Guns of Tipu Sultan.

[robinghewitt]

There is one for sale claiming to be from his hoard. I am tempted


**TIPU SULTAN COLLECTION CONNECTIONS**MASSIVE, Late 1700’s English Enfield Tower A* Bore Musketoon With Blunderbuss Type Cannon Barrel Captured By The Sultan’s Army For Use In War Against The British East India Company (EIC) With Ornate Decoration

 

[Rudyard]

Well it as a 1810 throat hole cock post dating Any Tippoo connection . Clearly had Some history but if its East India Coy its not ' Ordnance ' Anything let alone Enfield made. With its New Land style butt . Tower mark usually mean contracted wouldn't be Enfield together .Tippoo being dead since 1799 the 'Provenance might want checking , ( or a pinch of salt.) Would suggest you resist the billing & temptation.
Regards Rudyard .

 

[Rudyard]

I discovered a "workaround" for saving photos and images which can't be copied or saved in the usual way.

If you can bring the image up on your screen, whether a PDF or a website, take a "screenshot," which is done by pressing the button marked Prt/Scr (or something like that... I'm on a touchscreen device right now). Your computer will save the image of your entire screen and put it in a folder labeled Screenshots. Open that folder and then open the image you saved. Your computer thinks the screenshot is an ordinary photograph at this point, and will offer you the Edit option in the toolbar across the top. Select "Edit & Create," and you can then crop the screenshot down to just the image you want. Save the changes, and you have your picture.

It sounds complicated, and it is, sort of, but once you get the hang of it, you can save images that might otherwise be hard to share.

Good luck! This thread has been fascinating. You fellows from distant lands have a whole different perspective on guns and shooting. I enjoy your posts.

Notchy Bob

Thank you Notchy Bob Nice to be appreciated. I don't know much about the factory products so have to write of what I do know a bit about the older or my home made stuff .I did get about a bit so can see from many angles .
Regards Rudyard

 

[robinghewitt]

Would suggest you resist the billing & temptation.

But can I resist a musketoon with a 46" steel barrel? I shall wait and watch the price, see if it starts to come down. It has been on his books for some time and I have not bought a blunderbuss this year, (if I have, do not remind me).

 

[LawrenceA]

"Musketoon with a 46" barrel". Bit of an oxymoron isn't it???
Make an awesome skeet gun!
Imagine the damage Britsmoothy could do on pigeons!! Or anything for that matter.

 

[toot]

now that is a cannon!~.

 

[RAEDWALD]

Rudyard's photographs:

 

[rickystl]

Thanks so much for the photos. An Ottoman/Turkish Shishana or Tufuk with a Ferguson breach loading mechanism.
Never seen this one before.

I now see how the matchlock lock works. Possibly a lighter than normal frizzen spring (?)

Super interesting. Thanks so much for posting.

Rick

 

[Rudyard]

All thanks to Pukka , Reawald & our local school receptionist. But your quite welcome The feather spring must have been light. Im'e dieing to make one its so well ' Cool' .Some phrase re' feacies & grins' comes to mind . No other excuse but never stopped me before .
Regards Rudyard

 

[RAEDWALD]

Looks to me that the forward linkage just flips open the pan cover (with it's vestigial fake steel) and the tumbler is rotated by the scear being connected forward of the tumbler shaft. So it pulls the tumbler arm down thus rotating the tumbler shaft and swinging the serpentine down to the pan. The only spring being the scear spring. Happy to be corrected if I have this wrong. The notch would be for a sliding safety lock.

 

[Rudyard]

Bang on the feather spring must be very light the scear spring is the only real spring . saftey bolt he seemed to like that feature . Odd Bod but he did have emagination .Thanks again for posting the pics no doubt in combination with Pukka ? .
Best wishes Rudyard

 

[RAEDWALD]

The wedge inside the scear spring is interesting. Some sort of stop so the whole serpentine head is not smashed into the pan, just the coal at the tip?

 

[Rudyard]

No the flat spring inside the scear just holds the bolt either in nor out, Its the shoulder of the cock/ serpentine that arrests the descent of the coal that runs through the tigers head no doubt duly adjusted .I'me going on the pics I never saw one but it seems clear .
Regards Rudyard

 

[LawrenceA]

What I find most intriguing is:
how the sear lever attaches in the tumbler.
The 2 pieces obviously swing through a different arc but no sign of the required slot.
Also the way the tumbler lip just sits on the transfer bar to open the pan cover. The geometry looks out.
One spring seems to work the whole lot.

Looks really cool!!
Can't wait till Rudyard builds one!
He can call it an experiment in practical archeology.

 

[RAEDWALD]

No the flat spring inside the scear just holds the bolt either in nor out, Its the shoulder of the cock/ serpentine that arrests the descent of the coal that runs through the tigers head no doubt duly adjusted .I'me going on the pics I never saw one but it seems clear .
Regards Rudyard

Ah yes. That makes sense.

 

[toot]

Thanks so much for the photos. An Ottoman/Turkish Shishana or Tufuk with a Ferguson breach loading mechanism.
Never seen this one before.

I now see how the matchlock lock works. Possibly a lighter than normal frizzen spring (?)

Super interesting. Thanks so much for posting.

Rick

I didn't know that a MATCH LOCK had a frizzen spring?

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Toot,

It doesn't as such.
It's just got up to Look like a kind of flintlock, that's all.
I'd like to make one up as well, but without the fake frizzen, and more European -looking. This has been on my mind some time, but have not as yet figured out how to make the pan cover stay in place when "trying the match", yet open when we wish to fire the gun!

 

[RAEDWALD]

The more I look at the "Tipu' lock the more things I see, possibly.....
One is the vestigial steel on the pan cover. I had thought it to be decorative imitating the steel on a flintlock. Then I thought my way through the operation of the lock with it's automatic pan cover. The pan opens as the serpentine falls. I wonder if the vestigial steel is actually a projection to allow a thumb or finger to pull the pan open to prime?

If the 'horse shoe' link merely rests upon the tumbler, which itself is under scear spring pressure, could one move the pan cover open by hand pressure to let it be primed? On the face of it (in my poor simple mind) it would then leave you trying to both hold it open and hold the musket with one hand and prime with the other. Doubtless whilst singing the national anthem and stirring one's coffee with one foot.... This would explain the reason for the pan cover spring on the outside of the lock. To overcentre the pancover to keep it open. Can anyone comment for or against my hypothesis?

I can see how the automatic pan cover together with the slide lock on the tumbler would allow the gun to be carried loaded and with a match in place with safety (for a given degree of 'safety'). It reminds me of Moroccan snaphaunces which were popular as the automatic pan cover of these plus rotating the steel out of the way made them also 'safe' to carry loaded.

 

[Notchy Bob]

I'm with Raedwald on all of this. I was actually pondering the workings of this lock while driving in to town to get an MRI of my back this morning. It looks, to me, like that wedge-shaped bit of metal inside the sear spring must be a stop of some sort. I have very little experience with matchlocks, but I do have some... Strange as it sounds, detonation of the priming charge is not a "sure thing." It is possible to crush out the coal on the match in a panful of priming powder by bringing it down too forcefully or quickly, without even lighting up the powder. So, I can see that a "stop" of some sort for the serpentine, in conjunction with a properly adjusted match, would be of some value.

I can see that the little "frizzen" would make a handy thumb-piece or lever for moving the pan cover off the pan for priming. However, it looks (to me) as if the sear, serpentine (or "match holder") and pan cover/frizzen are all inseparably linked: as pressure is applied to the trigger, the serpentine moves forward with the glowing match while the pan cover automatically moves off the pan. All well and good, except how the devil do you prime the pan? If the whole works are linked together as I envision, moving the frizzen/pan cover would pull the serpentine down and in the way. Not a good thing if the match is lit. The only thing I could come up with, while sliding into the MRI scanner tube this morning, was that the gun must have an oversized touch-hole for self-priming while loading the main charge. This would save a step in loading (no need to prime) and keep the pan cover in place and protected from the match. I've seen self-priming flintlocks mentioned several times in the annals of the American frontier. Nowadays, we get all in a dither when a few grains of powder slip out the touch-hole during loading, and we complain about the loss of velocity from the gas leakage out of an oversized touch-hole. However, back in the day, a self-priming flintlock was appreciated, especially by hunters in the far northern winters (no need to prime or fumble with percussion caps while wearing mittens) and by "buffalo runners" who loaded while on the back of a galloping horse.

I can't wait for Rudyard to build one of these, mount it on a gun, and give us a report from the field!

Notchy Bob

 

[Notchy Bob]

Wait! I see now! The lever that is linked to the pan cover can move independently of the serpentine.

Got it!

Notchy Bob