharing. Huge congrats again !!
CHEERS !! J.T.G.
View attachment 1874221

Jose I really appreciate all the photo grouping that you have done and I too was not 100% sure it would be a rifle until I studied the trigger guard length. I was leaning that the gun was a pistol at first from my limited knowledge of these firearms. It looked like a large pistol to me at first. The wood and iron barrel were in bad condition, but the other silver parts are wonderful!! Thanks again!!

That is truly amazing.
You have to take a couple of photos with all the pieces together!

I will post a group photo to my banner thread soon!

 

[Calabash Digger]

That my friend is a top notch find of a lifetime piece....Congrats!! Have a replica made!!!

 

[Simplex]

OH WOW! That is simply amazing. Fantastic find for sure.

 

[sandchip]

.. as I look for a top flintlock gunsmith to make this gun...

You might consider contacting the NRA who might offer some guideance in your search.

 

[Simplex]

. I am on a quest now to find the rammer guides now as I look for a top flintlock gunsmith to make this gun.

.

That would be a beautiful rifle with the right wood. I love shooting black powder flintlocks. had to vote banner on this.

 

[watercolor]

In looking at that butt plate, I noticed the that the lower part of the circular engraving motif that surrounds the top screw-hole shows signs of wear. This, to me, indicates that this rifle was used frequently and was not just a firearm that would be taken out of the closet on special occasions to show & impress friends. Whoever owned this rifle was a person of means who enjoyed using it for it’s intended purpose. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part but, it’s just a thought.


As other members have previously indicated, there are still a few pieces ram-rod silver still out in that “muck”. . . you’ve already found the nicest pieces of this rifle which ANYONE, would have been thrilled and “over-the-moon” just even to find one of those pieces.


An additional thought. . .
As the original owner of such an exquisite rifle MAY have been a person of means, quite possibly there could be land-grant/ownership records/maps of the area you found these pieces in some archive which may open the door for your next continuing quest . . .


All the best-
Mark

 

[HCW]

My brother has been making reproductions for the last 40 years he made this 40 years ago for me. That's a 50 caliber percussion. More recently he's been making true reproductions PM me if you are serious and I'll contact him about this

 

[CRUSADER]

Another amazing part of that amazing gun.

I have somewhat lost track, have you now got all the missing pieces?

 

[HCW]

Another amazing part of that amazing gun.

I have somewhat lost track, have you now got all the missing pieces?

I think the barrel should sound out nice and loud.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Absolutely awesome, NEVER seen anything like it found.

 

[Aureus]

Just mind blowing! Somebody, give this man an other banner!