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The way it was handed to me ...the worst case I've had to restore, a good challenge!

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A heavy barrel is hard on wooden stocks when not handled carefully!

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Note stock wrist has been broken previously and repaired with a wooden insert on both sides, which now is itself broken also.

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Stock butt only hanging on by the trigger guard.

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steel trigger guard badly bent

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William Cole,gunmaker, Washington County, Missouri, born 1787, died 1886.... great-great-grandfather of Charles Blackledge.

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W. Cole probably made this piece as a flintlock prior to 1825, based on the pattern and parts.

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original conversion from flintlock to caplock, probably around 1840.