Hunting rifle from Finland

[Philip]

Originally Posted by daggpil

Hello,

See some more pictures from inside of the lock and the trigger mechanism. Very simple yet effective.



Best regards/Ulrik S

Thanks, Ulrik. The essentials of this mechanism, i.e the action of an external spring on the hammer and the means of release from cocked position, can be traced to Central Europe, possibly south Germany or Bohemia of the second half of the 15th cent. First the primitive snap matchlock later refined by the Portuguese in India and carried to the Far East and Indochina / Malay Archipelago (where used until the 19th cent.) Then adapted to the first flint snaplocks such as used in Scandinavia and Russia, later the various "miquelet" locks of the Mediterranean countries whose design was introduced to places like Algeria and Ceylon.

From what I see there does not appear to be a safety (half-cock) position on the sear (the device that releases the hammer during firing). The sear and its long leaf spring on your lock are identical to the arrangement of the full-cock (primary) sear on the Spanish miquelet lock. But this Finnish one stands out as being even more elegant in its simplicity - just two parts, no need for a pivot pin, or a mounting bracket affixed to the lockplate as is the case with the Mediterranean counterpart. Very ingenious!