Help with caliber and identification

[noeyedeer]

Hello,

I recently acquired what appears to be a 1863 smoothbore Enfield musket. Caliper measure of the bore is approximately .75 inches.

It uses a 4 wing musket cap, and it does fire a wad. Overall Length is about 40". Also, would anyone know the correct powder charge? I tried 60 grains but with that charge the wad covered the breech hole, preventing ignition.

Any help with telling me what size ball to use or identification is appreciated.

A deer with no eyes.

 

[junkman_01]

That is definitely a Frankenmusket!

 

[pohill]

What holds the barrel onto the stock? I thought they had 3 bands.

 

[BHP FAN]

looks like it has a Lorenze trigger guard, and the barrel is held by pins, like some Spanish muskets. Do you know any history on it? That could be Civil War, as both sides ran short of issue military arms, and were desperately importing from a host of European nations...

 

[RaiderANV]

This is one of the British East India Company muskets brought in by IMA. There wasn't really a known pattern. Rather muskets of all sort were shortened and thrown together. I'd be very very careful about how much powder I put down it. Most took a ball in the .733 range. But I'd not fire live ammo.

 

[noeyedeer]

Thanks for the replies. Origin is possibly from SouthWest Asia. I had someone very familiar with black powder look it over, and his opinion was that it should be safe to shoot. Any particular reason why it may not be safe to do so?

 

[RaiderANV]

You asked: "Any particular reason why it may not be safe to do so?"

It may not be safe to shoot with higher "service" loads that it were originally used in it. These loads ran 65-85 grains of powder. The problem is iron breaks down and fatigues over time. It develops fishers in the metal and could fail w/ larger charges. That's not saying it not safe to shoot,,,,,

 

[noeyedeer]

A sincere thank you to all replies.