I find it nice too!
According to R. Elgood, many of these were made in belgium and exported to the Balkans and the rest of the Ottoman Empire. You have it in hand, do you think it was one of those export items? Also, it looks like it was fitted with a percussion mechanism originally and is not a conversion from a flintlock - am I right?
I am really not sure how these were used and what kind of people used them, and Elgood does not shed any light on this either. All I know is compared to long barrelled rifles and pistols, they tend to rare in Bulgarian museums. It is my guess that for local irregulars, be their Christian haiduts or Muslim bashi-bozouks, the emphasis was on accuracy and range, which may explain why the blunderbuss did not enjoy a great popularity.
I would expect these to have a pretty strong recoil, and so I am not sure if the knee idea is a good one. Granted, I have never fired one off of my knee, so I am not speaking from experience and I may therefore be completely wrong.
Thanks for sharing,
Teodor
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