1853 Remington Musket

I have an 1853 Remington musket marked "US"
and Herkimer N.Y. Fair to good condition. Can you tell me more about this musket and its range in value. I have heard its a "Mississippi" musket. Don't know what that means. Thanks

hello,,you have a contract musket sometimes refered to as a mississippi musket,,it's actually a model 1841 thats proably dated 1853,,there were 20,000 ordered from remington but only 10,000 were delivered..marked just as you stated and made between 1846-1855,,values i have are proably low for it because my antique firearms refrences are not up to date but they tell me 800 good-3500 excellent
bigcurt

Thanks. Where's the best place to sell it?
Ebay, auction, consignment. Thanks for your time. Also I don't know what makes it fair or good. I doubt its excellent.

hello again,,gradeing is tough to explain ,,it's something ya gotta just estimate,,things to look for that are good is metal condition,,concidering it's 150+ years old it's not gonna look new and will proably have a brown patina look to it,,but thats good because it shows normal expected fadeing ,,next thin is overall condition of the lock works and markings,,then the stock condition and any markings or proofs ,,put them all together this will determing the condition,,many factors come into play and it's just very hard to try to explain but basically if it's not a rusted non functional relic grade just dug up it should grade at least fair-good and still draw collector intrest..as for where to sell it,,,i'd look around at the online auction sites like gunbroker.com,,or auction arms,,that way you could use the auction high bidder idea,,this rifle is concidered an antique and you could list and sell it yourself without dealer intervention,,but ask for a antique statement from whoever buys it stateing that they can own a firearm in there state and theres no state or local laws forbiding the sale of an antique firearm in there state,,and ask for a current drivers licence ,,i'd proablly list it pretty much like i stated and start it out around 800 and if you want put a reserve on it ,,thats a call shot ,,i've listed over 300 guns on gunbroker.com for a friend who owns a gunshop and try to list them without a reserve if possible but sure don't like it when someone buys them too cheap either ..so the reserve issue is up to you,,then comes the fun of trying to find a box to ship the long rifle in,,ups may have a box for golf clubs that would proably work with some modification ,,or whatever you can find to stick it in ,,i use newspapers for packing.. cheapest packing material out there ,,then i overstuff very tightly until it doesn't move around..then off to the shipper..ups would be your best bet but fed-ex is good or you could even send it via your local post office,,one thing i would recommend is you make sure it isn't still loaded ..these old musket have a tendancy of being stored loaded ,,and black powder will still be dangerous even if from the civil war time frame ,,so better safe than sorry,,if you have the original ram rod take it and lower it into the barrel,,and mark it where it stop,,then check the measurment against the outside of the barrel and the rod end should be even with the flash hole for the hammeror even a little behind it ,,if you shine a light thru the flashole you should be able to see light in the barrel as long as it's not plugged,,definattly check that out and if your not sure have a gunsmith check it for you,,before you sell it or ship it!oh buy the way you can't sell a firearm on ebay anymore..
bigcurt

Thanks for all the good information. Its a gun my grandmother was given to "protect" herself by a neighbor many years ago (1940). She lived way out in the countery alone.She couldn't even lift it but it looked pretty over the fireplace.

i checked some other value guides i have and have an update on your musket current values for it are ,,750 fair,,1750 good +4500 in very good condition,,if it's in working condition with no major rust,,and no broken or missing peices i'd venture to guess that it's at least in good-vg condition..
bigcurt

When I look at listings on a site like Collectors Firearms in Houston the guns look very cleaned up. They deny they do anything to the guns and that they find them that way. Given the prices they quote this seems unlikely. I am interested in cleaning up my musket without hurting its value. The wood, brass, and barrel all need attention. What is the best way to do this myself? Any books on this? Thanks.

well to be honest once ya start it's tuff to go back,,i'd say the metal can be cleaned up pretty decent with oil and 000 or 0000 steel wool,, don't use anything corser than 000 if you can help it and only go with the lenght of the barrel don't go in circles .. same holds true with the lock,,id try to get it apart if possible should be a couple screws holding the lock and the barrel bands should be held in place with band springs and they should just slide off,, i usually use a soft wire wheel on my milsurps ,,i have it set up on a 6"bench grinder and as long as you use a soft brissel wheel you shouldn't do any harm to the original finish but it will remove any surface fine rust,,id definatly try the oil and steel wool first and see how it cleanes it before you attempt the wire wheel,,the brass can be cleaned with brasso or metal polish but try not to use something too abrasive,,be careful dissasembling so as not to bugger up the screw heads because this is something thats hard to make look unbuggered so only use the right size screwdriver and if there really tight soak them for awhile with a good oil like kroil before you start the project,,the wood if not really bad you can use a good furniture cleaner and some elbow greese and it should come out reasonablly good,,,most of the time wood is just dirty from sitting so long,,you could strip it down but i wouldn't recommend it unless you've done stocks before because the stain is almost impossible to duplicate and may require a mix of to different stains to acheive the original look,,so just try cleaning it good and don't fool with refinishing,,and remember that cleaning the metal and wood some shouldn't lower the value but its 150 years old and i have never seen something that old that looks new,,so try to clean but not beautify,,it's really not a hard job and i have done alot of them in my days and can usually clean them up to look pretty good concidering there age..but be careful and if ya can get it apart experiment on the parts that are hidden before you take on what you will see,,let me know how it turns out..bigcurt