Shot the new Teppo today

[Canute Rex]

I made a little spare time today and went out back to try out my new teppo, or Tanegashima. It is a repro of a Japanese cheek stock matchlock with a 50 caliber 42" octagonal smoothbore barrel. Made by Miroku in Japan, apparently. Mine is serial number 65. I bought it second hand but unfired. It has browning inside the barrel.

It's a weird and interesting firearm. The stock ends in a blocky pistol grip. It has a slender brass arm with a 5/16" rounded trough in the end for the match. Lift up the arm and a little steel pin pops out of the lock face and holds it up against a weak spring. Pull the trigger and it drops onto the pan.

The sights are roughly 1/2" cubes. The rear has a small V notch. The front has a small hole drilled through it front to back with a slot cut down to the hole. Kind of like those open top peep rear sights people make. I'm thinking that I should paint the inside of that hole with something reflective to make a glowing dot.

The vent hole goes in and down from the pan at a 45 degree angle.

The ramrod channel is a ramrod hole with a slit, all the way from the muzzle. No thimbles.

I made up four paper cartridge squib loads of 60 gr FF and stuffed some 490 balls in lubed ticking in my block, grabbed a length of match and went out.

It loaded hard. The muzzle chamfer wasn't rounded (it will be) and the bore seemed to be as browned as the outside of the barrel. I primed it with 4F, closed the pan cover, and squashed the oversized match in the serpentine trough. I had to pin it in place with a piece of wire.

Opened the pan, put the stock against my cheek,said "Jozai Senjo" and pressed.

Clunk. Nothing.

Match out, reprime, close cover, blow on match, squash and pin match, open pan, pull, flash in the pan. @!*%. Went around again and decided to hold it out away from me so I could see what was going on. It went off like a champ. Not much kick with the heavy barrel.

I fired three more shots, the last of which came in 1" low from dead center at 25 yards. The other two were kind of random, a few inches off one way or another.The ignition is a bit slow for a matchlock, probably because of the long vent hole. No way to put a vent liner in, though.

I could see firing this with powder loads up into the 70s without discomfort. I need smaller match. I'm also thinking of enlarging the very small pan recess, although from photos I've seen the Japanese pans tend to be small. The reflective lining for the front sight is a must, as is the muzzle chamfer. The interior browning should wear off.

It could be difficult competing with this because it is essentially a Japanese smooth rifle with a very prominent rear sight. The front sight is too tall to be used without the rear. I don't want to replace them because they are right for it and look right for it. I want to take it to the primitive biathlons, so I may have to decide between authenticity and competing against actual rifles.

I don't have any good photos of mine yet, so here's a generic photo of it from a catalog:

[Daryl]

Sounds very interesting and fun. I definitely would NOT shoot paper ctgs in it due to the possibility of burning paper being left in the chamber area after a shot.

Normal ML pratice, please - lubricated & tightly patched round ball.

[Canute Rex]

Daryl, I am taking away points for reading comprehension. This will be on your permanent record. 

"and stuffed some 490 balls in lubed ticking in my block"

The paper cartridges weren't your tapered kind, just tubes full of powder. I used heavy ticking patches soaked in my usual mixture of rubbing alcohol and neatsfoot oil.

Then again, thinking about it, if remnants of burning paper would be a problem in my gun barrel, why not yours?

The Japanese used bamboo tubes to hold their powder charges, sometimes lacquered, sometimes wrapped in leather.

[Daryl]

Sorry for the misundertanding - as I read the post, I envisioned stuffing the whole paper ctg. of powder down the bore as I'd just watched a guy do with a M1860 revolver.    I thought perhaps, some original paper ctg. was being used, such as a possibly combustable ctg. being shoved down the bore.  In the Sharps carbines as well, using combustable ctgs., they were notorious for leaving burning remains in the chambers.

The method we use in rifles- tearing off the rear, pouring the powder down, then stuffing the paper on top, did not occur to me in this instance - my mistake. With our method, there was no paper left in the bore as it is a projectile on top of the powder, along with the ball.

My mistake.

[Canute Rex]

Not a big deal Daryl - I can see where you're coming from.

I actually have some lengths of bamboo leaning in a corner. Maybe some authentic Japanese 17th century speed loaders are in order.

Check out these guys -   It's some kind of festival in Japan. They are shooting blanks, but it gives you a good look at the accoutrements and a variety of the firearms. Right around 2:10 there is an old guy shooting what looks like a cheek stock 3 pounder cannon. Beer can bore. Huge recoil and he points like Babe Ruth afterward.

[Daryl]

Yeah- at 2:10 time.  What I FOUND quite interesting and amazing, was the speed of ignition. They knew what they were doing, that's for sure.

I want one- but maybe only a 4 bore?

[Canute Rex]

A 4 bore? Those Japanese squirrels must be huge. I think that a .50 is as big as I'd want in a cheek stock.

They do have some fast ignitions. I'm wondering about whether they have hugely enlarged vent holes on those things. My .69 matchlock has a stainless vent liner, but that would be a tricky installation on one of these.

My European style musket does cook off surprisingly fast. That's the beauty of the matchlock - no flinch. I have a much better follow through with my matchlock because every ignition is a surprise. My new teppo has a snapping mechanism, but most matchlocks have a gradual pull. The serpentine lowers the match into the priming as fast or as slowly as you pull the trigger. The glowing match disappears behind the flash guard and at some point in the next quarter second - boom! - the gun goes off. I flinch after the bullet is out the muzzle.

I think I've mentioned this on the forum before, but matchlocks survived as target guns long after they were given up for all practical purposes.

It would be interesting to do a study of what the Portuguese brought to Japan in the 1500s in the way of designs and how the Japanese kept some and modified others. I wonder how much of Japanese design is dependent upon a few particular guns that happened to be in the possession of a few particular Portuguese.

There's some of that effect in the American Long Rifle, but less so, because of the ongoing trade between Europe and America.

[Daryl]

I find much of the time, I can actually shoot better left handed when shooting offhand, than right handed with the flintlocks, as I cannot use the set trigger funtion left handed. Thus, ignition is a complete surprise. I cannot feel my set trigger with my left hand and thus have to pull through that awful trigger pull unti the shot BREAKS.

The matchlock would be similar.

[JCKelly]

One of the volumes of the Visser collection shows about a half-dozen 17th century European snapping lock matchlocks, strictly as target weapons. Whether for the speed, or the certainty, of ignition I wouldn't know. European military match locks about that time used the l-o-n-g pull of a sear lock, not so condusive to accuracy.

One thing about a matchlock, vs. snaphaunce or wheel lock, anytime one has a burning rope + black powder, IMHO one is pretty much guaranteed something is a-gonna go BOOM. When younger & still immortal I built a sear lock matchlock. On the firing line at our Michigan Canoe Shoot I heard a lot of "clicks" from the flintlocks but my piece always went off. Never shot better, including at gourds floating down the river. Probably because all them thar hairy guys in buckskins was laughing at my rifle.

I believe the Japanese must shoot original guns, their gun laws do not permit using new muzzle loaders.

[Daryl]

That's intersting information. TKS.