Here is an outstanding, collector-grade P1853 Enfield made for export to North America during the Civil War. This musket features wonderful bluing and fantastic color-case hardening. This weapon has clearly been meticulously cared-for over the years; as this is easily the finest condition Enfield that we've ever been able to offer!
This Enfield is a true Civil War musket and not a surplus British military piece; as evidenced by it's 1862 TOWER stamp with no "VR" cypher under the crown; indicating that this piece was made for export to North America during the American Civil War. The hammer holds solid on both full and half cock. The action of the lock is crisp and very smooth, and both the hammer and lock plate bear beautiful, vibrant case colors.
The English Walnut stock features some beautiful figure and crisp, sharp corners. All the parts are perfectly inletted with no parts sitting proud of the wood, other than the toe of the buttplate; which is correct for a British musket (the English always left the toe of the buttplate long to keep the stock from splitting during the "order arms" command). Like many BSAT stocks, this musket has no maker's marks; other than assembly marks found in the ram rod channel. The stock is free of damage other than a small "drying crack" on the left counterpane which is merely cosmetic and does not effect the gun's shootability in the slightest
The barrel is full length and features beautiful bluing and crisp Birmingham proofmarks at the breech. The bluing is very good and has taken on a light "plum" color with age. The bore features sharp rifling, but, like so many other Enfields, the last 2" of the bore is lightly pitted thanks to the use of an English cork tompion during storage. The tompion was designed to keep water and debris out of the barrel, but unfortunately when installed in the muzzle during longterm storage, the cork tended to absorb moisture and often damaged the bore as a result.
The furniture is all original and matches the barrel in terms of condition and original blued finish. The ram rod is also original; and full length.
This fantastic Enfield is about as nice as they come and would be extremely hard to upgrade. I was quite tempted to keep this one for myself, but ultimately decided I'd rather see it go to good home; so to speak. As they say, you can't keep them all!
