16th Century "Mall Ninja shit"
I think id really prefer the pointy side and the boom side be the same side...
It is. The barrel is quite short.
Pretty sure it isn't. Apart from not being a very logical placement:
- The hammer points downwards and has to be pulled back to cock it
- The Axe head is shaped in a way as to provide a shoulder stock
- If the end of the barrel was on the upper end instead of the lower end, it would be practically useless
Looks like the barrel is on the same side.
I'm no axeologist but I feel like the axe head can't withstand much whacking before bending and would block the barrel. Thankfully it's probably just a wall hanger.
* heavy breathing in dwarvish *
Straight outta some final fantasy.
I saw a ton of these in Prague castle. Gun-axes, gun-swords, gun-knives. Also a child sized suit of armor.
I'm imagining children jousting in tiny suits of armor on goats
It looks a bit fancy but it was common for muskets to be used as clubs when they'd been fired and there was no time to reload. I guess bayonets are the modern variant of this idea.
I'm no expert on this corner of history, so take this for what it's worth, but military issued axe guns, and guns with bayonets existed at the overlapping times.
If I recall correctly, bayonets were an outgrowth of pike and shot warfare, where eventually the duties of the pike were taken over by the bayonet in infantry use in open field warfare.
Axe guns were used by cavalry, which makes sense as a short and swingable weapon; axe guns were issued to naval troops as boarding weapons, which makes sensible for the close quarter combat compared to a bayonet on a musket.
Kislev.
