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This period quote if talking about the Sindh guns, in my opinion would be right on correct. Hmmm... I don't seem to have a top view photo of the breech of my Sindh gun. But it is indeed heavy and could easily withstand a heavy charge. While I think I understand what the Sindhi gun builders were trying to accomplish with the general shape of the butt stock, I don't understand the reasoning for it being so thin. It would not be all that difficult to get a broken wrist in the stock just from loading. You have to be really careful. In the past, I've viewed a couple matchlocks. The stocks were built just like my percussion gun. The period wrist repair on my gun looks like it could have been done by the same gunsmith who originally built the gun (?). Still a big mystery to me.What a great thread! Regarding the large powder chamber, Edward Archer Langley mentioned in "Narrative of a residence at the court of Meer Ali Moorad" in 1860:
"The matchlocks of Sindh are heavy, awkward weapons, and most unwieldy, from the stock, which is curiously shaped, being out of all proportion too light for the barrel; but they take a very heavy charge, and throw a ball to a great distance."
Rick