I inherited a musket from my great-grandfather

by Jiufa111

In 2014 my great-grandmother passed away, her husband being dead for at least 12 years already. We rode up to their house from Arizona to California and started cleaning out her house for its sale. Her husband served in ww2, and to no surprise the house was littered with old firearms. I myself found a flintlock rifle.

I was 15. I begged for this gun. My mother decided that she would keep it until I was 18 and give it to me then, which is today.

Here are some pictures: https://imgur.com/gallery/WQo49

Could anyone give me any information on this rifle? Thank you so much in advance!

Edit: Proof marks and barrel definition https://imgur.com/gallery/HPnxt Also I realised I forgot to ask a question in the title, sorry.

Well, there are only the two photos, but it looks like you have got a Baker rifle. It was the standard rifle used in the Napoleonic Wars, made famous by the Sharpe's Rifles series of novels. It was also used for a very long time, from 1800 until 1841. This looks like the Third Pattern, with a pistol-grip triggerguard, so 1806 at the earliest...but I am not a specialist. It has a broken frizzen spring: but since it's an old military gun it might be possible to find a replacement. It looks identical to the very common Tower lock, used on the Brown Bess musket. If a Tower frizzen spring fits it, you'll find it easy to locate one. If you do, it'd have to be fitted up a bit by a gunsmith who knows how to work on early pieces.

Standard care is to simply keep it dry, someplace not very hot. You could get it disassembled, cleaned and waxed , for more protection of the metal. One very good thing to do immediately, though , is check to see if it's loaded. Run a dowel or rod ( if the ramrod is still with the gun, it should do) down the barrel till it stops, make a mark on the rod at the muzzle with a black marker, then pull the rod out and hold it next along the barrel with the mark at the muzzle. If it's unloaded, the end of the rod should come to about where the touchhole is - the small hole on the side of the barrel there next the pan of the lock. If it comes to around 3/4 inch or more in front of that, the barrel could have a ball and powder charge in it still. It's not unheard of- they were rather difficult to unload and were often just kept around the house loaded ( though perhaps not primed, with powder in the pan for ready firing). If it is loaded, somebody is going to have to use a rod with a screw on the end ( called, yes, a ball puller) to pull the ball out of the barrel.

Oh, and it's not a good idea to shoot it. Not only is the barrel bore likely to be corroded and rough, but wood that old tends to become brittle and you could crack it up. Happily, there are reproduction Baker rifles out there, if you really want to know what it would have done in its prime.