A Long-Lasting Favorite

The snaphaunce as a pistol, shotgun and rifle was met with wide acceptance in Europe, Scandinavia and the Arab world. Moorish and Arabian snaphaunces were still being made until at least 1875. Kitchener’s troops were receiving snaphaunce fire as late as 1898 while rooting out the dervishes in the Sudan!

It’s been speculated many of the best North African gunmakers of the period were skilled Jewish metalworkers who’d been expelled from Spain. In any case, the bone and red coral inlays decorating the stock on the example shown are fetching indeed. The barrel bands are lapped over and soldered in place. There are large metal plates both underneath the lock and along the left side of the stock which I assume are “wear plates” to protect the stock from abrasion when carried on camel or horseback.

With an overall length of 64" and a weight of 8.5 lbs., it balances perfectly when you wrap your hand around the stock just forward of the lock, and it hangs nicely offhand. It’s a smoothbore, and using Brownells barrel caliper I found the bore measures 0.55". The lucky man who owned this snaphaunce was a person of substance in the tribe.