Central India Matchlock

[RAEDWALD]

The attached are taken from Lieutenant Forsyth‘s book ‘Highlands of Central India’. He of Forsyth rifling fame.

and one of the matchlock men

 

[russellshaffer]

It takes a lot of nerve to hunt tigers with a matchlock. I personaly would be quite nervous tending my match while waiting for a charging tiger.

 

[Rudyard]

Wasnt that the Time his own guns where' Not available' so he used a native Matchlock little wonder then that these guns often had solid welded breach ends and massive to boot .I suppose if your up close & personal with Tiger maybe thinking of the appropriate verse '.Tiger Tiger burning bright in the forest of the night ' ( that one ) 'Oh what dreadful hand or eye can match thy fearful symmetry ' Might not be Forsyth could be Corbet. Poor Puss they got a bad name .
Regards Rudyard

 

[Sam squanch]

Tiger shooting and matchlocks?!?! I’ll stay home, thank you….

 

[TobJohn]

A good motivator not to miss!

 

[russellshaffer]

Don't think it was Corbet. Not that poetic and he used a big double rifle as I recall.

 

[Colonial Boy]

I have seen a sectioned Indian matchlock in which the plug was literally a plug, tapered with the small end to the rear and the barrel hammered down onto the taper, then finished; it was apparently very strong.

 

[Rudyard]

Don't think it was Corbet. Not that poetic and he used a big double rifle as I recall.

What he wanted to use and what he had on that occasion where not the same Ime still thinking Corbet But Ime easy as to who ever it was .If I still say Poor Puss .
Regards Rudyard

 

[RAEDWALD]

What he wanted to use and what he had on that occasion where not the same Ime still thinking Corbet But Ime easy as to who ever it was .If I still say Poor Puss .
Regards Rudyard

The poet quoted is William Blake, whose printmaking techniques I am trying to emulate. I was but wee thing in Malaya when we stopped the car on the road in Malaya and I was told the two shining eyes moving in front of us in the jungle was a Tiger.

 

[toot]

if that, a matchlock is all you have to protect your self, then you use it. it would be better than troughing a rock! jmho.

 

[Rudyard]

I have seen a sectioned Indian matchlock in which the plug was literally a plug, tapered with the small end to the rear and the barrel hammered down onto the taper, then finished; it was apparently very strong.

Yes big fire welds & a narrow anti chamber 4" or so seemed to work ide use them Well I have done .Just a pig to clean.
Rudyard

 

[RAEDWALD]

Given the internal shape of Indian matchlock breech chambers I suspect that the insistence on ‘six fingers’ was to fill the chamber. Good powder filling it and all going off at once from adiabatic heating must have been quite a brisk recoil and peak pressure.

 

[Rudyard]

Given the internal shape of Indian matchlock breech chambers I suspect that the insistence on ‘six fingers’ was to fill the chamber. Good powder filling it and all going off at once from adiabatic heating must have been quite a brisk recoil and peak pressure.

Their own powder added then two balls must have really confirmed you had fired it ! .
Regards Rudyard

 

[oldtimeplinker]

Was the "six fingers" of powder and two balls specifically a tiger hunting load, or was this just generally common among Indian matchlock shooters? The way he phrases it as "the rule for these weapons" makes it sound like this was what Indians would load their guns with regardless what the target was. Seems like a bit of overkill to me for smaller game.

 

[Sam squanch]

They may have thought if one ball missed, the other would do the job

 

[springfield art]

That scene in Black Robe where the guy's fussing with a match while hostile Natives are nosing around put me off "matchies" for ever! Not that I was ever into them!

 

[oldtimeplinker]

They may have thought if one ball missed, the other would do the job

You'd be better off using buck-and-ball then, wouldn't you? The idea of double-loading two full-sized balls and "six fingers" of powder all at the same time gives me shudders. I'm not keen on having my face blown off by a ruptured breech, thanks.

That scene in Black Robe where the guy's fussing with a match while hostile Natives are nosing around put me off "matchies" for ever! Not that I was ever into them!

I've heard it claimed that in ideal weather conditions (primarily meaning a dry day with little wind) a matchlock can be slightly more reliable than a flintlock, just due to the fact that you're introducing a pre-lit flame to the powder as opposed to relying on a piece of flint to create enough sparks to go "bang". But I haven't yet seen any empirical studies on the rates of misfire between a matchlock and a flintlock under good weather conditions. It would be interesting to know though.

Of course we've just been discussing India here so "ideal weather" is not something you're likely to get in the tropics.

 

[russellshaffer]

I bet a matchlock is slightly more reliable under very, extremely ideal conditions. Number one is that you have to have time to fiddle with the match - hard to do if you are stalking a tiger. Target shooting on a very nice day would be the only time I would vote for a matchlock. Here comes the tiger. Quick, adjust the match, blow on it, open the pan. Aim if there is any time left. Or keep tending the match and don't see the tiger.

 

[Rudyard]

Was the "six fingers" of powder and two balls specifically a tiger hunting load, or was this just generally common among Indian matchlock shooters? The way he phrases it as "the rule for these weapons" makes it sound like this was what Indians would load their guns with regardless what the target was. Seems like a bit of overkill to me for smaller game.

Well I wasn't there but I think it likely. they loaded according to expected game or persons such as Dacoits / bandits .Though I did learn not to look for logic in India .
Rudyard

 

[oldtimeplinker]

I bet a matchlock is slightly more reliable under very, extremely ideal conditions. Number one is that you have to have time to fiddle with the match - hard to do if you are stalking a tiger. Target shooting on a very nice day would be the only time I would vote for a matchlock. Here comes the tiger. Quick, adjust the match, blow on it, open the pan. Aim if there is any time left. Or keep tending the match and don't see the tiger.

I guess if I was in formation with a hundred other guys all using matchlocks, shooting at another group of a hundred other guys also using matchlocks, I might feel comfortable with it. But if I happened to be looting the battlefield after the event and found that just one of those other hundred guys had dropped a firelock, you better believe I'm grabbing that.

Well I wasn't there but I think it likely. they loaded according to expected game or persons such as Dacoits / bandits .Though I did learn not to look for logic in India .
Rudyard

I think the fact that they were still using matchlocks in the 1800s despite already having been exposed to European flintlocks for the past hundred years already rules out any sort of reasonable thinking when it comes to firearms over there... I can't imagine that the production and use of flintlocks would have been beyond their capabilities by the time that Forsyth wrote his account. Heck there were village gunsmiths in backwoods places like the Caucasus that were able to produce flintlocks around that period. So why on earth did the Indians stick with matchlocks?

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/23354