My nephew has just inherited an old gun. It is a percussion gun or rifle which looks to me as if it was once an Enfield - probably a cavalry carbine, though an artillery one is not out of the question as the barrel probably has been drawn down to octagonal.

The calibre looks like ·577". It has a Tower lock and a sporterised or tailor-made pistol-grip stock, and a plain brass patchbox cover in the usual place on the right rear of the butt.

The inside of the bore is too grotty to determine whether there ever had been any rifling, but a slim torch down it shining upwards might be revealing...

The breech-end is secured in the usual military way with a short tang screwed into a rebate - no hook on the breech end.

The barrel is, however, secured with a staple and peg as per sporting guns, and there is a ramrod which has very evidently been made to replace one that has been lost - just a thick disc on the end of a steel rod. Oh, and there have been sling swivels.

Any observations?

Aonghas