Afghan rifle

mooncoon

mooncoon

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I thought that I might have posted pictures of this gun already but can't find any record of them. Anyhow the gun was supposed to have come from Afghanistan many years ago and the lock mechanism was looking fairly tired. I foolishly thought that I could just make a new lockplate and pop the old parts out and install them in the new plate. Seemed easy at the time :>( I ended up salvaging the bottom of the hammer (top was missing) and the frizzen and the frizzen spring. Everything else came from scrap metal in the basement. One thing that is unusual about these (miquelet) locks is that the springs have tenons through the lock plate and secured by a cross pin. The mainsprings are large and strong, in part because the transfer of power to the #### or hammer is not very efficient. The sears by definition go crossways through the lockplate and act on the hammer on the outside. That forces the trigger to pivot up high so that it works fore and aft rather than up and down like european rifles. Also the locks seem to be very sensitive to the length of the flint; too long and they strike over the f rizzen and too short and too much of a glancing blow down low.
Anyhow I managed to fire a couple of blank charges through it last weekend and it seems to be working. Will put a front sight on it and try shooting a ball through it this weekend.

cheers mooncoon

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Afghanmiqueletfinalclose.jpg
 
Yep, while I'm not a gunsmith or an expert, from what the picture shows this is very similar to what you see in Bazzars, and sometimes picked up in raids, in Afghanistan and probably northern Pakistan. Even the AK47's, carried by the Taliban and tribesmen, are normally decorated with that brass plating, hand carving etc. My buddy that lives in Edmonton brought one back from Khandahar a few years ago. Its about 5 feet long and weighs a ton.
 
the stock on this one is reminiscent of Indian matchlocks with a square chunk behind the lock and a relatively straight thin butt section. what is strange to me is why these locks continued to be made well into the 1800s when I would expect the design of the northern european locks to have bee known for many years. These locks were made not only in Afghanistan but also north Africa, Spain and many of the mediteranean countries. I have a percussion one from Spain dated 1864.

Also strange in that jezails which come from the Khyber Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan, have both a very different stock and usually have a northern european lock

cheers mooncoon

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I like the bottom one in post four. there was an old thread from when you got that one mooncoon did you ever get it shooting the way you wanted to?
 
vary nice may i ask where you got it as i see that there still used in Afghanistan every now and then in fact some of them would use this type a gun over a ak or bolt action i think it's something to do with the religion idk thay have some differnt stuff on them some times

thay make nice war trophy's thats for sure

im not sure if i would fire one ive seen some of that stuff that comes from Khyber pass and i would not want to shoot them

the rebels in Afghanistan do some wierd things anyone ever see one of there cut down martini pistols :eek:
 
The bottom one is a percussion gun and as I recall needs some work on the lock. Probably because of the pistol grip instead of a stock, so far I have not been overly inspired to shoot that one. I do want to restock and shoot the matchlock with the broken stock. It is going to need a little reaming of the bore but I think it has potential. I The afghan gun with the miquelet lock has been on a back burner for the last couple of weeks because I have been trying to get a Robert's conversion of a Springfield shooting. Finally go around to forming a shell for it and firing a couple of caps tonight. I will post some photos in a new thread soon.

Perhaps shooting the antique rifles in Afghanistan is more or less ceremonial or sort of reminising over the "good old days". I recall seeing photos of matchlock shooting in Mongolia but that was only done on one festive day a year and the rest of the time they carried AK47s.

cheers mooncoon
 
Is the afghan gun the flintlock by itself in post four? because that is the one i was referring to. that stock is super cool.
 
mg4201 said:
Is the afghan gun the flintlock by itself in post four? because that is the one i was referring to. that stock is super cool.
Click to expand...

The one by itself with the funny curved butt stock is a jezail, also from Afghanistan presumably from the Khyber Pass which runs between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is a true flintlock with a brown bess type lock. I have been shooting it a bit with mediocre success. The last few inches of the bore (breach end) appears to be pitted and rough and I got better accuracy by putting cornmeal on top of the powder so that the patched ball was closer to the good rifling. I want to try two scoops of corn meal which I think should get the ball much closer to the smooth unpitted portion.

The gun that I referred to in the beginning of the thread as an Afghan rifle, I bought from someone on the list who thought that it had been brought back from Afghanistan many years ago. I shot it today with limited success as it currently has not sights and no provision for any. I think that I will probably put some sort of sights on it. Also it is very awkward to shoot because the stock is so short. It is a flint lock but a kind called a miquelet lock because the sears act horizontally through the lock plate and secure the hammer directly rather than acting on a tumbler on the inside. Such locks are found in Spain and along the Mediterranean coast and apparently into the middle east.

cheers mooncoon
 
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