Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian, I am here today at the Rock Island Auction Company
taking a look at some of the guns that they're going to be
selling in their upcoming February of 2017 Regional Auction.
And we have one here that is quite old and in quite poor condition,
but, you know, it's a really interesting gun .
And ... everyone's seen pictures of these, I think,
and I thought it was about time that we actually took a
closer look at one. This is an Afghan jezail,
and it has this quite distinctive curved buttstock to it.
There are ... a lot of different variants on this buttstock style,
but they all have this really distinctive curve to them,
which really makes them stand out. They are also typically very long.
This is kind of one of the shorter ones actually.
They are typically relatively large calibre, between .50 and .75 calibre. This particular one is right about .65 calibre.
And they are generally either flintlock or matchlock guns.
Now these things were manufactured about 200 years ago, give or take,
and they were the traditional weapon of Afghan tribesmen.
... Typically the way one of these would be manufactured would be from a lock assembly
that was captured, stolen or purchased from a foreign power, typically the British.
A lot of these were originally made with captured British Brown Bess lock plates.
Then a local gunsmith would manufacture a barrel and a stock and put the whole thing together.
And then these things were pretty heavily decorated, inscribed, engraved, the works, they're personalised.
And made quite fancy in many cases because you know the typical Afghan tribesman,
it's not like he's got a gun collection back home. He's got his rifle, his jezail, and
it's kind of a point of personal pride to make it a really nice looking gun, or a very fancy gun at any rate.
So these have a reputation of being extremely accurate rifles, and that the Afghans were
basically a bunch of really talented snipers who just whaled on the British.
And ... there are elements of truth to that and there are also elements of exaggeration to it.
The biggest reason that the Afghans were able to substantially out-range
British regulars with these is because these were in fact rifles.
They were rifled. And the British were using smoothbore muskets. And in this way
these jezails are actually relatively similar to the good old-fashioned American Kentucky or Pennsylvania rifle.
Where as we did here, we had rifled bores.
We had particularly long barrels because, especially with black powder, a longer barrel
does actually give you reasonably increased muzzle velocity, more so than smokeless powder does.
And of course a longer barrel means a longer sight radius, a larger distance between the rear sight
and the front sight way out there,
which means you have a more precise line up of the sights.
And while it doesn't change the mechanical accuracy of the gun,
it does allow you to shoot the gun more accurately in practical terms.
So the big difference, other than stylistic, you know, buttstocks and decoration, the big difference between the American
Kentucky rifles and the Afghan jezails is that the American rifles were typically designed around
hunting and tended to be relatively small calibre, mid .30s to mid .40 calibre.
Where the jezails were entirely meant as military arms and were larger calibre, .50 to .75.
They were particularly useful from elevated positions, the classic
vision of the British defeat in Afghanistan is this British column marching down the centre of a canyon or gorge,
with Afghan snipers up on the ridges above shooting down into the column.
And in a position like that, a rifle like this would be a pretty devastating weapon.
So really the first obvious question is what's the deal with this stock? Now part of this is style,
custom, something that people adapt to and it just becomes the accepted norm.
But these stocks actually might work better than you think.
We're used to crushing our cheek down onto the comb of a stock in order to get what we consider to be the best sight picture.
Well, these are a little bit different. Now first off, these guns are so long that
they were typically fired off of support sticks, shooting sticks, a monopod basically.
And so you didn't necessarily have to try and support the whole weight of the gun.
Then you've got a section down here, a nice dropped buttstock that fits into your shoulder,
and you can actually get a decent chin weld on the stock about this area.
And I was a little bit surprised myself when I actually tried this.
But from right here I have actually a pretty decent contact right on the bottom of the jaw,
I've got a nice sight picture.
And we'll look at the sights here, these sights are better than you would expect for a rifle that looks like this.
Right there, it's a good sight picture. And I'll tell you what, this works a lot better than you might expect.
So the front sight on this rifle has unfortunately been worn down to basically nothing, but if we take a look
at the rear sight you'll find something a lot more intricate than we're used to expecting on a gun that looks like this.
So normally you'd expect something like only a front sight post, or only a bead.
This actually has a two-position rear aperture sight.
And what that's going to do is give you one aperture for a close range shot,
and one aperture for a particular extended range.
And exactly what ranges this gun's maker zeroed those sights for I have no idea.
But, there you go, you have two actual sight apertures. And what you would do is
look down through there just like a modern peep sight.
I do have to say, unfortunately someone stored this rifle like in a box of yellow closed cell foam,
and this rifle is now covered in little fragments of detritus of foam, so excuse it that.
Here's a better view of the bore. You can see the front sight there is just a nothing.
But there's rifling. And this wasn't exactly manufactured by Holland & Holland, but it was well enough rifled to get the job done.
So when you're looking at guns of this type you have to be able to distinguish between legitimate
combat rifles and guns that are just made for selling to tourists.
And a number of the features that we've already looked at make me think that this is a legitimate rifle.
I think the sights certainly do that, the fact that it is a heavy walled barrel that is rifled.
A lot of these are made with smoothbore barrels, and that's just not the same thing.
We have a date of 1808 on the lock plate here, and a little decorative engraving of a lion there.
And then another element that makes me think this is a legitimate rifle is the condition of this poor sling swivel.
This has been ovalled out just from probably decades, if not literal centuries, of being carried and used.
And if this were a gun just made for the odd tourist, it never would have been carried on a sling that much,
and you wouldn't see that kind of wear pattern.
The same thing exists here on the rear sling swivel.
There is a fragment of a leather sling still attached to it, but again you can see clear through there.
That pin holding the sling swivel in place has just worn itself a really big hole in the back of the stock.
In addition someone put some real effort into decorating this rifle.
You can see that it's a Damascus pattern barrel, and then here at the muzzle and elsewhere along
the length of the barrel, someone actually put in what appears to be a little bit of gold inlay.
There's a lot of effort, the time put into the cleaning rod here.
This is the handle end with this nice carved handle, or a machined handle, to give you a good gripping surface.
Then the other end has a ... slot for a cleaning patch in it.
Overall, just the more I look at this rifle, boy, the more I wonder what stories this thing would have if it could talk,
because I think this rifle has really been there and done that.
There's always been a trade in basically tourist weapons out of the Middle East.
These areas are a crossroads for large parts of the world, and they've always had ... substantial numbers
of travellers coming through who are unacquainted with the area. And those people always find the
local customs to be exotic and interesting.
And so there's always been a demand and a desire for exotic, interesting guns from areas like Afghanistan or Pakistan.
And so there's always been a market to make such things, and
that's a little bit different from the actual production of rifles like this meant for actual combat use.
And it takes some practice to identify which is which, you know, what's a tourist gun what's an actual authentic gun?
Especially when you're looking at things that are now, like this thing, 200 years old.
I'm certainly no expert in this subject, but I think the evidence with this particular one
pretty well points to it being an actual military arm, as we discussed when we were looking at it up close.
The biggest giveaway for me for a tourist gun is going to be a smoothbore barrel.
There is no way that you will have this effective sniper weapon with a thin little smoothbore barrel,
it's just not going to be accurate.
If you'd like to own this one, or for that matter if you're interested in having one of the tourist type guns,
take a look at the link in the description text below.
That will take you to Rock Island's catalogue page for this specific rifle.
And if you're interested in the tourist guns, do some searching for jezail or Afghan in the catalogue.
There are several of those in this auction as well.
And anyway the catalogue page will show you Rock Island's pictures and description and price estimates.
And you can place bids on one or any that you are interested in right there through their website.
Thanks for watching.
[ Rudyard Kipling: Arithmetic on the Frontier ]
A great and glorious thing it is To learn for seven years or so, The lord knows what of that and this, Ere reckoned fit to face the foe - The flying bullet down the Pass, That whistles clear: "All flesh is grass."
Three hundred pounds per annum spent On making brain and body meeter For all the murderous intent Comprised in "villainous saltpetre". And after - ask the Yusufzaies What comes of all our 'ologies.
A scrimmage in a Border Station - A canter down some dark defile Two thousand pounds of education Drops to a ten-rupee jezail. The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride, Shot down like a rabbit in a ride!
No proposition Euclid wrote, No formula the text-books know, Will turn the bullet from your coat, Or ward the tulwar's downward blow. Strike hard who cares - shoot straight who can The odds are on the cheaper man.
One sword-knot stolen from the camp Will pay for all the school expenses Of any Kurrum Valley scamp Who knows no word of moods and tenses, But, being blessed with perfect sight, Picks off our messmates left and right.
With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem. The troopships bring us one by one, At vast expense of time and steam, To slay Afridis where they run. The "captives of our bow and spear" Are cheap, alas! as we are dear.
[ cc by sk cn2 ]