Brown bess

New to the forum, lloks great and good info.

I have a question about a Brown Bess rifle. I am about to get one from a friend tjhat is in pieces, but he tells me they are all there. The markings are on the stock and is a G over the number 89.

Can anyone tell me anything about this rifle. The stock is Walnut or appears to be. Also where they place an engraving on a tower there are the letters capital U and lower case v.
It was apparently used in the Napolinic war

Any info would be appreciated

 

I would guess a look around the net for a British antique arms collectors group would be helpful. Also, if you can find out where they are, I'm sure there will be a museum or two where you can go and have a first hand look at some.

 

Hey Duffy, welcome to the forum.

Do you have any pictures of this rifle? It's usually a big help and someone can probably point you in the right direction if you could post some images.

 

What is the Brown Bess rifle?

 

The 'Brown Bess' is the flintlock musket that was the standard weapon of the British Army from 1722 to 1838

More here

 

Yes, Ricky is right it is a musket - not a rifle as the barrel is smooth bored. it did not have much of an accurate range and was primarily intended for volley fire. It was also in use with/by the british army for a long time e.g one example I was lucky enough to fire was used in the 1745 Jacobite campaign in Scotland.

What wiki says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Bess

Also if you ever get it assembled and it is proved safe to fire watch your eyebrows The frizzen pan has a bad "flash over" effect. One flash and no eyebrow :smok:

 

Thanks for thelp. I am away at the moment so when I get home I will take some pictures of the "musket" which I called a rifle.
Thanks again

 

was it superior to its French or Dutch counterparts that were sold to the Colonials?

 

Much the same, as far as I know. The only real difference that I can remember was that it had a larger calibre.

 

This seems like an excellent question for Dave

 

Unfortunately this is abit early for my knowledge, I know very little on Pre-1890 small arms.

 

young barry lyndon flees home after killing a man in a duel ..he enlists in the british army and later runs across his long lost uncle, a sgt ..while both are fighting the french on the continent ( french inf in all white uniform,what war ?) ...sgt to lyndon ..your mothers worried sick ..you must write home and tell her ,your alive and well and " MARREIED TO BROWN BESS" ..if you have never seen this movie , do so ...it WON best picture the year it was released and is still great .today ...

 

I Believe it was the 7 years war, it was a good film another Stanley Kubrick classic

 

Does your musket come with a bayonet?

 

well at first they just jammed a big knife handle first into the barrel but this was discovered to hamper the shooting ability somewhat ,hence the crooked dogleg spike seen above . makes bess into a club ,gun and spear all at once , no wonder them redcoats whupped lascars ,wogs , rebels and hottintots where ever they roamed ...