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Case locks as date markers?Going through all the Reilly's in my database and looking at their cases (if they had one), I'm convinced this oak and leather case was originally for a muzzle loader and probably from the 1860's or early 1870's. Check out the locks on the 1860's oak and leather cases pictured above.
Zeroing in on the locks in the photos (always hazy), here are the "posts" that I'm missing for my lock. I can't tell if they are just straight posts, curved on the bottom or if there is some sort of hook in the post. The locksmith actually did research on Reilly to try to match the lock. Think I'll give him a call and a query. This should not be too hard to make.
All four of these oak and leather case locks appear identical to my lock and date from the 1860's:
![[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]](https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/63454_538x768.jpg)
The amazing thing about building a database of photos of your favorite guns...you always manage to leave things out...who would have thought to photograph the upper posts of an 1860's lock! Or that case locks could in and of themselves be date markers.
Examining the lock, there has to be a small hole at the base of the post for the lock bolt. The post must look something like this:
. . .
____. . .
| \ .
\. . .
| .
\ .
\. . .
| 0.
\__\ .
<===(bolt)
. . .
| . .
| .
|. . .
| . .
| .
|. . .
\ . .
| .
|. . . .
\ _/__/
