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Now that my vague title has got your attention.
This was hanging on a restaurant wall in Vietnam. Well beyond restoration but I found the exposed trigger mechanism interesting. Has anyone got any thoughts on its heritage ?Attachment 244104
Attachment 244105
My guess is handmade in a village. Probably not as old as you'd think.
@akaroa1 will be along shortly to tell us all about it. Then next week, he will have found one to rustore and take hunting.
Looks like the conquistadors era, kind of when Marco Polo was cruising toward China .
The teck screw it is hanging from looks a bit out of context.
Haha, it wouldn’t surprise me!Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe_90
Rubber band gun made by village idiot circa 1860
Then passed on to white man on Columbus boat for three blankets a slingshot and some pawpaw chutney
Then smithsonian sought govt approval to buy for millions in USD
Years later descendants of said idiot recognised rifle from drawings on gravestone
rifle then finds its way onto resteraunt wall hoping no one would ever know what went down
steampunk
Matchlock my guess
Plenty of variations on the basic principle
But a glowing cord drops into the flash pan and kaboom
Ignition would be epically slooow Attachment 244114
Attachment 244115
46 minutes to reply!
Well done that man :beer:
Matchlock of the type made by the hill tribes, used with shot for birds and monkeys. Since the war they were left with a lot of US equipment as they were an allied guerilla force supported by the CIA. I guess they don't need matchlocks now!
I was in Laos in the mid 1990's, care of the Queen. Lots of hill tribes hunted with home made caplocks. I watched a monkey get taken out with a load of road gravel thrown out of 6 foot of three quarter inch water pipe powered with home made black powder. They reused the caps time and again, just loading them with the scrappings of kids toy gun caps.Quote:
Originally Posted by gundoc
Slowed up sorryQuote:
Originally Posted by Joe_90
Packing to go to the West Coast tomorrow morning for the rest of The week
Lots of very “unique” bits of kit hiding in the countryside over there
On holiday in 2018 I got to see the collection of a local bloke near lang vei, he very kindly offered to show us some stuff he had acquired, and of the absurd amount of kit and gear a very rusty mosin M44 caught my eye, no stock, pitted to absolute hell, iron sights consisted of a brazed washer on the rear sight base and a hose clamp stuck behind where the front sight was ment to be with the tail bent vertical and trimmed to height, rounded off with a modified bolt and a barrel sleeve to take nail gun blanks and a ball bearing.
He would load it by inserting a nail gun blank, closing the bolt and then ramming a ball bearing down the muzzle with a rod, the casing would just fall out when the bolt was opened and drop where the magazine formerly was.
We asked our guide what he hunted with it, and old mate in full confidence replied with deer (muntjac)
I do hope he is still getting his muntjac, what a unit.
He also had a 1919A6 stock and grip that I was very tempted to offer him some dong for.
I recon thats actually a percussion gun.
That spring had some force behind it before it broke as pictured, and if the percussion cap sat on a nipple on the top of the barrel that would explain why the hammer is bent in that direction.You wouldnt have to make a drum for the cap,just a nipple.
I have seen locks like that before that operated in a similar manner.
Many “ Homemade” guns in and around Laos/cambodia/vietnam….. I believe a few on this forum will attest to that… have seen a few myself
just putting it out there - could it just be a prop - an imitation made as a wall hanger - those clever buggers have making something new look old down to a fine art - but it seems to me to not be real firearm but cant put finger on why - lack of flash pan or nipple for cap ??
Home now, Some really good info on here so far. Thanks for all the input.
It was really high up on the wall so I had trouble getting good photos.
I didn't think it was a prop as it had a tapered octagonal barrel & the trigger was welded to the trigger guard (to deactivate it?). The long arm was bent to come down on the centreline so maybe a percussion cap or matchlock like @norsk and @akaroa1 have suggested, I wasn't allowed to stand on the table to get a view from the top so I'll never know for sure.
I got quite a few odd looks while trying to get a better look but it was a nice change of scenery for me, Sunny just pretended not to know me.
On a personal note I only gained 2kg after stuffing my face with every bit of street food I could find for 2 weeks, I think I did well. Highly recommended destination for anyone that enjoys a bit of variety in flavours.
lucky sod yup bet that food was good
From experience there's an awful of of 'vegetation' in their tucker. I thought it would be akin to Laos and Thai food. But its not.
Still, its pretty good. I pretty much lived on Pho and steamed dumplings for 6 months working there. And a little bit of beer;)
This sort of rifle, shotgun should be more close but if you think it is rifle, are widely used in southwest and northeast part of China as well, muzzle loader mostly. Till day even govt. has totally banned firearms and all sort of hunting, even fishing in some public rivers or lakes, but still some people are doing it.Quote:
Originally Posted by No good names left
For the street food, you must have very strong digestion system;)
I was selective about the vendors we ate at, most of them were very hygienic but I did see a few that got a wide berth
