martini henry harpoon gun.

mrclean89

mrclean89

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So I got this today. I have seen pictures of these before but never one quite like this.

The rear stock is made of what looks and feels like solid steel. The gun is really really heavy.

There is a 4 digit serial number on the left hand side of the barrel, also two Japanese characters on the right side of the action.

On top of the action there is a little circular type symbol and an anchor. Underneath these it says KFC.

So other than the obvious, does anybody know what the story is on this gun ?

 
Silfield said:
Nice find!
The Greener made ones show up from time to time at auction houses over here, I have linked to one that came up fairly recently at my local auctioneers.
http://auctions.holtsauctioneers.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=A190913+1369+&refno=+++70549&saletype=
Click to expand...

A friend of mine (Ken) bought one of these , like the Holt One . Ken passed away & his maybe still for sale @ Ellwood Epps ?
Ken's was for .38 SP also , with all the harpoons , in original box. I do not remember the steel but stock though .
 
Frank McFarquhar said:
A friend of mine (Ken) bought one of these , like the Holt One . Ken passed away & his maybe still for sale @ Ellwood Epps ?
Ken's was for .38 SP also , with all the harpoons , in original box. I do not remember the steel but stock though .
Click to expand...

I shot one once with a wooden stock and 38 blank for power. It had a long firing pin that went down the center of the hollow harpoon shaft. Kicked like mule

cheers mooncoon
 
"KFC" stamped on the action and not a single cheesy joke about fast food chicken. I admire the professionalism and restrain of the group here.
 
In the Holt Auction gun, the smaller diameter piece that is at the end of what looks like a chopped off barrel, is the firing pin which goes down the center of the hollow harpoon. I will look on the net to see if I can find a picture of the projectile for McLean's gun

cheers mooncoon
 
Haha I was waiting for someone to say something about it.

It stands for "Kawaguchiya Firearms Company" they made these from 1924 to 1945 I believe.

Thanks Doug I have been searching to no avail to try and find what it looked like.

This thing chambers a 50-70. Only shell I'm my collection that would fit.
 
Strangely there were relatively few photos of the projectiles of any of the line throwing guns on the web. The guns seemed to be in two groups; one type had a large diameter barrel and shot short large diameter "arrows" (barrel would be 1"+ bore) and the others seemed to shoot long arrow like rods from a conventional diameter barrel. I think both kinds had a sliding yoke and a short bridle on the arrow portion, that the line was tied to. Missing from McLean's gun is a bracket near the muzzle which held a (probably) disposable can of line and the line came out much like the line coming off of a spinning reel when casting. The photo below is for a Springfield line thrower

cheers mooncoon

 
Hmm it's interesting for sure and the rear block is very similar to the greener harpoon gun block. So if wonder if perhaps it fired from a coiled rope same as the greener ?

Next question of course is what kind of value could you put on something like this ?
 
The harpoon guns that have a hollow tailed projectile that slides over the barrel operate like a grenade launcher - or spigot mortar. The harpoon is blown off the barrel. They would be used to attach a line with a float to the whale or other critter.
There are much larger deck mounted harpoon guns that fire explosive harpoons that also carry a heavy line. Current Norwegian ones are 66mm bore.
My experience with smaller harpoon guns is limited to those used by the Inuit in the Eastern Arctic for bowhead whale hunting. These fire explosive grenades; float lines are secured using heavy hand thrown harpoons.
 
tiriaq said:
My experience with smaller harpoon guns is limited to those used by the Inuit in the Eastern Arctic for bowhead whale hunting. These fire explosive grenades; .
Click to expand...

Unless I am mistaken, those were called bomb guns in the late 1800s and were not much liked by the whalers because of their heavy recoil. I can certainly imagine the recoil considering how much the small harpoon gun I shot kicked when loaded with a reduced load. A larger gun with a much heavier grenade must had a tremendous recoil. I am not entirely sure that I would want to shoot Mclean's gun with a metal rod and a 50-70 blank behind it :>) :>)

cheers mooncoon
 
The light guns secure a line, they aren't intended to kill the whale.
The shoulder gun was all bronze, and about 25 pounds. Awkward thing.
The other type was a lance gun. The device is mounted on the end of a harpoon shaft, and fired by a trigger rod that extends in front of the muzzle. This is the one being used routinely. Rather than the primitive do-it-yourself grenades, they are using commercial Norwegian grenades. Had a new stainless steel barrel machined. Still uses 8ga blanks. These are very safe, will not detonate unless they penetrate into something soft. Strike a rock, the grenade will not detonate. The boat runs up alongside the whale, and the device is jabbed against the whale. Ideally, the bomb will be projected into the thorax; when it detonates, the lungs are destroyed. Dead whale.
One hunt out of Repulse Bay, from the whale being sighted until it was on the beach took 45 minutes. 47 feet long female, 175 years old. Sort of a shame.
 
Scientists examine every deceased Eastern Bowhead that they can access. They have yet to find evidence of geriatric deterioration. They suspect that whales do not age the way other mammals do.
 
Sperm whales are aged by cutting a tooth in half lengthwise and polishing and etching the tooth. In the case of females, there are scars left inside the tooth from pregnancy presumably because the pregnancy is robbing its body of calcium. The teeth grow continously throughout their life apparently. I think that baleen whales are aged using the waxy earplugs in a similar fashion although I am a bit fuzzy on the earplugs. My impression is that whales have the remains of an external ear canal and that canal is plugged with wax which eliminates the problem of having to clear their ears on the way up or down. The wax presumably is added on to year by year. I think that bones of all mammals increase on the outside while the inside is dissolved away; otherwise animal bones would be more or less solid all the way through. Significance is that you can not age a bone by sectioning it. There is also the photo in more than one publication, of a 1800s vintage date stamped harpoon head recovered in the 1900s by a commercial whaler

cheers mooncoon

oops; had to edit the statement about aging bones :>(
 
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