Indian Torador Matchlock Musket Bore

[rickystl]

I just found this short video that shows a camera going down the bore. At the end of the travel, you can see what's called the narrow section, then travels to the larger powder chamber at the breech end. First time I've seen this on film. The barrel of my Torador musket originally looked like this. with the unusual breech design.

Rick

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Wasn't that 'constrained' chamber needed to make the early gun powdah more explosive, versus just aggressive burning?

 

[rickystl]

Wasn't that 'constrained' chamber needed to make the early gun powdah more explosive, versus just aggressive burning?

Hi Flint

Well, that's the theory. And it's the only theory many of us are aware of. I've never read any actual written evidence of "why" the bores of the barrels were designed this way. I believe there is evidence that the earliest form of hand gonnes were designed with a larger than bore size powder chamber (?) Not sure. Maybe you know ? But for the most part, the bores of these India Torador style barrels have been left to our speculation. It's speculated that the type of black powder being made by the locals was of an earlier, crude form that would not ignite reliably if compressed tightly with a ball/patch. The powder required more oxygen to burn. Thus, the larger powder chamber at the breech end with the powder sitting loose creating that "explosive" effect. The ball would sit on the top of the narrow section (probably one inch or less) providing an air gap between the ball and the powder. The blast from the powder being forced into the narrow section (like a funnel) and sending the ball forward. Apparently, this bore design, along with the longer barrels, the locals thought more accurate with a smooth bore at longer ranges. Perhaps. There is a small amount of diary evidence that the locals believed this. And maybe this was true with the type of black powder being made locally. At least this seems to be the case in Central/Northern India. Every Torador barrel I've witnessed, the bore is designed this way. However, the similar looking barrel on my Coorg musket (Southern India) is a typical cylinder bore.

I've often wondered how the locals cleaned their Torador style barrels with this odd bore design. Pukka brought up a good point one time in that he mentions he has never seen one of these barrels with even a half-way decent bore. I haven't either. Note the condition of the bore in the video above. This is typical. It's almost as if the bores of these muskets were never cleaned after firing. Possibly the barrels were simply replaced when they could no longer be loaded. LOL It's one of those muzzle loading curiosities I guess.

Rick