[Nate C.]

Greetings,

It's been a while since we've had a "What is it?" thread so I thought I'd start one. The following images are of two unusual wheelock guns. One of them I already know what it is, maybe you can guess. The other one I have no idea. This is a knowledgeable community so I hope we can all learn something out of this.

Cheers,

[Edited to correct the title and the text to say wheelock instead of matchlock. OOPS ]

[Alina Boyden]

Isn't the top one just a wheel lock?

[Jean Thibodeau]

Hummmmm; Wild guess time

The second is a wheelock, possibly a rifle intended for hunting. The mechanism is internal and hidden from view and the tall pipe is a chimeny to channel the flash and smoke of the priming powder up: maybe intended to keep the sighting plane free of smoke until the main charge goes off a fraction of a second later.
I would also guess that this helps keeping focus on sights and target during the delay and maybe hide the flash and avoid spooking the game ?

The first one I would make a WILD guess that it may be some sort of anti-thief boobytrap gun or maybe a remotely controled gun using a cord attached to the firing mechanism for deliberate fire to protect an entrance way from unwelcomed visitors: A 16th century anti-door to door salesman device.

[Nathan Robinson]

Yes. Neither are matchlocks.

They're both wheellocks. I suspect the top one is a hunting type of some sort. I don't know why it's shaped like that. I wonder if there's a lock on the other side, too?

The bottom has a smoke deflector and a hidden internal wheel mechanism. The deflecting tube, or chimney, was supposed to direct the smoke upwards and out of the way. They were likely not very effective in that.

[Nate C.]

[Jean Thibodeau]

Nate;

The chimney one seems to have a rear sight and this leads me to believe that in all probability it is a rifle.

Also this doesn't look like it would be a military gun as most of the highly decorated archebuses / muskets where made for nobility or rich merchants for hunting and maybe for war as a personal weapon: Doesn't look like a "munitions " type that you would see in large numbers in the hands of the rank and file musketeer. If for hunting the odds go up that it would be rifled.

My expertise on this subject is wide but shallow and I'm sure much more knowledgable people could tell us more and with more certainty.

Oh, the other one seems to have holes in the wood furniture that might be used to bolt it down.

[Michael Mercier]

well what I can decipher out of the auction is that it says it has four mounting holes (could possibly be a booby trap). After looking at the picture again, you can clearly see the holes.

Other than that, I have no idea yet.

Mike

[Gordon Frye]

Dang, been offline all day so missed this one. Jean is of course right on the chimney, and Nathan on the booby-trap... at least that is my understanding of it. The rifle with the chimney was probably more a target rifle though...

Gordon

[Nate C.]

[David Etienne]

Hi,
When I first saw the top one, I immediately thought about some kind of a house defense device. I'm sure I've seen something similar in its principle in a 19th C. French almanach.

David

P.S. Recently, a mad man here in Belgium had hidden a whole bunch of booby-traps like this one in his house. Very effective : the last one he was installing killed him...

[K Holsen]

The top one looks like a "Punt Gun". Used with either a tripline for trap like purposes or mounted in the front of a boat
(hence the Punt part of the name) and fired from the rear by pulling a cord attached to the weapon. I had thought that wheel locks did not like being wound and primed to fire for long periods of time though, something to do with the spring taking a set and not functioning properly anymore.
I could of course be wrong.

[Mark Eskra]

the lower one looks a bit like a multi-shot i was in a book "Pistols", where the balls are stacked, and powder loaded into the grip. A crank was turned, powrer loaded, and ball placed (ball first of course, followed by powder). outside of that, beats me.

[Jonathan Hopkins]

[Gordon Frye]

I don't think it's a punt gun, because the barrel is too small viz the lock. Most of the punt guns I've seen were huge, with 1" or better bores and long barrels. Similar crude stocks, though.

It looks to me as though the barrel and lock were originally mounted on a pistol, in fact, and now have this rather unusual stock which allow it to be attached to a fixed position. I'd still vote for some sort of a booby-trap, though lots of other possibilities exist. That the trigger is mounted on the top of the stock is indeed VERY unusual. and makes for lots of postulations. Nice piece to mount under a table in case your friends cheat at cards. Just don't bump it accidentally with you knee!

And true enough, wheellocks don't care to be left wound up for long periods of time. The spring can take a "set" and thus loose it's power, or the chain can get bound up and stuck. Either way is bad for performance. So if it's a booby-trap, it would have to be set within a few hours of the presumed victim's arrival on the scene, rather than being left for days or weeks spanned and ready to go off.

Cheers!

Gordon

[Jonathan Hopkins]

Nate,

"Hermann Historica...Both of these were in the latest catalogue I think."

Do you remember where, exactly?

Thanks,
Jonathan

Edit: Nevermind--I found it!

[Jonathan Hopkins]

Translation of the description of the first gun...

Wheel-lock-rifle,German,dated1651,eight-edged passing into round barrel,cal 17 mm.Lock decorated with engraved tendril.On the wheel the date 1651.Spring-mounted flash pan cover,trigger placed on the upper side(not working).Darkend mounting(vermiculated)with four attechment holes.Length 57 cm.Rare hunting weapon,oftenly used by poachers

(Translation courtesy of V. Guberinic on the German Language forum of SFI)