An afghan jezail or north african rifle?

[francantolin]

Thank's a lot kahnjar1 for your reply !

I read about Sindhi flintlocks with these kind of large octogonal barrels.

Yes it seems a little short...
For the hole line and the pan,
If I have understood 😅
I think it can be +/-ok , in comparison with other flint plates.

What I would like to do is to dismantle the barrel and plate, clean all and reassemble it
I have to remove gently some fixing parts

[kahnjar1]

From the latest pics the barrel looks to be an original one, but the fit is all wrong so could well not be the original one from the stock. The touch hole is too high from the bottom of the pan. Is that French lock you show, the lock which is attached to the Afghan, or another?
Stu

[francantolin]

The french model is just to show how high the hole must be
So if I can readjust / wind down the barrel in the wooden gaps it must fit good...

[corrado26]

I think because of the remarkable style of the butt this gun was made by a handyman of the Sind people in today Pakistan. Guns of this type, with sharply curved flaring butts are typical of Sind, now a province of southern Pakistan.

[Jim McDougall]

This is an Afghan jezail, the fabled long gun of the Khyber. These typically had genuine old East India Co. locks or copied versions. It seems there was some interpolation of components from Sind to the south such as barrels etc. but I am far from an authority on these guns.

The more dramatic styling of the butt seems atypical for Afghan, and it is hard to say what part of NW India this might be from. It is interesting that the mother of pearl applique decoration resembles the Afghan guns, and seems to have been most popular.

The French lock is interesting, not used to seeing French weapons or components in these northern Indian regions, but there were of course French elements in India to the East (Pondicherry) as with the other colonial presence there. As always trade and diffusions of population often carry these things far and wide.

[kahnjar1]

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=24394
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=24388

Yes very likely of Sindi origin rather than Afghan. Above are links to a couple I once owned.
Stu

[francantolin]

Thanks a lot for these interesting links !!! 🙏

I still havent remove the barrel from the wooden parts ( don't want to damage it ) but I persevere 💪

I found this powerful poem from Rudyard Kipling,
I guess many of you already knew it but for me it was the first time.



Kind regards