Quote:
Originally Posted by kahnjar1
If, has been suggested the tube is for holding a "sighting piece", would one recognise the sight if one found one? Not knowing what it looks like would make correct identification nigh impossible. I have not seen anything attached in pics in any books I have, though there are pics of the guns.
As an aside, these would obviously have been used with a powder flask of some sort. Does anyone have an idea of what these flasks might have looked like?
Stu
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Hi Stu
Probably no one would reconize what it was for. LOL The tubes are obviously intentially made with that hole. And all the guns seem to have them. So there has to be some specific purpose. The tube does travel quite a ways up the comb and wrist area of the gun. With the hole ending a similar distance as a peep sight. So there may have been one or more seperate pieces utilized as a rudimentry rear sight for longer range shooting, similar to the seperate pieces on the mentioned Japanese matchlocks. Would easily be lost. Of course this is just conjecture on my part. But I believe Ian's thought is the best guess at the moment. Hope we find out one day.
Flasks: That's a good question. I don't recall ever seeing a flask that was directly attributale to the Island. Hmmm. Maybe Artzi has seen one ? Might be worth asking.
Rick