.72 caliber. 43" pinned three stage octagon to round barrel with baluster turned rings at the transitions. Oxidized metal, iron furniture, European hardwood stock. Single shot flintlock muzzleloading smoothbore musket altered to fowler by cutting back the stock about 20" or so and reattaching the two original corrugated iron ramrod thimbles directly to the barrel and adding small sporting swivels to the triggergaurd bow and the end of the shortened stock. 6.25" convex musket sized flint lock with detachable rounded, fenced and bridled iron pan, angled frizzen toe and rounded swan neck cock. Lock appears to be in original flint with the pan being an old, possibly period replacement. Lock is marked "BEHR" on the lower edge, under the frizzen spring. The altered musket has traditional Low Country features like bulbous buttplate screws, a long buttplate tang, rounded  three screw sideplate and well defined raised carved moldings around the lock, counterpane and tang. The front lock screw is missing, as is the ramrod.

Johann Jakob Behr worked in Maastricht, Netherlands and Liege, Belgium circa 1690 to 1740. Muskets of this pattern are known to have seen both Dutch military use and service in the American Colonies. The British acquired some of these older Dutch muskets for the use of colonies like South Carolina in their defenses against Native Americans during the French & Indian War era, and many of those guns were still seeing use during the American Revolution two decades later. The colony of Massachusetts also acquired surplus Dutch muskets in the decade leading up to the American Revolution, as well as in the decades immediately after the war. As sporterizing a musket for fowling use is a very "American" thing to do, it is very likely that this musket was in the colonies during both the French & Indian Wars and the American Revolution. {ANTIQUE}

Good attic condition. Bore dark, dirty, heavily oxidized and pitted. Metal with a thickly oxidized dark brown attic patina, with some scattered pitting and surface roughness. Lock is mechanically functional but the mainspring has been broken and welded, and is very weak. The front lock screw is missing as is the forend cap. Wood with wear and a 4.5" area of chipped loss along the upper edge of the reverse forend at the tip. Otherwise the wood shows scattered bumps, dings and mars from handling and use.