Hello everyone. I already have two Algerian long guns. One a shooter, the other a nice collector piece. So I really didn't need this one for my collection. But it was SO CHEAP I had to buy it.
You guys know what I mean.
Well, here's another restoration job in the waiting.
LOL
This one has the somewhat lesser encountered flintlock versus the large miquelet lock. And the gun looks very "tribal" made. And it has what appears to be an old brass museum tag with the number "80" stamped on the tag. The barrel is held to the stock with very thin black wire instead of barrel bands, and appears original to the gun. In fact, this wire is actually what holds the front sling swival to the stock. Looks like it had an iron ramrod vs wood, but I will investige that further. Here's what will need to be done:
LOCK: The lock was complete, but shipped with the hammer and screw off. That's because the tumbler was sitting in the lock crooked and partially out of the hole. And it was locked on half-cock. Hope the mainspring has not been weakened. Anyway, the lock will need a total going over and put back in working order. One of the lock plate bolts is missing. So will have to make two new ones that match and age them.
STOCK: The stock is basically solid except for a broken piece at the buttstock. I can tell this piece had been broken before with someone attempting to re-glue it using the wrong glue. So I guess it fell off during shipment. But it's an easy fix. I can tell there was originally a butt cap/plate
of some kind that was held with two nails. But the cap is missing. I do have an original broken Algerian stock that has a brass butt plate with the original patina I could fit. And maybe (?) add a piece of aged camel bone between the the butt stock and brass plate? The rest of the stock looks OK. Crude inleting job for the lock. LOL
BARREL: Tapered octagon the full length as most Algerian barrels were. Has a dark patina with some nice silver decoration at the breech and muzzle ends. The problem is the breech plug tang is slightly bent upwards from it's inlet in the stock. Don't have any idea how that happened. I can tell it was held to the stock with a nail versus a screw. It will be easy enough to heat and bend the tang back so it fits in it's inlet. Problem is, to take the barrel off the stock (also for exterior cleaning of the barrel) will require unraveling 7 wire barrel bands.
And then winding the wire back on.
That will take a while. Not looking forward to it. I do have about 3 original Algerian barrel bands that are correct for the gun that I might be able to utilize and eliminate a couple of the wire bands. Hmmm....we'll see. There has to be at least three wire bands re-used. One for the upper sling ring, and two more for the ramrod ferrels.
Anyway, here are a bunch of pics of the gun exactly the way I received it. Thanks for looking. And comments are most welcome.
Rick