Another I.D. Needed

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Yes it's Moroccan and likely 19th/early 20th century. The use of flint/snaphaunce locks lasted much later in North Africa, in fact well into the 20th century in some areas, due to ease of getting hold of powder etc but no easy access to fixed ammunition.

Regards Stuart

Stu, the mention of the reason that flintlock use continued in many places well past the introduction of cartridges and even into the 20th century was indeed because of difficulty in obtaining cartridge ammunition.

Even in America's frontier in the 1800's, the use of flintlocks was very much preferred by adventurers and 'mountain men' as they were often in far remote areas where such cartridge ammunition was not available.

As always, writers often have enjoyed sensationalizing tribesmen in more modern times using these anachronistic weapons as signs of thier being 'backward' or in the frontier cases of disparagingly referring to 'hillbillies' and such descriptions..while it was more often a very sensible case of reliability and availability of ammunition.

All best regards,
Jim