How much do you think this gun is worth????

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Monty

Monty

Group Buy Coordinator
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My son in law works for a pipeline company. They are currently laying a line through the San Jacinto Battleground just outside of Houston. The crew uncovered this circa 1836 flint lock gun...referred to as the multimillion dollar gun because pipeline construction was stopped and they now have to reroute the line. The gun has been turned over to the Historical Society.
 

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I believe it's a percussion cap rifle. Caps came into play on civilian rifles about 1814-1816, with flint rifles being converted around 1826. Service rifles took on cap firing around 1843. (http://armscollectors.com/) This may be one from Gen Houstons army of civilians and is an important piece of history none the less.
 
Difficult to say. I did a lot of detecting while I was in Europe and found a great many artifacts that were handed over, but most in this condition they simply let me keep as a result of the time, effort, and cost it would take to restore items. It looks like it has seen better days and will require some work to bring it back so I hope the society can see the value and takes the time to restore it.
 
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I'd call this the "Government hammer" gun. The average consumer could readily buy this primitive shooting iron in good working condition for $500. Yet, this non-functioning, useless one that can't be linked to any substantive historical event costs taxpayers millions.
 
PenMan1 said:
I'd call this the "Government hammer" gun. The average consumer could readily buy this primitive shooting iron in good working condition for $500. Yet, this non-functioning, useless one that can't be linked to any substantive historical event costs taxpayers millions.
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San Jacinto Battleground is a pretty big deal around here.

The San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site holds a significant responsibility to preserve the proud history of the State of Texas and the United States. The famous Battle of San Jacinto that brought TEXAS its independence was fought on this site. Because of the great importance of the Battle to the course of history, the Battleground is of state, national and international significance, a fact that is attested to by the site's National Historic Landmark status.

The primary purpose of the 1,200-acre site is to commemorate the Battle and to preserve the Battleground on which Texian troops under General Sam Houston achieved the independence of Texas by defeating a Mexican Army led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna on April 21, 1836.
 
Without authenticated provenance it is literally worthless to a collector. Unfortunately historical and sentimental items from days gone by may have a significant value to the finder/owner but bring very little without proper documentation. Even then with the documentation the condition plays a very important role for collectors.

You can't place a monetary value on most historical or even sentimental items passed down for generations which is why most are considered "priceless", but only to the beholder.
 
If this weapon was, in fact, used in the San Jacinto battle (this would be virtually impossible to prove), it would have been a member of the Houston's "civilian army".

By the time of the battle, the official ordinance was percussion caps. This weapon is a flint lock or converted flint lock. I am certainly
NOT downplaying the significance of this historical battle, just suggesting that this was not official "issued ordinance".

As Ohiococonut suggests, this find is likely "priceless" to the owner, but not many others.
 
There is a nice collection in the museum on the site. 20+ years ago people used to find stuff often and it all was supposed to be turned over to the historical society. Weapons are very rare. I don't even think you are allowed to "search" for items now. We visit every year. Live about 10 miles from the site but even here on the coast line we have areas that no searching is allowed because of all the history. I'm kinda surprised a pipleline was allowed to be placed there but it's on the ship channel and lot of oil/chemical companies are also in the area.
 
Monty said:
My son in law works for a pipeline company. They are currently laying a line through the San Jacinto Battleground just outside of Houston. The crew uncovered this circa 1836 flint lock gun...referred to as the multimillion dollar gun because pipeline construction was stopped and they now have to reroute the line. The gun has been turned over to the Historical Society.
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It ain't worth that much - even in Texas.
 
Pistol

76winger said:
I'm just thinking it looks too short for a rifle and too long for a pistol. So what was it?
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I think it's a pistol. The hammer also looks more like percussion to me than flint lock but that could be because of the rust. Of course if it is percussiion it could still be Texas/Mexican War vintage since percussions date to about 1830.
 
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Smitty37 said:
76winger said:
I'm just thinking it looks too short for a rifle and too long for a pistol. So what was it?
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I think it's a pistol. The hammer also looks more like percussion to me than flint lock but that could be because of the rust. Of course if it is percussiion it could still be Texas/Mexican War vintage since percussions date to about 1830.
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This pistol may be a concussion pistol..:eek:. this is my step son holding a friend's Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum... this gun actually belongs to my friend's wife... personally I can't imagine firing this thing... Ed's had an offer from my friend to come by next time he's in town and take a few shots... my friend loads his own ammo and has lightened the loads on these... it was developed for the Alaska fishermen to ward off the Grizzlies that want to "help" the fish. :biggrin:
 

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Smitty37 said:
76winger said:
I'm just thinking it looks too short for a rifle and too long for a pistol. So what was it?
Click to expand...
I think it's a pistol. The hammer also looks more like percussion to me than flint lock but that could be because of the rust. Of course if it is percussiion it could still be Texas/Mexican War vintage since percussions date to about 1830.
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I do realize there's no stock on the remants of the gun in answer to the question above. And I do recognize this to be a cap fired gun rather than a flintlock. It's got the hammer and a place to put a cap for the hammer to hit. If it were a flintlock it'd have a mechanism for clamping the flint in the hammer and a striker plate in front for the flint to hit and create it's sparks.

I made my comment just by the observation of the length of the barrel in relation to the size of the hammer mechanism. A rifler barrel would normally be 2 three times that length, yet a pistol barrel would normally be half that length. It kind of reminds me of some early equivalent to a sawed off shotgun! :eek:
 
I can't tell for sure

76winger said:
Smitty37 said:
76winger said:
I'm just thinking it looks too short for a rifle and too long for a pistol. So what was it?
Click to expand...
I think it's a pistol. The hammer also looks more like percussion to me than flint lock but that could be because of the rust. Of course if it is percussiion it could still be Texas/Mexican War vintage since percussions date to about 1830.
Click to expand...

I do realize there's no stock on the remants of the gun in answer to the question above. And I do recognize this to be a cap fired gun rather than a flintlock. It's got the hammer and a place to put a cap for the hammer to hit. If it were a flintlock it'd have a mechanism for clamping the flint in the hammer and a striker plate in front for the flint to hit and create it's sparks.

I made my comment just by the observation of the length of the barrel in relation to the size of the hammer mechanism. A rifler barrel would normally be 2 three times that length, yet a pistol barrel would normally be half that length. It kind of reminds me of some early equivalent to a sawed off shotgun! :eek:
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I can't tell for sure but it looks to me to be about the right ratio for a pistol which would have had about a 10 1/2 in bbl at that time - but possibly more. Rifles would have had a bbl of about 37 -39 inches but some carried by horsemen would have been shorter.

I made a kit pistol once and the ratio of bbl to hammer plate looks about the same as I remember.

On the other hand neither side would have had a lot of pistols - they really weren't that common in military use at the time.
 
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