Kongberg infantry musket M1825/41
The Kongsberg smoth bored infantry musket M1825 is really an almost identical copy of the Swedish M1815, but a lot more scarce. I have actually never seen any of the Norwegian M1825, M1829 or M1834 in flintlock version in private ownership. Come to think of it, the only privatly owned percussion conversion in full length I can remember ever having seen, is the one I have!

On the pictures on either side of this text, the Norwegian M1825 in percussion is placed beside a flintlock Swedish M1815. Of noticable differences is that the Norwegian musket has a middle band that is wider on the underside and that the Swedish musket has a shallow hollow on the left side of the shoulder stock. The Swede is some 10-15 mm longer than the Norwegian and there were some minor differences on the flintlock, the lockplate being rounded on the Swede. Both long-guns have one thing in common making them difficult to identify - they are no marks on the original flintlock version. Kongsberg stamped a crowned "K" when converting the Norwegian musket to percussion in 1841. There is also one other
difference - but you can't see this just by looking at
the guns. Even as a percussion, the Norwegian
M1825 is worth several times the value of the
Swedish flintlock musket. The original can
almost be picked up by the dozen and
even a fairly good M1815 in flintlock
is "only" worth about USD 1000.
         Kongsberg Våben Fabrik (arms factory) was established in 1814 and had only produced limited quantities of the M1818 flintlock pistol and the M1821 jäger rifle before starting on the M1825 smooth bored infantry musket. These three first guns are not marked with the later used crowned "K", but some of them had the text Kongsberg V.F. on the barrel.




The stained birch stocks of the M1825 were carved by farmers in Nummedalen in
winter-time. Quality on these became a problem and Kongsberg decided to employ craftsmen
at the factory for later production of stocks. As a result, many of the M1829 had new stocks fitted and these usually were the M1829 stock. It might therefor often be difficult to decide if a musket is the M1825 or the M1829. The picture shows a Swedish M1815, a Norwegian M1825/41 and a






































The muskets that had seen a serious amount of wear and tear were shortened down and used for drill and exercise muskets. I have a M1834/41/60 of these. All the short M1860 conversions were fitted with a M1859 sword bayonet, the long rifles kept their socket bayonets.

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Norwegian M1834. As you will see, both the top muskets have lock plates that are pointed in the rear, so was the lock plate on the M1829. The bottom lock plate is rounded.

The safety catch on the M1825 has a little steel rod on the inside, going against the lock plate. There is carved a track for this in the stock. On the M1829 the safety catch stops against a little steel rod attached to the lock plate. The same is on the M1834 and you can see that there is a difference on the two pictures.

The angle of the butt plate is the same on the Swedish M1815 and the Norwegian M1825, but was changed from 79 degree to 72 degree on the M1829 and M1834. The picture shows the Swedish M1815 on top, then the M1825 and a M1834 at the bottom.

All these Kongsberg infantry muskets were made as flintlocks, but most of them were
converted to percussion in 1841. The muskets in best condition were converted to pillar breech rifles in 1851, in 1860 a number of the better remaining muskets were converted to shortened down  pillar breech rifles.