Over the years I have had a few of these guns, in various states and of various patterns. The first two I bought from Colonel Corrie of Steeple Bumpstead, via the old printed Exchange and Mart. One was very much on the lines of a horse pistol with a hand forged lock and what had been a nice Persian style barrel. The other was a gaspipe special with a repurposed shotgun lock. Both percussion, and both still loaded! Apparently they were Kurdish Saturday Night Specials, and were gathered up by the Sha's police after they were dumped after an incident.
The other two were much nicer and reworked from more conventional origins in India. I wish I still had them, but as the old Chinese saying has it, "the wise man knows that in the course of a long life, there will be more than one occasion when he has to abandon everything!"
I still have a couple of Damascus rifle barrels I bought from the old colonel, bought for projects that never materialised. Those were the days!
|