odd J Henry smooth bore

[Rod]

Well, I finally got done seeding, so I took a look in my books this afternoon---I could find nothing by Henry that resembles what you have. It's obviously a higher-grade (AKA chief's gun) trade gun, but Henry wasn't especially known as a US gov't contractor--although there have been some US marked Henry's. In fact, Henry regularly complained that Deringer was in collusion with the gov't buyers and had the market sewn up.

I strongly recommend that you mail or email pics of this down to Jim Hanson at the Museum of the Fur Trade--he should be up in Nebraska by now (winters down south). I'm sure he would be very interested in seeing that gun.

www.furtrade.org/
1-308-432-3843

Rod

[whitebear]

I have seen the USID stamp on one or two guns before. I believe it stands for "United States Indian Department".