This POTD, short for Photo Of The Day, includes a short history lesson and also a quest for those who may know more on the subject. Finnaccuracy, from Finland, as the name suggest, visited a local museum and found an interesting piece of history. It would be great if we could help them and the museum with more knowledge about the gun.

We bumped into this interesting gun in local museum.

It appears to be a naval weapon due to its weight and pivot type support. Muzzle was intentionally designed for minute-of-barnwall grouping, very handy in case of an unfriendly group of pirates are just about to invade your ship.

The stock has the year “1494” engraving, but it has slightly later era flintlock or possibly its predecessor snaplock type ignition system.

The first known snaplocks are of Southern German origin, from late 1540.
Gun may also have been modified later from very first lock type, the matchlock.

First historical matchlock references are from Ottoman Empire archives, from very late 1400 or early 1500. The first dated illustration of a matchlock mechanism dates to 1475 – so either way, this shoulder aimed gun goes back to beginning of the firearm era.

This particular gun was brought to Finland by Finnish merchant ship from Spain, around 1860-1870. It was entangled to its anchor in Barcelona harbour.

Maybe you have better knowledge about this?

If you know anything about this firearm and its history, please let us know in the comments below or contact Finnaccuracy directly.