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.

 

[Sam squanch]

Probably just has some wear. If you are not going to shoot it no big deal.

 

[Clark Badgett]

Interesting! There does seem to be a small hotbed of interest in these; even the word "escopeta" rolls off the tongue easily!

Escopetas are just cool as can be.

 

[rickystl]

Congratulations. A nice Spanish escopeta from the 1770's. And typical of the style. These remained popular up through Spanish Colonial times through the early 1800's. Nicely engraved Spanish patilla lock.
I'm a bit late on this Thread. But I can see you figured out the safety position on the lock plate. Mostly gunk just blocking the hole in the lock plate. You noticed the safety sear is round with a notch filed into it to secure the foot of the cock. I've seen where this notch needs to be filed just a tad deeper to have a more positive hold on the foot of the cock. As well as the round hole on the lock plate smoothed out just a bit so the whole safety position functions normal. It's just from wear.
With the lock engraving and marks on the barrel, it appears this piece was originally made as a sporting gun. These escopetas are light and well balanced.
Due to the longer jaws, it's often easier to use two pieces of leather. One flat piece for the upper jaw and one the same for the lower jaw. Makes it easier to adjust the flint back and forth. In any case, the flint will likely sit very close to the top edge of the frizzen.

Again, nice original piece.

Rick

 

[springfield art]

Wouldn't it be "kewl" if the major importers of India-made muskets got together, as one voice, and told the India factory most interested, there is indeed a market for these Escopetas, and pledged to buy a certain number, to be divided amongst the three or four major dealers? The fellows in the US who really want one could even be offered a "subscription" of sorts, maybe $200, let's say, with a full-disclosure that the guns would not be forthcoming for at least a couple years. This is just a holiday 'pipe dream', but it's something to think about! There's what, Vet Arms, Middle, Military Hist., and another one or two? Just a dream, but maybe we can get Musk interested?BTW, be sure to have a "watch party" on TV for the Inaugural! Jan. 20th.

 

[springfield art]

Congratulations. A nice Spanish escopeta from the 1770's. And typical of the style. These remained popular up through Spanish Colonial times through the early 1800's. Nicely engraved Spanish patilla lock.
I'm a bit late on this Thread. But I can see you figured out the safety position on the lock plate. Mostly gunk just blocking the hole in the lock plate. You noticed the safety sear is round with a notch filed into it to secure the foot of the cock. I've seen where this notch needs to be filed just a tad deeper to have a more positive hold on the foot of the cock. As well as the round hole on the lock plate smoothed out just a bit so the whole safety position functions normal. It's just from wear.
With the lock engraving and marks on the barrel, it appears this piece was originally made as a sporting gun. These escopetas are light and well balanced.
Due to the longer jaws, it's often easier to use two pieces of leather. One flat piece for the upper jaw and one the same for the lower jaw. Makes it easier to adjust the flint back and forth. In any case, the flint will likely sit very close to the top edge of the frizzen.

Again, nice original piece.

Rick

I never thought of the Two Piece Leather idea; always just folded it, but it's something that never occurred to me! I used lead a lot.

 

[Mcat]

Congratulations. A nice Spanish escopeta from the 1770's. And typical of the style. These remained popular up through Spanish Colonial times through the early 1800's. Nicely engraved Spanish patilla lock.
I'm a bit late on this Thread. But I can see you figured out the safety position on the lock plate. Mostly gunk just blocking the hole in the lock plate. You noticed the safety sear is round with a notch filed into it to secure the foot of the cock. I've seen where this notch needs to be filed just a tad deeper to have a more positive hold on the foot of the cock. As well as the round hole on the lock plate smoothed out just a bit so the whole safety position functions normal. It's just from wear.
With the lock engraving and marks on the barrel, it appears this piece was originally made as a sporting gun. These escopetas are light and well balanced.
Due to the longer jaws, it's often easier to use two pieces of leather. One flat piece for the upper jaw and one the same for the lower jaw. Makes it easier to adjust the flint back and forth. In any case, the flint will likely sit very close to the top edge of the frizzen.

Again, nice original piece.

Rick

Thanks for this Rick. Any comment about the Ernaro engraving and comments that this is not Spanish but Portuguese? What is a patilla lock btw? Why a sporting gun? I see that there is no bayonet mounting hardware. You are sure right about the escopeta being light and well balanced. The wood from the lock forward is so thin it’s almost like it was sprayed on ! Appreciate any additional thoughts you might have.

 

[rickystl]

Hi Mcat

I don't find any reference to Ernaro in my Spanish gun builder's reference material. However, Ernaro may be the lock maker only. One of the stamps on the barrel will more than likely referred to the gun builder. This was a common practice among Spanish builders. As for "patilla", see Link below. IMHO your escopeta is definitely of Spanish origin, including the lock. It's entirely possible that the gun was built by a Portuguese gun maker - in the Spanish style. But I don't see any evidence of this. (Likewise, a Spanish builder could build a gun in the Portuguese style). Also, the locks on genuine Portuguese guns are different. The mainspring is internal like a flintlock, but still retaining the traditional horizontal sear arrangement. Sort of a hybrid between the miquelet and the flintlock. I'll post a couple photos here of traditional Portuguese locks for comparison.
Surviving examples of the escopeta show both military and civilian use. The military would not likely go to the expense of an engraved lock.
Later on, during the early 1800's the half-stock sporting guns came more into vogue with that fraternity. But the traditional style escopeta remained popular especially between the late 1700's and early 1800's. A light weight and versatile fowling piece. Sort of the Spanish version of the English trade fusils during the same period. Again, nice to see you have an earlier example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miquelet_lock

Rick

 

[rickystl]

For comparison, here are a couple of genuine original Portuguese locks.

Rick

 

[rickystl]

I never thought of the Two Piece Leather idea; always just folded it, but it's something that never occurred to me! I used lead a lot.

The miquelet locks all tend to have longer, more narrow jaws than other locks. I've never really understood the reason for this. The flint will often extend out the sides of the jaws. But if the leather is positioned correctly it holds firm. Notice the width of the frizzens are roughly equal to other flintlocks using typical size flints. It often takes a bit of tinkering to get the flint, leather, and frizzen alignment where you want it. One way I found works well with these locks is to cut two pieces of the leather flat. One for the top and one for the bottom jaws each. Leather shaped the same as the jaws. Then, punch a hole in each leather piece to equal the position of the top screw. The top screw goes through both holes. This gives more lengthwise room for flint adjustment. I've also seen this done on a couple of original locks with their original flint and leather still together. For those of you with miquelet locks, give it a try.

Rick

 

[rickystl]

Wouldn't it be "kewl" if the major importers of India-made muskets got together, as one voice, and told the India factory most interested, there is indeed a market for these Escopetas, and pledged to buy a certain number, to be divided amongst the three or four major dealers? The fellows in the US who really want one could even be offered a "subscription" of sorts, maybe $200, let's say, with a full-disclosure that the guns would not be forthcoming for at least a couple years. This is just a holiday 'pipe dream', but it's something to think about! There's what, Vet Arms, Middle, Military Hist., and another one or two? Just a dream, but maybe we can get Musk interested?BTW, be sure to have a "watch party" on TV for the Inaugural! Jan. 20th.

Actually, one of the India distributors maybe 3-4 yars ago (or more) offered a 1750-ish Spanish Infantry musket with a miquelet lock for sale. Apparently it was a very short run. In fact, one of the Forum members just recently posted one of these muskets somewhere on the Forum about 1-2 months ago. So, at least one India factory has made a miquelet lock before. But no escopeta style. So we know it's do-able.
But you brought up a good idea about a subscription of sorts.
I remember the famous gun builder Mike Brooks had an excellent system for customers wanting a custom build. He simply took a $200.00 (refundable) deposit to add you to his list. The $200.00 deposit kept just the "lookers" away to make way for the serious buyers. If a customer changed their mind they would get their $200.00 refunded and the next customer moved up the list. A very good and fair way to offer custom work.
Maybe one of the India distributors could advertise in the Forum to see if there is enough interest to do a run ? Considering a prototype would have to be built I'm sure 2-3 interested people will not do the trick. But 3-4 dozen might.

Rick

 

[Sam squanch]

Can the original poster please post some well lit , close up photos of your flint lock mechanism up close on half and full cock? I still think this is a Portuguese miquelet lock, their miquelet half cock was different. We will get to the bottom of it, even if it kills me!

 

[Mcat]

Can the original poster please post some well lit , close up photos of your flint lock mechanism up close on half and full cock? I still think this is a Portuguese miquelet lock, their miquelet half cock was different. We will get to the bottom of it, even if it kills me!

Thanks Sam and Rick. Here you go.