Are you are thinking of purchasing an antique Turkish Musket? The fine Musket-guns from Turkey have had a colourful history. Know more about the design of this famous weapon below…
A Turkey has long been famous for producing fine arms and the musket was invented centuries ago in Turkey. It was used in many battles. The Turkish Musket was legendary in wars over the ages, infamous for their long range and massive destructive power.
They had a lot of power but simultaneously they were heavy to carry in battle. Mid 16th century muskets had a length of 9 palms with a range of 500 to 600 paces. Rivals used to shake with fear at the sound of the Turkish arqubusers and their most excellent gunpowder. It used to take balls of 6, 9, 12, 15 and25 grams. The Ottoman muskets were too heavy to carry in a battle or to shoot supportless, and the soldier was forced to take a step back to absorb the recoil.
Chao Shih-Chen and Wu Pei Chih of China had described the Turkish Musket in 1598 and 1628. The only difference in their accounts was that the cock was replaced by a rack-and-pinion mechanism.
Turkish Musket Mechanism of Working
The wheel moved the match forward to the touch-hole. When the trigger is pulled, the rack is pushed back, compressing a brass spring, and rotating the wheel in a clockwise direction so that the other rack, bearing the match, goes forward and ignites the powder. On trigger, the two racks return automatically to the original position. European or other matchlock muskets do not have such a mechanism.
The Turkish Muskets are long, slender guns, with a wooden arm that is decorated with the folk art of Turkey. . Its design was copied by Japanese Pirates and then by armies of the Chinese Kingdoms. They have a much straighter and longer handle. The Portuguese Musket’s handle is shorter and more curved. The Chinese copied from the original Turkish Muskets to create a breech-loading model for the Ming Dynasty. It was one of the earliest breech-loading muskets.
The Musket was designed to have awesome range and armour penetrating power although it was slow to load and fire. The old design became obsolete with the development of armour and better weapons. The 18th century musket was much lighter, faster loading, and had a flintlock mechanism that made it more reliable.
Here are some sellers of Turkish Muskets:
1) Collectblefirearms.com is selling an Elaborately Decorated Turkish Miquelet Child Musket for $3,250.
2) Goantiques.com is selling an antique Turkish Ottoman Matchlock Gun Musket for $2800.
3) Gunbroker.com has many Muskets on sale.
