Ottoman Guns

I managed to hitchhike to a reenactment in a small village today. There was a gentleman who had his collection on display, mostly unmentionable Krnka, Berdan, Martinis, but here are the few muzzleloading things he had on display. Powder measure and bullet mould.

Shishane

Dated 1226 which comes out to 1811-1812


Met this gentleman who had his great grandfather’s Shishane that had been crudely restocked at some point.


This reenactor has a new silahlik with original weapons that he told me he had to source from all over Europe. Yataghan he bought from Austria, matching pistols he bought from Poland, knife from England etc etc


A Gabrovo Shishane, only the barrel is original, everything else is new made. It was copied from an original in a museum.

The very wide butt is very comfortable in the shoulder

I’m told black powder here is legal but costs $90 a pound! Half price if you get it on the black market.


I’ll post some photos of the reenactment later, this should be enough of a photo dump for now

cyten said:

I managed to hitchhike to a reenactment in a small village today. There was a gentleman who had his collection on display, mostly unmentionable Krnka, Berdan, Martinis, but here are the few muzzleloading things he had on display. Powder measure and bullet mould.View attachment 333776

Shishane
View attachment 333777View attachment 333778
Dated 1226 which comes out to 1811-1812
View attachment 333779

Met this gentleman who had his great grandfather’s Shishane that had been crudely restocked at some point.
View attachment 333780

This reenactor has a new silahlik with original weapons that he told me he had to source from all over Europe. Yataghan he bought from Austria, matching pistols he bought from Poland, knife from England etc etc
View attachment 333781

A Gabrovo Shishane, only the barrel is original, everything else is new made. It was copied from an original in a museum.
View attachment 333782
The very wide butt is very comfortable in the shoulder
View attachment 333790View attachment 333792
I’m told black powder here is legal but costs $90 a pound! Half price if you get it on the black market.
View attachment 333793

I’ll post some photos of the reenactment later, this should be enough of a photo dump for now

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'Wow' in Plural ,double' Wow' really nice items Nice to know he can freely be a Reenactor / Gun collecter/and all round interesting gentleman . We think these regions are suppressed he has more freedom than we do! . We used to put on displays me especially put on large ones at the school show & A & P shows but now their so many anti gun idiots p & moan its made it irksome .The press & media effectively vilified us after a mad man shoots up a mosque despite the gun clubs warnings the police give him a liscence contary to their own rules re vetting .He buys fire power kills 50 or so people . So the left wing govt bring about all kinds of hobbles in un constructional haste in 8 days stacked deck haste & penalise all lawfully liscence shooters as if its OUR fault we are made scapegoat for the Police failings .Now they push for 'registration' as if that ever did any good (The police scrapped that years ago as it didn.t solve crimes ) Troudoh / pushed that poop for years But failed expensivly .I worked at a Calgary Musuem at the time one of the curators had a repro Brown Bess I engraved his family coat of arms on the Escution he had to register it ! .Well that poops history . We suffered a Buy back nonesence for any gun with more than ten shots . Then the Police commisioner comes on TV news and says "We are rather disappointed that the Gangs haven't handed in their guns as we had hoped ." I mean he's the Police Commissioner he's in the trade surely he didnt think the crims would go along with that dumb notion ".Get real stupido their crims !."
However enough of imperfection that display was really a joy to see . The crude restock is all' character' its so heartening to see such goodies & great work Ile remeasure the Roski's ? I seek to put in my old rifle ." Your eyes have seen great wonders" your my kind of traveler I figured that the first post of yours I read it said "I was hitching in Siberia "or words to that effect . Great photos .
Salutations Rudyard

Rudyard said:

The press & media effectively vilified us after a mad man shoots up a mosque despite the gun clubs warnings the police give him a liscence contary to their own rules re vetting

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That was your governments idea. It wasn’t a mistake that that nitwit got his gun license. All planned out .

Sam squanch said:

That was your governments idea. It wasn’t a mistake that that nitwit got his gun license. All planned out .

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Dear Sam new to me wouldn't put it past the last shower of B steds poseing as govt current one are better cant Be worse . Curious how you defined the planned shooting ? Now you have Poor Trump getting shot at .
Regards Rudyard

Gentlemen, in the hopes of not getting this thread locked by moderators, I kindly ask we stray from politics, as that where it leads here.


Here are a few action shots from the event, majority of pictures were taken on my real camera, but I’ll have to wait till august to get those transferred, here are some snaps from the phone.

A curious mix of guns . but point taken re politics
Regard's Rudyard

Just fascinating! I don't know why I am surprised that the guns seem so small/short.

That guy in the last picture needs to work on his flinch…..

Sam squanch said:

That guy in the last picture needs to work on his flinch…..

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He is also in the first image aiming into the air with his head down when firing. Based on the 2 images... He has nothing coming out the muzzle.
Maybe he was trying to clear a stuck ball?

BillinOregon said:

Just fascinating! I don't know why I am surprised that the guns seem so small/short.

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Good condition barrels are hard to find, and the Gabrovo style ones seem to have shorter barrels in general

PhDBrewer said:

He is also in the first image aiming into the air with his head down when firing. Based on the 2 images... He has nothing coming out the muzzle.
Maybe he was trying to clear a stuck ball?

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This was during a part of the reenactment when they were firing blanks at each other at less than 40 yards away

WOW !!!! Cyten. Thanks for these latest photos. Super cool !!!! Gotta love it. LOL

In the first photo showing the vendor's table. There's that Ottoman style powder measure again. LOL You see these everywhere. But, as you mentioned a while back as to how popular target shooting was around the primary cities, it makes sense that many of these measurers have turned up. Makes more sense now.

Rick

cyten said:

Good condition barrels are hard to find, and the Gabrovo style ones seem to have shorter barrels in general


This was during a part of the reenactment when they were firing blanks at each other at less than 40 yards away

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The short barrels Ive called a 'Tuffancha' might be incorrect but of the. mix I gathered ex Mjr Noel Corry haul had a fair portion of short barrels . only one I just stocked up for a smooth bore matchlock was long if a rifled one was quite long but it has a mark much like the running wolf of Passow might have been German but very old swamped Oct .scelp not twist brl .What fun these by fluke goodies we got thanks to the galloping major if it wasn't for" Take the lot then you can have your artillery Lugers " In Kurdish or Pharsa his story makes him a legend though he just sold off the barrels for 3 or 4 pounds or less .Legend by my notions anyway .
Rudyard the not picky

Neat!!!!!1 thanks for posting these.!

cyten said:

Hey it’s only a few hours from Istanbul to Plovdiv by train or bus! I’ve seen it written as both Харбия (harbiye) & Харбии (harbi) here. Since I don’t speak Bulgarian, it could be that harbiye is plural and harbi is singular. There are many borrowed Turkish words here.


Wow that’s a very nice condition Moukhala! How long is the barrel and what caliber?

Rudyard, your stories and experience are priceless as usual

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56" barrel .60 cal.

What Cyten attended was a very small and not well organized reenactment. Unfortunately, he arrived in Bulgaria 3 days after one of the largest and well-organized reenactments. It was held from June 28-30, 2024 near the town of Asenovgrad. We were about 150 participants, half of them civilians and the other half military. The audience was about 3000-5000 people. I am posting three photos, the first one is me with the Sliven Boylia, and the other photos are the participants. I am posting two links, the first is on YouTube from last year's reenactment, and the second is on Facebook, where you can view photos from this year.

Watch this video especially after 10 minutes


You can see more photos from this year's reenactment on this Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/bgsaborahisary

bobi13 said:

What Cyten attended was a very small and not well organized reenactment. Unfortunately, he arrived in Bulgaria 3 days after one of the largest and well-organized reenactments. It was held from June 28-30, 2024 near the town of Asenovgrad. We were about 150 participants, half of them civilians and the other half military. The audience was about 3000-5000 people. I am posting three photos, the first one is me with the Sliven Boylia, and the other photos are the participants. I am posting two links, the first is on YouTube from last year's reenactment, and the second is on Facebook, where you can view photos from this year.

Watch this video especially after 10 minutes


You can see more photos from this year's reenactment on this Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/bgsaborahisary

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Very Interesting When I was younger & like Cyten travelling , you couldn't get into such places Just Turkey & Yugoslavia under Tito Not at a such a happy place then .I remember a market in Belgrade just rinky dink stuff knives made of tin jars of jam ect. But after they gathered round a kiosk & a fiddler played all peaceful & happy, then Two Police came allong & the Kiosk shut its opening the fiddler ducked under the crown & dissapeared . The cops spoilt what was a happy meeting ..But as luck would have it I got a lift just out of Belgrade All the way to Istanbul with an Austrian stamp dealer . He told me the last time he went through there was in a Tank ! .So pleased to see its a different world now . The only word I know that might translate is' Falla ' Thankyou' ? Ide met some Americans in Zargreb & I think it means' Thankyou' ?Very essential if your hitch hiking.
Regards Rudyard

Bobi: Thanks so much for the photos/videos. It appears the spectators enjoyed the festivities as much as the re-enactors. So cool to see the traditional weapons coupled with the clothing/attire. Even the women doing traditional chores. All adds to fun. Again, Thank You.

Rick

I met with another builder in his village who graciously took the time to talk to me about his craft. He mostly works with new made barrels and locks and stocks them up in the original style, but can use original hardware if the customer provides it.
He said it takes roughly 4 months to finish a Shishane and 6 months for a Boyliya (due to the intricate abalone and mother of pearl decorations)
He makes rozetki as well, a little different than the way Bobi showed me he does.



He had three Shishane on hand that he had built this year. Told me he has made more than 50 Shishane total and around 20 Boyliya. The prices for these are $1700 for the bottom “working man’s gun” with no decorations and the other two were $2200. All stocked in Walnut and using new smoothbore barrels with traditional sights and new made locks. I was told they had a friend in the USA that they had shipped guns to before and it shouldn’t be a problem if I sent anyone his way interested in them.


Here is a Boyliya he had made but sold the day before I had arrived.

I’m surprised that’s allowed in his country.

cyten said:

I met with another builder in his village who graciously took the time to talk to me about his craft. He mostly works with new made barrels and locks and stocks them up in the original style, but can use original hardware if the customer provides it.
He said it takes roughly 4 months to finish a Shishane and 6 months for a Boyliya (due to the intricate abalone and mother of pearl decorations)
He makes rozetki as well, a little different than the way Bobi showed me he does.
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He had three Shishane on hand that he had built this year. Told me he has made more than 50 Shishane total and around 20 Boyliya. The prices for these are $1700 for the bottom “working man’s gun” with no decorations and the other two were $2200. All stocked in Walnut and using new smoothbore barrels with traditional sights and new made locks. I was told they had a friend in the USA that they had shipped guns to before and it shouldn’t be a problem if I sent anyone his way interested in them.
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Here is a Boyliya he had made but sold the day before I had arrived.
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' Dubble WOW ' Very nice pieces . What objections could there be to making such guns Sam ? it isn't a repressed anti gun state like us in' The West' seem to suffer ,in my case South Eastern' West' I bet he's not licensed to death and administered by people who don't know what there talking about. like one gunsmith who registering a double barrel shotgun got some dumb girl on the phone demanding to know what capacity magazine did it have .And another a man taking the date on a lock as the Serial number which considering the numbers of them so dated( a Snider) didn't seem to dawn on the Useless bod doing the recording .it was pointed out but no he just went with that . Trust modern Govts?." let me see, "Now how far can I throw the Taj Mahal ? .
"That nonesence aside great work his Roskies look good , Bobbies sizes are close but differ but such ones would suite my new ones . Love the three Carbines Tufanchas ??Ile get the number of what sizes I need to restore the old one & let you know.
Regards Rudyard