Frontier Arithmetic: The Afghan Jezail

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

There are contradictory reports on the supposed advantages and disadvantages of the afghan jezail compared to the brown bess.

It may be remembered that the Jezail was a copy and largely of the brown bess and by almost accident it turned into something of a home made snipers rifle.

There are several reasons why, including the Jezails elongated barrel and its rifled twist as well as its deployment in groups of two and three shooters in the high mountain passes using plunging fire carefully aimed at massed targets struggling to pass below and where counter attack, easy on flatter ground, was impossible among vertical cliffs etc.

Here is another reason for their better marksmanship below... the bipod.

There really are conflicting views on these, and it is likely that being assembled by so many local makers there was probably a wide range of quality. I wonder if the jezail design was around in these Afghan regions much before the advent of the supplies of British gun locks in the mid 18th c.
I also wonder if other gun locks, or even if there were Afghan locks made without copying British ones.
I know there were matchlock jezails of course, so presumably these were copied from Indian toradors or other examples?

The effectiveness of these snipers high in cliffs and escarpments in these rugged regions were ideally situated for sniping, and as noted, the use of the bipod was key. I always think of the classic movie "Gunga Din" and these snipers unleashing their fire on the British columns.