I found this gun lying about and feeling very sorry for itself indeed.  The barrel was taped to the stock.  The breech plug had been turned side ways and the tank was bent.  I reset the breech plug, straightened the tang and set the barrel and tang back into the stock.  Then I re-taped it.  What intrigued me when I saw it was that it started its life as a Golden Age Kentucky Rifle made by Sheetz in the upper valley of Virginia.  It was originally made sometime around 1795 to about 1800.  By the 1840's or so, it had made its way to the western part of North Carolina or the eastern part of Tennessee.  Obviously it suffered damage and was restocked, probably using the original stock profile as a pattern.  At the same time, it was converted from flintlock to percussion by cutting the barrel at the rear and adding a new breech plug with a long, Southern style tang.  Sometime, I would guess in the 1950's, somebody tried to fix it and really never finished the job.  From what I can tell, the barrel, ramrod pipes, tail pipe, trigger guard, trigger plate, butt plate, patch box, toe plate and probably the lock are original Sheetz construction.  Whoever converted it to percussion used a standard, plain grade maple, pinned the stock to the barrel and salvaged as many parts as possible.  It actually has a really nice bore but the lock assembly and trigger assembly are not functioning.  I just thought it was fascinating to see what happened to a Golden Age Kentucky, which is without question originally about 200 years old.  The wrist is cracked and re-glued but sealed up pretty nice.  There are keyways cut into the forearm which shouldn't be there.  In the 1840's the forearm was pinned to the barrel.  This old gun was probably carried among the Cherokee.  A fascinating piece of history worth salvaging, in my opinion.  A great project for those cold winter nights.  SOLD!!