A Rare unique early Pistol

rickystl · 16th August 2020, 09:03 PM

Hi Rajesh

Yes, it's been a long time since we've heard from you.

WOW!! What an interesting piece. By the way, in the artist rendition what appears he is holding in the left hand is a blunderbuss pistol, commonly referred to as an Ottoman knee pistol which were popular throughout most of the Empire during the period.

Some comments/observations about the posted gun:

BARREL: The barrel looks to be a reuse of a discarded smooth bore musket barrel. The octagon to round profile along with the length of travel for the octagon portion tells me this. The crude, hand made rear sight crudely dovetailed into the barrel and the bead front sight, both added at some later point.
STOCK: I'm having a hard time deciding if the butt stock, forearm, and barrel started life as a long gun and later cut down (?) The sear/trigger/release extending so far back to the end of the butt stock, and somewhat interfering with gripping where the hand would position makes me think this. Hmmmm. But I can also visualize the gun being made as shown from a wood blank. A personal protection item. Is there a hole in the stock for a ramrod provision ?
LOCK: This is really interesting. The lock looks like it was made by a backwoods blacksmith attempting to somewhat copy the Russian/Baltic snaplocks from his memory. He likely had a bare minimum of hand tools to build the gun, also utilizing the barrel and any other surplus screws, etc. lying around. As mentioned, the mainspring has slipped off the toe of the hammer. I can't tell from the photos if there is a frizzen spring or if that is just a ledge for the frizzen to rest on. I can see how the trigger/release works. Crude, but clever in it's simplicity. (Somewhat reminds me of the Vietnamese monkey guns).

The post Oliver provided is a good example of the commonly referred to Russian/Baltic style snaplock gun used for hunting with it's heavy full octagon barrel and small caliber. A unique feature being the use of a single spring to operate both the hammer and frizzen.

Anyway, congratulations on a really nice find. The crudeness of the build and the trigger release is what I find so interesting.

Rick

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Threaded Mode

16th August 2020, 09:03 PM	#10
rickystl Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: St. Louis, MO area. Posts: 1,632	Hi Rajesh Yes, it's been a long time since we've heard from you. WOW!! What an interesting piece. By the way, in the artist rendition what appears he is holding in the left hand is a blunderbuss pistol, commonly referred to as an Ottoman knee pistol which were popular throughout most of the Empire during the period. Some comments/observations about the posted gun: BARREL: The barrel looks to be a reuse of a discarded smooth bore musket barrel. The octagon to round profile along with the length of travel for the octagon portion tells me this. The crude, hand made rear sight crudely dovetailed into the barrel and the bead front sight, both added at some later point. STOCK: I'm having a hard time deciding if the butt stock, forearm, and barrel started life as a long gun and later cut down (?) The sear/trigger/release extending so far back to the end of the butt stock, and somewhat interfering with gripping where the hand would position makes me think this. Hmmmm. But I can also visualize the gun being made as shown from a wood blank. A personal protection item. Is there a hole in the stock for a ramrod provision ? LOCK: This is really interesting. The lock looks like it was made by a backwoods blacksmith attempting to somewhat copy the Russian/Baltic snaplocks from his memory. He likely had a bare minimum of hand tools to build the gun, also utilizing the barrel and any other surplus screws, etc. lying around. As mentioned, the mainspring has slipped off the toe of the hammer. I can't tell from the photos if there is a frizzen spring or if that is just a ledge for the frizzen to rest on. I can see how the trigger/release works. Crude, but clever in it's simplicity. (Somewhat reminds me of the Vietnamese monkey guns). The post Oliver provided is a good example of the commonly referred to Russian/Baltic style snaplock gun used for hunting with it's heavy full octagon barrel and small caliber. A unique feature being the use of a single spring to operate both the hammer and frizzen. Anyway, congratulations on a really nice find. The crudeness of the build and the trigger release is what I find so interesting. Rick