A Taiwanese/Formosan tribal gun

[Philip]

Ricky,
There are several design features which link this gun to firearms in other cultures in the region:
1. Pistol-shaped buttstock held against the cheek -- deeply-curved shapes like this are found in the Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia highlands (mostly crude flintlocks), Shan states of Burma (mostly matchlocks), and the tribal areas of southwest China (usually with Indo-Portuguese snap matchlocks).
2. Trigger mounted on the side of the stock, not underneath -- same areas as above
3. The vast majority of guns from all those culture-spheres have half-stocks, and are not fitted for ramrods.

On the lock shown in this thread, note the mainspring pressing upward against the tail of the hammer. Although this is a percussion lock, this feature derives from the snap matchlocks brought to the East by the Portuguese in the 16th cent. The origin of this concept is south Germany/Bohemia late in the 15th cent. (the Portuguese Crown bought a lot of muskets from this area to replace earlier hand cannons on the eve of the Age of Discoveries). This system of motive power also carried over to the "miquelet" flint mechanism which became a hallmark of firearms technology in the Iberian Peninsula and central/south Italy, and later much of the Middle East as well.