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We know that Ottomans sometimes used wheellock firearms, at least in the 17th century (captured or earned via trade, I'm guessing, I've never seen a wheellock mechanism of Ottoman manufacture). As for the time of Suleiman, probably solely matchlocks. The firearm cavalry experiment was conducted...

The Ottomans were trying to introduce firearms to the cavalry forces as early as the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (although it seems that back then, they were not very popular amongst the conservative cavalrymen) and we know that by the 17th century, it was not an unlikely sight for a...

I think it was "Armies of the Civil War: Infantry" or such. It even had an illustration (by Angus McBride) of a matchlock-armed soldier trying to keep his match lit while a firelock-armed soldier looked at him with a smug look on his face.

The Ottomans likely began using miquelets at a very early date; the Ottoman miquelet has the reinforcing bridge between the cock and frizzen screws, which, if my memory does not fail me, was a feature of very early Western miquelets. They never got rid of that feature, unlike the rest of the...

The odd position of the nipple made me think that it's a reverse hammer gun. They weren't all that common to my understanding, but seem to have had their own niche in Europe during the 19th century, possibly as a familiar follow-up for the wheellock hunting rifle.

I remember reading in an Osprey book that during the English Civil War, soldiers who where to guard over the supply train (or, in particular, powder storages) were specifically given firelocks as to reduce the risk of an accident.

The American Society of Arms Collectors have some articles related to this matter on their website, I believe. The one that comes to my mind was written by Arne Hoff. Separately, Brian Godwin has written on the matter, and an article of Rainer Daehnhardt also touches on the subject. I do not...

Two, you already know. The split frizzen, and the other auctioned double barrel long gun which you posted earlier in this thread. Two are in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, one a hunting gun (picture 1), one a pistol (picture 2). One gun is in a museum in the Kabardino-Balkarian...

Hello cyten, First of all, nice find. These double barrel miquelets are of personal interest to me. It seems that the Caucasus was the only place in the Islamicate world where they made double barrel guns. I think I have seen a total of six so far, including this one. Secondly, if you look...

Babur, the Mughal founder, swore fealty to Isma'il (the Safavid Shah) at some point. But it seems to have been an uneasy alliance against the Shaybanids (the Uzbek dynasty descending on Khorasan to pick apart what's left of the Timurids, i.e. Babur's worst nightmare) to my understanding. Babur...

I would argue that the Safavid firearms were probably more Turkish in influence. We know that the first Safavid artillery pieces were reverse engineered from lost Ottoman cannons (a single one found by a river, I think) and that Ottoman firepower was what turned the tide of battle at Chaldiran...

Happy new year everyone. I've got some things that I should share here, but I haven't had the time to translate or classify them yet. For now, here's something I've never seen before, an Ottoman kammerlader-style pistol, at least, so claimed by Bonhams:

I suspect that there's heaps of info just waiting to get deciphered in the Turkish state and library archives (and probably other private collections too), but translation is a tedious task and Turkish academia isn't exactly the gold standard. Then there's the problem of publications of Turkish...

Hello Rick, I know the prices are ridiculous compared to the US, but honestly it seems like all the good pieces were exported to Europe and/or the US and now what we're left with is, well, either attic dwellers in terrible condition (pitted and/or rusted beyond all recognition), or the victim...

A Kabyle musket in a local auction house. Currently at 900 dollars. What would you guys say about its condition? From what I see it's lacking its barrel bands and that the top half of the cock is at an awkward angle. The barrel seems to have some sort of proof mark on it, perhaps Belgian. Would...

They date all the way back to the 17th century (although I'm sure there's examples from the 16th as well), but honestly, this is the only example from the Islamicate World that I know of.

Figured you guys would find this one interesting. An interesting swivel-breech Toradar example from the Royal Armouries.

Printed Ottoman script is one of the easier Ottoman scripts to read, but to my understanding the language is Arabic, rather than Turkish (well, that, or my Ottoman skills have gotten rustier than I thought). I couldn't decipher it.

The Ferguson is indeed an important step in breechloading firearms, and perhaps the most popular flintlock-era breechloader, however to my understanding it's not a turret breech firearm but rather a screw breech one.

Hello, Capguns are normally not my cup of tea, but my interest in pre-cartridge breechloaders led me to an interesting piece. Apparently it's a .36 caliber underhammer rifle of New England make with a so-called turret breech. A cursory search on the forum shows a few references to other turret...