Afghan Jezail in York, UK

RDGAC · 27th March 2010, 01:29 AM

Greetings one and all!

I am the Assistant Curator of the Regimental Museum of the Royal Dragoon Guards located in York, Northern England, and we have recently (as part of an upcoming exhibition) come into possession of what appears to be an Afghan jezail. This piece is a gift, and I'm still trying to run down details on what the donor may know of its history.

The gun bears all the characteristics a pig-ignorant civvie such as I (whose interest in weaponry is great, but whose experience is minimal) would expect of a jezail; long, eight-groove rifled barrel (43.25in, give or take a whisker, from where I think the breech plug probably ends to the muzzle) with flared muzzle, what appears to be a fairly old lock (at first sight), salvaged from a British military musket or rifle, and of course the highly individual, curious curved stock and oddly-positioned butt which seems to define these guns. Nonetheless, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out to be completely different from my assessment.

The gun's condition is, frankly, pretty dire. The barrel and lock are both extensively rusted (seemingly fairly active, rather orange rust at that), and just forward of what was, once, the nipple of the caplock mechanism, it exhibits blue-greenish corrosion which I would associate with copper or its alloys (brass?). The lock sits very poorly in the furniture; I'd conjecture that either the lock was crudely inserted by an amateur gunsmith, or alternatively that the wood has swelled and cracked over the years. The gun is, as mentioned, a caplock; the lock plate bears a crudely-stamped date of 1817 in sans-serif numerals (the eight appearing to have been applied upside-down!), and a what seems to be an attempt to replicate the East India Company's post-1816 (?) "rampant lion" emblem, with dubious results. The lion faces left and seems to be holding something round; a helmet or similar? I don't know. The lock is the right sort of shape (that characteristic double-pointed banana) but has no border around its edge. Nor can I find any kind of proof marks or similar, though they might be buried beneath the tonnage of rust. The trigger is slack but still held in place by something; my guess is that, if the mechanism is still intact by some miracle, it seized up long ago.

Moving on to the barrel, the length is approximately 43.25 inches (as mentioned), and it is octagonal in external section throughout, displaying a slight flare at the muzzle (about 1/16 of an inch); edge to edge at the muzzle is approximately 7/8 of an inch. The bore is roughly .55-.60in, although goodness knows what it actually is throughout the barrel.

There are five barrel bands; two are what seems to be iron or steel, and the remaining three - which I suspect were fitted much later - are brass, and fit rather poorly. The barrel has some markings on it, representations of flowers and similar by the looks of them, and some decorative grooves. The ramrod is either missing, or stuck underneath the foremost brass band and partially broken away.

The furniture is, overall, not too bad; the wood isn't in good nick, especially around the lockplate and the very foremost part beneath the barrel, but the stock and butt are fine and show, rather happily, no cracks. There are two sling swivels, one of which is being held in place between two of the urlier brass bands, and the trigger guard, if ever there was one, is absent. I say "if ever there was one" because I can find no evidence of one ever having been mounted (screw or nail holes for instance), and have read that Jezail were sometimes produced without trigger guards.

Now, without further ado, some pics, and a request: can anyone tell me anything much about this gun? It's legally quite important that we know all we can about it, but more importantly, I can't help but love learning about the ugly old brute!

Overall views of the gun:
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6038/img0296h.jpg
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/2433/img0297x.jpg
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/5495/img0298ov.jpg

Lock and lockplate:
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2148/img0299e.jpg
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/1883/img0315.jpg
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/951/img0304j.jpg

Barrel and bands:
http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/7338/img0312g.jpg
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/4605/img0311wn.jpg
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/8500/img0310c.jpg
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/6274/img0309wx.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3849/img0302kz.jpg

Muzzle:
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3613/img0301kc.jpg

As you can see, I'm still learning my way around the works digicam (give me film any day!), and no expense is spared hereabouts! This post has also been put up on another forum, incidentally, but not one specialising in ethnographic (new word for the week) arms. I do apologise if I've put this in the wrong place, by the by; I realise this forum is primarily interested in edged weapons, but noticed an earlier thread on a Jezail and was seized with hope.

It's also worth noting that I'm currently attempting to find out whether she's loaded, and if so, with what; whoever de-activated this weapon did so in the crudest possible way (as you can see), so I find it interesting that there appears to be something in the bore, near the breech end; something which, although unyielding to pressure from my extemporised ramrod, is penetrable by a paperclip gently, but firmly, pushed into what's left of the nipple's tunnel to the breech. Curious.

27th March 2010, 01:29 AM	#1
RDGAC Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: York, UK Posts: 167	Afghan Jezail in York, UK Greetings one and all! I am the Assistant Curator of the Regimental Museum of the Royal Dragoon Guards located in York, Northern England, and we have recently (as part of an upcoming exhibition) come into possession of what appears to be an Afghan jezail. This piece is a gift, and I'm still trying to run down details on what the donor may know of its history. The gun bears all the characteristics a pig-ignorant civvie such as I (whose interest in weaponry is great, but whose experience is minimal) would expect of a jezail; long, eight-groove rifled barrel (43.25in, give or take a whisker, from where I think the breech plug probably ends to the muzzle) with flared muzzle, what appears to be a fairly old lock (at first sight), salvaged from a British military musket or rifle, and of course the highly individual, curious curved stock and oddly-positioned butt which seems to define these guns. Nonetheless, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out to be completely different from my assessment. The gun's condition is, frankly, pretty dire. The barrel and lock are both extensively rusted (seemingly fairly active, rather orange rust at that), and just forward of what was, once, the nipple of the caplock mechanism, it exhibits blue-greenish corrosion which I would associate with copper or its alloys (brass?). The lock sits very poorly in the furniture; I'd conjecture that either the lock was crudely inserted by an amateur gunsmith, or alternatively that the wood has swelled and cracked over the years. The gun is, as mentioned, a caplock; the lock plate bears a crudely-stamped date of 1817 in sans-serif numerals (the eight appearing to have been applied upside-down!), and a what seems to be an attempt to replicate the East India Company's post-1816 (?) "rampant lion" emblem, with dubious results. The lion faces left and seems to be holding something round; a helmet or similar? I don't know. The lock is the right sort of shape (that characteristic double-pointed banana) but has no border around its edge. Nor can I find any kind of proof marks or similar, though they might be buried beneath the tonnage of rust. The trigger is slack but still held in place by something; my guess is that, if the mechanism is still intact by some miracle, it seized up long ago. Moving on to the barrel, the length is approximately 43.25 inches (as mentioned), and it is octagonal in external section throughout, displaying a slight flare at the muzzle (about 1/16 of an inch); edge to edge at the muzzle is approximately 7/8 of an inch. The bore is roughly .55-.60in, although goodness knows what it actually is throughout the barrel. There are five barrel bands; two are what seems to be iron or steel, and the remaining three - which I suspect were fitted much later - are brass, and fit rather poorly. The barrel has some markings on it, representations of flowers and similar by the looks of them, and some decorative grooves. The ramrod is either missing, or stuck underneath the foremost brass band and partially broken away. The furniture is, overall, not too bad; the wood isn't in good nick, especially around the lockplate and the very foremost part beneath the barrel, but the stock and butt are fine and show, rather happily, no cracks. There are two sling swivels, one of which is being held in place between two of the urlier brass bands, and the trigger guard, if ever there was one, is absent. I say "if ever there was one" because I can find no evidence of one ever having been mounted (screw or nail holes for instance), and have read that Jezail were sometimes produced without trigger guards. Now, without further ado, some pics, and a request: can anyone tell me anything much about this gun? It's legally quite important that we know all we can about it, but more importantly, I can't help but love learning about the ugly old brute! Overall views of the gun: http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6038/img0296h.jpg http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/2433/img0297x.jpg http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/5495/img0298ov.jpg Lock and lockplate: http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2148/img0299e.jpg http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/1883/img0315.jpg http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/951/img0304j.jpg Barrel and bands: http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/7338/img0312g.jpg http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/4605/img0311wn.jpg http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/8500/img0310c.jpg http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/6274/img0309wx.jpg http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3849/img0302kz.jpg Muzzle: http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3613/img0301kc.jpg As you can see, I'm still learning my way around the works digicam (give me film any day!), and no expense is spared hereabouts! This post has also been put up on another forum, incidentally, but not one specialising in ethnographic (new word for the week) arms. I do apologise if I've put this in the wrong place, by the by; I realise this forum is primarily interested in edged weapons, but noticed an earlier thread on a Jezail and was seized with hope. It's also worth noting that I'm currently attempting to find out whether she's loaded, and if so, with what; whoever de-activated this weapon did so in the crudest possible way (as you can see), so I find it interesting that there appears to be something in the bore, near the breech end; something which, although unyielding to pressure from my extemporised ramrod, is penetrable by a paperclip gently, but firmly, pushed into what's left of the nipple's tunnel to the breech. Curious.