17th Century Flintlock Rifle

17th Century Flintlock Rifle believed to made in Spain.

Comment on James Morgans flintlock rifle

Sent by a viewer on 3/3/2009 who saw the rifle on the the YouTube video posting of alleged 17th century Flintlock rifle.



I may have bad news for you- if you have paid a lot of money for that slender musket with the unique flintlock.

With some luck, the lock may be very old- 17th century, and the barrel is handcrafted as well, but it is not from 17th century Spain- the stock would have been much heavier then- It is of North African origin, where this mechanism survived until the day of the modern cartridge, that is to say around 1900.

The barrel is finely chiselled and the work is of not-too-bad-quality, but those guns are far from being rare, whereas original Snaphaunce muskets are extremely scarcely found on the market.
best wishes.

yours,
Eckart




Oriental weapons are often mistaken for older European ponce, because they often kept to outdated models and technologies for a very long time.
Snaphaunce locks were robustly built and despite the fact that they needed more parts to be built than the "classic" French flintlock, the parts could be forged easily on a crude anvil with a couple of hammers and chisels. Only the threads had to be cut, but here the size of those locks made work easier again, as those parts were much bigger than the parts of a flintlock.
One way of knowing what you have got there is of course the various decorative motifs, which can be attributed to so-called "schools". The shape of the stocks , too, is a safe way of identifying those guns. sent 3/4/2009

sirhc141 has made a comment on 17th Century Flintlock Rifle:
She a bit beat up but i would have been made for someone real important,
i doubt you will get one the same.
she looks a real nice gun. cheers

Category:

Education

Tags:

• 17th
• Century
• Flintlock
• Rifle
• antique
• weapons
• muskets
• hunting
• museum
• firearm
• guns

[aa3gunner]

The Chinese 3 barrel pole gun is better for rate of fire but probably not as accurate.

[Alegredesconocido]

That musket doesn´t look spanish at all. It is muslim manufacture.Turkish or Moroccan maybe.

[TheHansisHere]

@imperiumiv Actualy if i remember right i think that rifle have been around since the 15th or 16th century. Just they took alot longer too load so large armies prefered the musket for mass vollys. Rifles would be used by smaller groups of speacalized soilders. Atleast untill the invention of the mini ball which made it easier too load. Atleast i think.

[imperiumiv]

are you certain is an actual rifle? I thought rifles did not appear until the 18th century. I figure it is a smoothbore musket, not a rifled musket.

[MrOlekul]

imagine how it is to load the bullet down the barrel of that gun!

[talateo]

This fire weapon is from north africa (Morocco) not from Spain. The spanish name for it is "espingarda" and it was used by mors and cabila people.

[1overthehillsfaraway]

'"what kind of shells does it take?" ha ha that is a good one. this is not a flintlock but a snaphaunce or miqulet lock the difference is that the frizzen or part that the flint strikes is not also the cover over the flashpan they are two separate pieces. This gun is most likely from the 19th century and it is arabic... NOT made in Spain and NOT from the 17th century... the guys in this vid are most likely used to seeing Mossbergs....

[miltonSF]

Not a flintlock, that is a snaphaunce which is a flintlock predecessor, the period certainly is 17th century but not Spanish, although the stock shape has a strong influence from spanish models is more arabian than spanish.

[sudaneseareshit]

god that's ugly....and i guess, made by an even uglier Arab.

[tawesd]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that barrel does not look like it is rifled, and it looks like it is a smoothbore musket. Beautiful gun by the way, I love the ornate stock.