Albanian Musket

[OldRust]

Ricky,

Wow ! What craftmanship and great photographs. Thanks for sharing.

O.R.

 

[Rudyard]

Dear Toot No one who actualy knows what he's talking about calls it a' Camel gun' even if it might have been carried by a local who rode camels . But its a term that persists much like Blunderbusses fired nails or pebbles and muzzle loaders take ages to load. But we know they don't. This said any such long piece carried on a camel or horse might well be reloaded while in the saddle by placing the often wide butts on the ground .( Pre supposing the animal is in tune with the idea ) One advantage of long barrelled pieces is you can fire over your ever patient horse or camel without the risk of blowing its ears off ( They don't like that sort of thing) I've seen Touregs wearing swords but cant recall one with a Kabyle. But stayed with Bedoins or small Oasis dwellers who still in 1965 used long Snapance guns in Southern Algeria . I was hitch hikeing to Adrar and the truck stopped two days to attend some sort of wedding or coming of age festivity , Ladies dancing, men firing off old French ML pistols for a lark . My host had a badly stuffed Gazzell head on his wall ( There was scarce more furniture than couldn't be carried on a Camel ), We sat on carpet on a sand floor, sticky Dates, Mint tea, & goat & cuss Cuss eaten with the right hand . classic really I pointed out the Gazzell head on his wall & the old gentleman delighted in miming the spotting, stalking , priming the lock, BOOM smoke accross the desert..& he kept the head poorly stuffed as a trophy . I carried flints (Like you would Eh) and made him a gift of some , We could only mime but it clearly made his day . I was only in that region a couple of months but have fond memories of it ere I rode 5 days atop a Berliet camion down to Goa in Mali. But that Sahib,s is another story.

Merry Christmas Toot and you all.
Rudyard

 

[Sam squanch]

Rudyard- you need to write a book about your life!

 

[Rudyard]

Dear Sam Thank you for your kind observation. I have written the draft of my first overlanding through equatorial West Africa in 65 After that the Overlandng down to Karachi in 66 and onto Ceylon ere I got a passage to Freemantle landing with three pounds to my name. Seemed a breeze. But I made out and after a year in NZ overlanded from Portugees Timor and the run through Afghanistan & Persia . after being hung up in Kathmandu with the ever popular Black water fever two months .. But I made it to a creaky 76 . Wife & two late teens, ***** cat & two dogs, Who remind me better go feed them .
Regards Rudyard

 

[Sam squanch]

Feed the wife, teens, pets, or ALL of them?

 

[Rudyard]

No Sam Just the dogs. Ile PM you on an idea you might like.
Regards Rudyard

 

[toot]

Dear Toot No one who actualy knows what he's talking about calls it a' Camel gun' even if it might have been carried by a local who rode camels . But its a term that persists much like Blunderbusses fired nails or pebbles and muzzle loaders take ages to load. But we know they don't. This said any such long piece carried on a camel or horse might well be reloaded while in the saddle by placing the often wide butts on the ground .( Pre supposing the animal is in tune with the idea ) One advantage of long barrelled pieces is you can fire over your ever patient horse or camel without the risk of blowing its ears off ( They don't like that sort of thing) I've seen Touregs wearing swords but cant recall one with a Kabyle. But stayed with Bedoins or small Oasis dwellers who still in 1965 used long Snapance guns in Southern Algeria . I was hitch hikeing to Adrar and the truck stopped two days to attend some sort of wedding or coming of age festivity , Ladies dancing, men firing off old French ML pistols for a lark . My host had a badly stuffed Gazzell head on his wall ( There was scarce more furniture than couldn't be carried on a Camel ), We sat on carpet on a sand floor, sticky Dates, Mint tea, & goat & cuss Cuss eaten with the right hand . classic really I pointed out the Gazzell head on his wall & the old gentleman delighted in miming the spotting, stalking , priming the lock, BOOM smoke accross the desert..& he kept the head poorly stuffed as a trophy . I carried flints (Like you would Eh) and made him a gift of some , We could only mime but it clearly made his day . I was only in that region a couple of months but have fond memories of it ere I rode 5 days atop a Berliet camion down to Goa in Mali. But that Sahib,s is another story.

Merry Christmas Toot and you all.
Rudyard

back at yha! you and your family have a VERY MERY XMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR. thanks for the response, CAMEL GUN, has turned into an URBAN LEGEND. not going to change soon?

 

[rickystl]

Thanks again guys for all the responses.

Raedwald: Thanks for that info. on flint making. Most interesting.

Having received such a great response to this Thread, I'll post another interesting one this week. Similar, but different.

Rick

 

[toot]

why would a gun that long have a saddle ring on it ? it is the longest saddle ring carbine that I have ever seen!

 

[toot]

I have one of them, and the ramrod doesn't have an attachment for cleaning that very long barrel, question, how did one clean a barrel that is so very long?