Anybody good at apprasials
 

At one of the farms I get to turkey hunt on the owner has a 1862 Enfield I think.
So I took some photos.
It does have the crown on it and I did see the 25 and 25 stamped on the barrel and is reasonably good shape.




Anybody know any more on what I posted?
Am I correct that it is an Enfield?

Little bit of dust and some surface rust but the bore looked clean and reasonable although I did not shine a light down the muzzle.

JW

Looks to be in pretty darn good shape. How is the bore?

My silly wild ass guess on value? $1200 - $2000. But I'm probably wrong. :s2:

I took a bore pic got to go find it. Although I did not shine a light down the bore I saw no surface rust at all and the rifling was quite apparent.

Thanks Semi

JW

Ps and here is the bore

If this is a true Enfield .577 bore, it might be a smoothbore musket or rifled musket. It looks to be in excellent shape. And I would not even try to put a value on the thing. It is rare that the original ones are in good shape and many times they were forgotten over the years and not cared for.

I would drop a bore light down it when you get a chance.

I am aware of someone on line I could ask and being they are into Civil War weapons, they might be able to give you a value if you want me to. The first thing they will ask is.. is this an original Enfield musket. Let me know is You want me to look further into it for you.

I tried to find an answer, but it seems to depend on exactly what model and year it is. Then of course the condition.

Better to find an expert to know for sure.

Hey thanks Gents - I also informed the owner to take it to an appraiser........

I beleive it is an original. Farm is way in the back woods......

JW

Beautiful piece for sure! The thing that caught my eye is the condition of the stock. From what little I know about these guns, N-SSA folks shoot these originals at their competitions. Not sure if it will get more then what Semi said though. Did he offer it to you for sale?

JW,

Yes, it is indeed an Enfield. The 3-band rifle you have shown was the "bread & butter" rifled musket of the Confederacy during the Civil war having only been surpassed by the U.S. Springfield as far as sheer numbers used on the battlefield. The Union purchased a lot of these while they were ramping up production of their own rifles. The South managed to import large numbers of them from England prior to and shortly after the war began until the Union blockades effectively stopped a lot of outside arms being brought in. After that, the South relied on captured arms to resupply their troops. I have an 1862 2-band that I have been told was a Naval contract rifle. It's a little shorter that the 3-band but otherwise looks exactly the same as yours. There are several dealers of Civil war weaponry in Gettysburg, Pa. that may be able to provide you with information and a ballpark figure of what the gun may be worth. You should be able to find who they are and contact numbers for them here on the net. Nice looking old piece to say the least, and it would be great if these old guns could talk. I'm sure they would have some interesting stories to tell!

BPS

Since this interested me so much, I emailed a person that specializes in these kind of rifles. He's also a reenactor and I personally feel very knowledgeable in these type of arms. So I sent him a link to the forum so he could examine the rifle a little more in detail with the photos. Here is an email he sent me reference the rifle in question...




"That is a Type III Birmingham produced Enfield, caliber .577"
(25-bore) in a pretty standard configuration. It has a good patina
and appears to have a sound stock. Likely worth in the $1500-$2000
range unless it has hidden damage making it worth less or special
markings to make it worth more. I'd like to see the markings better
to know what version it is.

If the bore is sound it can be live-fired still fairly safely with the
standard load of 60 grs of FFg powder and an un-patched Minie' bullet
of .570"-.575" It has to be brushed and swabbed between shots,
certainly between 3rd shots because the fouling will build up in the
rust pits in it and cause extreme difficulty in reloading.

He calls it an 1862 Enfield but it is a Pattern 1853 Enfield. The
gun, or its lock plate at least, was made in 1862. Under the barrel
about where the rear sight is should be a tine stamped name stating
the barrel maker. Under the butt about 3" from the toe there should
be a larger font name stamped that was the gun-maker. Inside the back
of the rammer channel may be the stock-maker's name stamped. On the
right side of the buttstock is probably a roundel with BSAT but may be
some other mark of one of the other prominent Birmingham Small Arms
Trade makers. Behind the trigger guard or in front of the buttplae
tang there might be a marking that shows the purchasing agent. And,
finally, behind the lock plate above the mainspring there is likely
the lock-maker's name.

I had a pretty standard fair looking one last year that was worth
about $1000 in its condition. Thankfully I checked with 2 collectors
before refurbishing it and learned its unique marking made it the
earliest known example of a Georgia-purchased Confederate gun while
allowed them to say exactly the date it arrived in Bermuda then the
date it arrived in Savannah harbor and on which blockaderunner
steamer. Valued at $17,000+ in current condition!"

That pretty much helps me understand what I am looking at. Hope it answered some of your concerns and questions.