STRANGE WEAPON??

[Raf]

A while ago I posted this barrel in the European forum. It had been faked up as a European matchlock so the pan and cover are modern. The muzzle looked Indian but the strange lump to the breech and the apparent absence of an original flashpan isnt something normally seen on Indian matchlocks. I posted it because I thought the breech might have originally terminated in a spike or socket , as in very early European hand guns , or if it was Indian could be evidence that the very earliest Indian matchlocks were tiller guns. That is barrels terminating in a long forged spike . The example above suggests an alternative explanation ; that it is the remains of a combination weapon, in view of the length of the barrel possibly an axe.