Albanian Tanchika Long Gun
 

Well, I seem to be experiencing weak moments lately. :( Which resulted in yet another Albanian long gun. This one is very typical with lots of engraving and some extra nice metal work in front of the lock area. Lock is in working order.
There was likely more than two barrel bands when the gun was built. But they appear to have been missing long ago since you can't really tell where any more were located by the difference in patina on the barrel. Also missing two of the pearl inlays in the butt area. One on each side. But those would be easy to duplicate. Another one that should clean up/restore nicely. Barrel is 46 inches long, 58 1/2" OAL. About .65 caliber.
Rick

SOME MORE PICS..........

TWO MORE........

HI RICK,LOVELY AND SIMPLE TANCHIKA,ALSO LIKE THE ALBANIAN MARKINGS ,WONDER IF ITS THE MAKERS OR THE OWNERS NAME IN NATIVE SCRIPT
THESE GUNS ARE ON MY WANT LIST,BUT ITS GETTING EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE TO GET ONE INTO NEW ZEALAND FROM EUROPE AND IF POSSIBLE,THEN ITS COST YOU A ARM AND A LEG
MANY THANKS FOR POSTING,GOOD BUYING AND AM SURE YOU WONT SLEEP TILL YOU COMPLETELY RESTORE IT TO FIRING CONDITION,CHEERS
REGARDS RAJESH

Ah Rick Rick you can't stop do you?
:)
I was weak too and I have to post few things later...
Rajesh I think the barrel is Italian.
I love your sight one of the best ever seen on this kind of gun.
I like too the lead dots of the butt like the rat tail pistols...

Best,
Kubur

Hi Rajesh !!
Thanks for your comments. Well, that makes 4 I own now. :( One is a really nice collector piece in attic type condition. I will leave that one alone. But I do plan on making a shooter from one of the three others. Maybe this one (?).
Trouble is, it takes 6 months to get the barrels back from the gunsmith. At least I will have plenty of projects to keep me busy when I retire. LOL.
Rick.

Hi Kubur.
Yes, the lead dott decoration is interesting. I'll have to have two pearl inlays made to match the others. Should not be too difficult.

And the weakness continues. I have another Jazail and a Kyber Pass pistol on the way to me. Should receive them tomorrow, Friday. I'll post these also. Whew.......someone please stop me!!! :o :shrug:
Rick

For your library...

Do you think that the name of the master on the barrel was locally transcribed? There seem to be strange letters and the whole name is not very comprehensible. Local very old fake?
They have done it a lot to inflate the value and to brag between bottles of Ouzo:-))

Hi Ariel.
At the moment, I think this is just a spurious group of English style letters with a non-existant name to add a perceived value to the gun. Except for one upside down "A", the so called name reads the same wheather read from the left or right side of the gun. And the letters appear to be stamped rather than engraved. Strange. Never seen one marked like this.
Rick.

BUMP !! UPDATE..........

Hello All

It's been better than a year, but finally the Albanian Tanchika "shooter" is finished and ready for test firing. LOL :)

The barrel is now .58 caliber with a new steel liner inside the original barrel and a new front bead sight installed. A new ramrod was made (original was a too-short later replacement) and threaded on one end for cleaning accessories.
The lock was tuned and now sparks great. The two missing pearl inlays were copied to match the two originals, even down to the little circle engraving and filled with original type red paste. All four were then re-glued in place. Think that turned out well. You can't really tell the old ones versus the new ones.

I have a shoulder sling that I'm going to add but still need to make a couple rings. It's an original sling from a British EIC 1842 Musket. Should look the part. LOL

I was thinking that the small, thin butt stock might be uncomfortable to shoot. So I just made a rudimentary leather butt cover that will slip off and on. LOL

Anyway, here are some later pics of the finishing gun. Hope you enjoy. And thanks for looking. Been a while coming.

Rick

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Yes difficult to see the difference between old and new, bravo!

Rick, you have some balls to shoot with that.
You should post a video I would like to see that!!

Yes, do be careful firing it, Rick, lest you join the 'Lord Horatio Nelson club!' (one eye, one arm!)- ;)

Mark

Thanks for the comments - and your safety concerns. I always first test fire these guns from a distance using fire cracker fuse first. Just to be double sure.
Actually, the modern steel liner makes the barrel stronger the the original barrel was when new. The gun is now no different than shooting a contemporary muzzle loader.
Have to start on the shoulder sling this weekend. I'll re-post a pic when it's done.
I don't care for the wire binding, but it will do until I make one or two additional bands and have them engraved similar to the originals.
Most of the time in this project was spent waiting for the barrel to return to me.

Rick