1770 Spanish escopeta miquelet lock musket

[Sam squanch]

You may have an obstruction inside the stock mortise preventing the half cock from working. Thats a Portuguese lock , all right. They are kind of rare .

 

[Mcat]

Here is a photo of the lock back on the gun and holding in the half cock position. The flint was removed because I did a lot of soaking in penetrating oils. After various scrubbing tools and soaking up the rust with paper towels etc. I found I couldn’t get the half cock protrusion to kick out enough to engage the cock. After applying some Hoppe’s #9 though while off the gun, the half cock engaged. After putting the lock back on the gun I couldn’t seem to get it to engage the half cock again. It sat for a few hours and I tried it again and there you have it. Working, but sporadically. Not a real big issue since I am not planning to shoot this old gun, but I like to try to get things in working order. I’ll be visiting this old beauty many times to see how she fares. The half cock protrusion is the small circle in the curve of the lower cock. Full cock always engages with the foot brought up to the ledge that sticks through.

I’ve been able to engage the half cock protrusion each time I’ve tried, but it doesn’t engage always the first time. It almost engages, but slips off. If I mop up any oil around the protrusion it can then grip the half cock. It’s touchy.