Happy New Year everyone.
This is something that has me puzzled for a few years now. And reading through reference material such as Elgood, Tirri, etc. I've never really found an answer. So maybe some Forum members have some opinions?
Here are two typical Ottoman style long guns. The top one is a rifled barrel, and the lower one is a smoothbore. The top gun has a Length of Pull (LOP, as measured from the trigger to the rear of the butt stock) of 12" (30.48cm), which I have found common for these guns, and is probably about right for the stature of an adult male in this Region during the 19th Century.
However, the lower gun has a short LOP of only 9" (23cm). Which is a full 3" (7.62cm) shorter than the norm. Yet it does have a rear sight for aiming.
So my question is: Why the very short butt stock? And I'm sure that some of you gun enthusiests have noticed how some of the Ottoman guns were intentially built with these short butt stocks, yet have more or less full length barrels. If you try to shoulder and aim the gun in the normal matter, wheather from the shoulder pit or the upper arm, it's a very uncomfortable, un-natural postion. And your face would be way to close to the lock when firing. Yet the barrel does have a rear sight. Meaning it was designed to be aimed. So, I can't really understand the purpose of the very short butt stock ??
My only theory so far is that they were designed to fire from the cheek ala Japanese matchlock style (?)
Would appreciate hearing other opinions. And thaks for looking.
Rick.