peashooter85:The Jezail musket,An odd and exotic looking firearm originating from Central Asia, the

peashooter85:The Jezail musket,An odd and exotic looking firearm originating from Central Asia, the Jezail was the weapon of choice in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, especially among the many tribes that live in the region.  They often came in matchlock or flintlock forms, are highly decorated, have a very long barrel, and have a very unique curved stock.The purpose of the curved stock was to add stability when firing from a horse, camel, or other animal.  The stock was tucked under the armpit and cradled with the body. When dismounted the Jezail was fired from a horn bipod.  Often jezails were built from common western muskets, such as the British Brown Bess, the French Charleville, and Russian pattern muskets.  Typically the lock and perhaps the barrel was saved while the rest of the musket was scrapped.  A new stock was build, along with a rifled barrel, or the original barrel which had been rebored from smoothbore to rifled.  Often they were heavily decorated with silver, shell, lapis lazuli, bone, and other common native materials, using ancient family and tribal patterns.  Most importantly, since many Jezail’s had rifled barrels they had far greater accuracy and range when compared to standard issue military smoothbore muskets, making it ideal for warfare on the large open plains and deserts of Central Asia. In 1839 the British invaded Afghanistan.  British soldiers and officers thought of the Jezail as a crude, unwieldy, and ineffective weapon.  They would be taught a bloody lesson in how deadly they were in the hands of Afghan tribesmen.  Many were crack shots due to their hunting and warrior culture.  The Afghans would often set up ambushes, firing from high cliff tops out of the range of the British, who were armed with smoothbore muskets.  In 1842 a large group of 17,000 people, 5,000 of which were soldiers with the rest being camp followers, attempted a withdrawal from Kabul to the Khyber Pass.  The Afghans set up many ambushes along the cliffs, sheers, and narrow passes along the way, killing and massacring thousands.  They had little food, inadequate clothing, and were forced to march through two feet of snow.  Only 40 survivors managed to make it to the safety of Jalalabad -- source link

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