Bought the wife a Jazil Camel rifle!

[Marplot]

Years ago, my wife saw this gun at a show in Berkeley California. She had to have it! Was quite a job to get it home on the airplane. It was hard to find a case long enough (over five feet long) and then get it through the TSA people as checked baggage! But they finally allowed it. I guess I should have mailed it to us, but Anne wanted it coming home to us.
I don't have a clue if it is authentic. I'll get it down from the wall in her kitchen. It is in our secondary home. It is really cool with all kinds of inlay.

"The jezail, also known as the "camel gun", is a type of rifle that was popular in the Middle East and North Africa in the 19th century. The jezail was a simple, cost-efficient, and often handmade muzzle-loading long arm. Jezails were commonly used in British India, Central Asia, and parts of the Middle East"

Guess I will have a closer look and see if it could be operational and have a real BP guy have a look at it. Would really be fun to actually fire it? First time with a string from a distance.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Your wife is a keeper, bud.

We used to have a North African "Camel Gun" on the wall when I was a kid. I remember a lot of ivory inlay and an enormous miquelet lock. It was given to my dad by one of his nephews, who acquired it while serving in the Navy in WW2. Eventually, maybe before I was 12, the nephew (a first cousin, but much older than me), decided he wanted it back, so we don't have it any more. It was an interesting piece, and actually very well made if I remember correctly. It had sort of a fishtail butt rather than the deeply curved buttstock on your wife's gun, and the trigger terminated in a marble-sized ball, fully exposed with no triggerguard.

You have a cool gun there. thanks for showing it!

Notchy Bob

 

[PathfinderNC]

Years ago, my wife saw this gun at a show in Berkley California. She had to have it! Was quite a job to get it home on the airplane. It was hard to find a case long enough (over five feet long) and then get it through the TSA people as checked baggage! But they finally allowed it. I guess I should have mailed it to us, but Anne wanted it coming home to us.
I don't have a clue if it is authentic. I'll get it down from the wall in her kitchen. It is in our secondary home. It is really cool with all kinds of inlay.

"The jezail, also known as the "camel gun", is a type of rifle that was popular in the Middle East and North Africa in the 19th century. The jezail was a simple, cost-efficient, and often handmade muzzle-loading long arm. Jezails were commonly used in British India, Central Asia, and parts of the Middle East"

Guess I will have a closer look and see if it could be operational and have a real BP guy have a look at it. Would really be fun to actually fire it? First time with a string from a distance.

Very lovely.
Hanging by a thread, more-or-less.

 

[Nor Cal Mikie]

Surprised you found ANYTHING gun related in Bazerkley!! Just the word GUN might get you in the slam for a time. All the City streets are "LEFT TURN ONLY".
Other than that, "COOL looking piece".

 

[Col. Batguano]

We'll have to call you "El Mikee" from now on!

 

[QuinnTheEskimo]

Very cool. I’ve seen Yosemite Sam using one of those.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

I have one that looks just like it’s twin!

Be aware … on the 1st shot … all those Mother of Pearl pieces will go flying OFF the stock!

Ask me how I know … ????

… they are only held in place with an animal glue that is likely dried out and barely holding them in place ….

 

[Marplot]

Camel with swivel gun. The accepted procedural was to get the camel to lay down before firing.

 

[Sam squanch]

May be the real deal. Or a put together for tourists, hard to say without a close examination. Is it loaded? Many guys on this forum including me, have bought these old guns- and they were loaded. It certainly looks very cool on the wall there!!

 

[Pete G]

Camel with swivel gun. The accepted procedural was to get the camel to lay down before firing.

Must be a really docile camel. I don’t think a horse would stand for such .

 

[BillinOregon]

Hard to believe that Doctor Watson carried a bullet from one of these guns the rest of his life. Thank God it did not seriously interfere with his sketches of the adventures he enjoyed with Holmes.

 

[stevenjay1]

Berkeley CA gun show????. When did Berzerkley ever have a gun show. I lived in the Berkeley area from 1971 to 2015 never saw a gun show in Berkeley. However, I did work with a
Local PD from 73 to 78 and there were some not so legal shows I was made aware of!! But those were the only one I knew of.

 

[stevenjay1]

B

 

[Rudyard]

'Camel gun' isn't a proper term or if it might be part of a Cameleers kit its mostly a catch all term based in ignorance that ones seems rather OTT but if your happy its fine .But no actual' student of arms 'would use that term . Conal Doyle's fictional Sherlock Holmes being fiction .Perhaps he based him on a real ' Doctor Watson.' ? or am I just me being ornery today .Happen so .
Rudyard

 

[Sam squanch]

Rudyard being ornery ?!?!? Look out , world!!!!

 

[Marplot]

as the OTT, drop a pebble in a pond and watch the ripples.

As a British gentleman, "I have never Kippled."

In the Sherlock books, Dr. John Watson was wounded in the shoulder by a bullet from an Afghan sniper's jezail gun at the Battle of Maiwand. But let's not confuse a Jazail like my wife bought with a swivel gun that was mounted on a camel.

A swivel gun was called Zamburak which consisted of a soldier on a camel with a mounted swivel gun (a small falconet), which was hinged on a metal fork-rest protruding from the saddle of the animal. In order to fire the cannon, the camel would be put on its knees.

The mobility of the camel combined with the flexibility and heavy firepower of the swivel gun made for an intimidating military unit, although the accuracy and range of the cannon was rather low. The light cannon was also not particularly useful against heavy fortifications

"The zamburak became a deadly weapon in the 18th century. The Pashtuns used it to deadly effect in the Battle of Gulnabad, routing a numerically superior imperial Safavid army. The zamburak was also used successfully in Nader's Campaigns, when the shah and military genius Nader Shah utilized a zamburak corps in conjunction with a regular artillery corps of conventional cannon to devastating effect in numerous battles such as at the Battle of Damghan (1729), the Battle of Yeghevārd, and the Battle of Karnal."

 

[Rudyard]

A creditable lot of Reasearch ,If the gun you bought wasnt the same as the small canon the gun you have though it might well see in its life Camels . I was perhaps unkindly saying that the much used term' camel gun' seems to be used to describe any .Native ethnic gun as 'A Camel gun ' Ive seen Moroccan's do ceremonial horse charges to greet the Boy King of Morrocco Hassan the second at Agadir in 1965 and Ive seen long kabyles with snaphance locks in central Algeria that the owner was pleased to explain the stalking and shooting some sort of Gazzel its poorly stuffed head on his wall prompting my enquiry, his gun lay against the wall its lock wrapped around with rag to keep out the fine sand so pervasive choose what you do ( its sort of' pepper ' but you don't bite on it ! ) . It was all by mime but we got on fine .My gift of two flints (Ever the muzzle loader) delighted him as they had to be hard to get. No Track of the Wolf out there, I had in my pack a flint lock lock, a horn of gunpowder, & assorted flints & caps never know what might turn up eh .(Nothing did but I took them back to England 7 months later ) Despite my bag being examined by the Surette in Ivory coast they thought my modern compass strange spy kit but did'nt think the gunpowder was any big deal ( Some silly local was sure I was a spy he called in two armed security bods great fuss & Palaver whole village round to see the great' Palaver It looked tense but I made a joke and it gave the two troops an' out ' but my Ebo Host had climbed out his back window .Things can get hairy in that part of the world .I was twenty what had I to spy on?

.Out of the frying pan into the fire next day I crossed the lagoon in a Pirruogh to be greeted by Ghanaian Police ,very smart fellows at Half Assinni , but never take their own initiative. so Accra had me put up in house arrest in a school of PCVs & similar teachers later taken to Accra Dummies at HQ decide to deport me to Lagos cost 7 pounds they wouldn't pay for it .And I wouldn't entertain the Idea So we settled on a 'Mammy waggon' to Togo land ,. for 10 shillings . Next day the malaria got me but Ime here so got round the 104 temperature problem.. (got to have a Souvenir heh ?) Pardon My ramblings .
Regards Rudyard .

 

[Marplot]

Rudyard! Please ramble on. Fascinating! You seem like a turn of the century (last century) explorers! I could listen for hours. I strongly suggest you have a look at the Ethnographic Arms and Armour forum. I was part for many years as "Bill M". You will find quite a few compatriots.

I have a small collection of nine swivel cannons from about two feet long to one over 5 feet with a Portuguese twist. Mostly made in Borneo and Malaysia. Fighting guns as opposed to tourist pieces. There is a special way they were cast previous to 1600. One has some coral growth in the mouth of the bore since it lay for many years on the bottom of the ocean.

Here is a picture with some of my swivel guns -Lantakas- with iron eagles and bronze sphinx in my downtown warehouse.Picture of one of my two foot swivel guns, on a display stand. Lantakas were often used by the Malay pirates until they were eradicated by the British who got steam powered vessels who could then finally catch them.

 

[Marplot]

Arab Dance showing Recoil? <Grin>

 

[Rudyard]

Dear Marplot I see you are into the jingles & likewise colourfull small cannon I was in the Jackarta & Cingaleese Musuems seem to recall what Ive called A ' Jingal ' I recall the film ' Lord Jim ' V the Pirates shot where he 'delivers ' the gold they sought to steal fired at them from a Temple gun . I once took deck passage Karachi to Bombay aboard the' SS Sardona ' British India Lines who did the Muslim world who all seek to go the Mecca & the Haje ? 42 Rupees bank rate (they insisted) and not the useual Black market for such currencies ( and oddly enough her being steam a young crew engineer might have been on that trip I later met him in Echuca at a Steam Rally John Davis & later . I was fireman on the 8 to 12 from Brisbane river to Singapore via Cairns & Darwin ( hotter than any two dollar pistol) but got to man the boilers. We did ten knots average & burnt 10 ton of waste oil a day, couldn't push her, dicky tubes . 1942 vintage Corvette Ex 'HMAS 'Gladstone ' Small world Eh. Canvas over the hatch covers & an awning was our 'quarters' No loose steam roller or storm. just me & 4 other fellow travelers / Hippies I tried to play the Pukka Sahib not too success fully close on . But one should make the effort you know ! . I owded a French lad about a pound Milan to Bombay on 16 pounds was a bit nip & tuck but had $ sent to Bombay so got away with it you might say . Well we have mentioned The Latanka / Jingles so we are still on topic .I like to recount my' travelers tails' ime writeing a book . The West Africa was 1965 . The overland to Ceylon was 66 The over land back was 69 " But that Sahibs is another story ''.
Regards Rudyard