Upgraed or modernised handgonnes

[Andi]

Hello Matchlock! Thanks for your comment on the Brustkarabiner. Actually the piece looks a bit crude and it not seems to be a work of a professional gunmaker or good craftmenship. I am not really sure if this piece has been inspected by an arms and armour specialist or only by a local historian. Even the presentation and the description of this object looks to be as being arranged sometimes before the 1980s.

From my experience so far I am also very aware that not all objects presented in Museums are really original objects and described according to actual scientific knowledge. Descriptions of many object, beside the physical details, are often interpretations of a small team of persons which may be questioned according to other scientific or practical experience or knowledge. I faced it pretty much with some of my main hobbies the Migration period and Merovingian period finds, even in highly reputed museums.

Unfortunately I only had my small pocket camera with me in Wangen which was totally overburdened with the illumination and reflections on the show case. But probably next year I will have an opportunity to visit the museum again in my holiday to make better images.
But here are two further images of the muzzle and the shaft end.

[Matchlock]

Hi Andi,

Thanks for the close-up of the muzzle slanted. Telling by the thickness of the barrel wall and its relations to the bore, my first guess seems to be right: this is most probably the cut-off remainder of the barrel of a former matchlock or wheellock musket of ca. 1600.

Best,
Michael