Gurkha 'kit' from 1890

John Powell

John Powell

Joined
Mar 9, 1999
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1,440
Here is a belt assembly belonging to a Gurkha serving on the Northwest Frontier of India around 1890. This probably belonged to an 'irregular' and he would have been using a percussion Enfield, a breechloading Snider or even a Lee-Metford bolt action rifle.
The small horn at the right of the pix is not a powder horn but has a wooden cap over the large end that is easily removeable. It contains strips of oily rag but not big enough for making bullet patches. The weird shaped leather pouch next to it only has an opening of about 3/4". Any ideas?

The close-up is of a Tibetan style "chuk-muk" or tinder lighter. The bottom is a chunk of steel and the pouch itself still holds tinder.

The kukri lash up is copied from something I saw in the Gurkha Museum archives and is attached to the hook where a sword could hang.

View


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JP
 
:
John the little wierd shaped pouch looks to me like a powder flask that was used to dispense single charges of powder to the rifle's barrel.
Part of the mechanism may be gone, but it looks just almost like the one my uncle used to have for his old muzzle loader.
Trying to pour a single charge of powder from a powder horn was very risky as to small a charge wouldn't have enough power and to large a charge could blow up the barrel.
Th pix in the movies showing that (pouring from the powder horn) was a romantic view on the part of some director that didn't know anything about the old muzzle loaders.
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Of course my uncle was crazy as hell and often loaded his old 10 Gauge shotgun with double loads of black powder, made one helluva boom and a Lot of white smoke, but it would reach out and touch something for a long ways off.
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>>>>---Yvsa-G@WebTV.net---->®

"VEGETARIAN".............
Indin word for lousy hunter.
 
Neat! How has the rig held up over all those years? It looks to be in great shape!!

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Chris B.
 
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