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Posted: 6/6/2014 2:25:38 PM EDT
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It made me think too.
I was setting in a local gun shop when a lady comes walking in and wanted to know if any one here wanted to buy a Vietnam era muzzleloader. We all just sat there thinking to ourselves, what the heck is she talking about ? So she goes out and comes back in with this.... Come to find out her Dad was SF and was given the gun by a village leader for killing a tiger that had killed a couple of children. Unfortunately she thinks it's some kind of national treasure and wanted two to three thousand dollars for it. Needless to say we all passed. But I was able to go home and get my camera to take a few pics. It looks very similar to the one TGUS has up for auction. P.S. none of us had any idea of what it was, so I sent the photos to TGUS to identify. Todd's the man. Said it was either Laotian or Thai monkey gun. (used to shoot monkeys) Appears to be around .40 caliber. The lady told us the bands where made from melted down French silver coins. I also noticed that the rear band around the receiver is made from a mosin nagant oiler bottle. 
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Wow. A friggin' matchlock! Cool history, but you are right, not worth that much. Not sure I'd want to be standing next to it when it was fired...
ETA: Check out the multiple safeties - would make the lawyers happy...and Joe Biden. ETA2: Oh wait - that ain't a safety...that's the trigger!  LOL. Cool stuff.
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| Here is the one on Gunbroker...http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=419177884 |
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Very neat gun.
That looks like a traditional "Hmong" gun that was hand made. I've seen many guns like that in pictures before. What led me to believe it to be of Hmong origin is the letter by the AF officer. The general he referred to is the Hmong general VangPao. But what is intriguing is that the letter says it was given to him in Thailand, but the general was primarily in Laos. The time frame seems correct. The only reason why I can think that it said Thailand was that during that time, the US military was not in Laos, but did maintain AF bases in Thailand. Neat history. If it can only talk I'd like to listen to some of its stories. |
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Quoted: http://johneveringham.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/ng_jan-1974-3938_resize.jpg This is a picture of a traditional hmong flintlock being fired. The picture is from a 1960's National Geographic issue. I can see from this photo why there didn't seem to be a lot of facial hair on monkey hunters (poof! No eyebrows) |
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