Stock question for jezail

[Frank Horrigan]

So my friend gave me this old jezail. He had it for 20 years, and he got it from a old man who had it in a closet for 50 years. So I get and the stock is dry rotted , lock is missing only thing worth working with are the trigger and the barrel. I’m wondering if it would be better to work a Brown Bess stock or Americanize the rifle with a long rifle stock. And what lock would you recommend?

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Frank,
I hate to say it, but I'd hang it on a wall someplace as a decoration piece.
Better yet I might fight a faux lock, and fit it, then sell it to a Moroccan restaurant so they could display it, and use the money for something from North America or new, from India.
A lot of those "Jezail" guns were cobbled from worn out parts that the owners knew shouldn't be shot any longer, and so were put together for the tourist trade.

LD

 

[Zonie]

I totally agree with Loyalist Dave.
Many of those old Jezail's were poorly made and risky when they were brand new. 50 or 100 years of aging can only make them worse.

It's an interesting gun and although the locks aren't readily available it would be worth the effort to search the web to find photos of them.
With some creative sawing and filing a non-working lock could be made and installed.
I'm sure some Middle-East restaurant would like to hang it on their wall for a decoration.

 

[Frank Horrigan]

Shrugs I think It look nice next to that old Japanese fan I have then.

 

[Frank Horrigan]

So update after degreasing the barrel it’s turn out it’s a Damascus steel rifled barrel not a repurposed English rifle. So the plan is to restock it nice it up then hang it on the wall as a heirloom

 

[Loyalist Dave]

it’s a Damascus steel rifled barrel not a repurposed English rifle

Well that's cool!
Hey you might look up some old photos of Jezail tribesmen, and some Brits in the field in Afghanistan in the 1800's. Print them and frame them, so folks seeing it on the wall will also see something similar in context.

LIKE
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Group_of_Afridi_fighters_in_1878.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Highlanders_of_Amir_Yaqub_at_Gandamak.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afghan_foot_soldiers_in_1841.jpg
LD

 

[Frank Horrigan]

So should I stick with the jezail stock design or modify a English fowl stock to fit?

 

[Col. Batguano]

The locks for these things were made from what ever was around and available. I would do some looking, but most of them I've seen in pictures had miquolet or snaphaunce locks on them, There are a few sources for those, but the lock (if a functioning modern make) is going to cost you more than the gun is worth.