[fspic]

Frankly, an old crotch cheapo but shootable gun following the form of the original and made by the same people, is still a real gun. They can be trimmed and properly re-finished. Took a look at one of three I have. There is a huge amount of pearl work. That is a lot of work to do. The barrel is a wide twist form. Round with a hammered up V-notch rear sight as found on a lot of matchlocks. The center has filed flats. However it has a more Persian style of "silver" decoration with the usual squiggles. I must clean it and compare to markings on my other long guns. Barrel is 31" which I don't know is original length. There is a tiny bead sight at the front.

I have one with a newer solid stock in dark finish with what may be an east India lock and a cut down barrel of 16". This is fairly well made but shows external file or rasp marks. The barrel is quite old and has some fluted sections plus the usual rings. It has partial Arabic markings which someone told me is "broken" writing and incomplete. It is no doubt made from parts, which is irrelevant for a lot of these guns as they only have three components. Those would be mixed and matched over the decades or centuries.

A lot of these guns are brought back by military men or civilian contractors from Afghanistan, which is where two or three of my guns came from. One has an 1899 Moore lock made like the usual Brown Bess lock. This and another are fine guns though they don't have a rifled barrel or some of the fancier markings and inlays. One seller sent me pics he took of an Afghan musket market.