>Well, you know, the Khyber Pass gunmaking tradition does have its
>roots in the making of actual guns for the resistance of imperial
>interlopers; selling weird shit to the other imperial
>interlopers just grew out of that. So it's entirely possible that
>some such things are legit and others are marketplace hax.

Well, point.

>Conversely, the lack of markings may not mean much. It's a Martini
>action, but that doesn't necessarily mean the "donor" was an actual
>British-arsenal-made government-issue Martini-Henry rifle. Craft-made
>rifles based on the Martini action abounded (and presumably still do
>abound) in that part of the world; or, if not entirely homemade, it
>could be based on a Turkish Martini, or a Nepalese Gahendra (which are
>not known for the consistency of their OEM markings), or who the heck
>knows. The arms trade to world crisis areas is a truly amazing thing.
> Stuff gets everywhere. I wouldn't be entirely surprised to
>learn that at least one guy in Syria somewhere had a
>Stoner 63, and no idea where
>the hell it came from or how it got there.

All true, but the gun is noted, by the museum, to have been one. Of course, there is nothing to say THEY aren't wrong, I mean museum experts aren't instantly right because they have the title of museum expert, as it were. As for the Stoner, I don't think I would be surprised at all. Impressed, maybe, but not surprised.

>Also, a tangential musing: the thing Gunnr Brynjelfr uses to take out
>the power-armor Psi Corps Enforcers in Hunter Rose is a
>future-generation
>Thompson/Center >Contender>, fitted with a barrel chambered for some absurd big-game
>cartridge. If I had known what I know now about weird firearms when I
>wrote that scene, it would probably have been a pistol cutdown based
>on either a Martini or a
>Remington >Rolling Block>, for the retro oddity value. (Or a
>Lancaster howdah pistol. Gunnr could
>totally make one of those things into an anti-tank weapon. :)

Heh. How about a "Quigley"? THat's certainly both "ludicrous" and "Falling block", being chambered for something like .45-110(that's the real caliber, and it's mentioned to shoot a .45 round in-movie).

>It occurs to me as I type the above that these things really have a
>fairly long history in UF; Gryphon's sidearm of choice back in the
>Golden Age was a Dark Forces-style Bryar blaster carbine cut
>down into a sort of obrez too, though I didn't know the term at
>the time.

While Zoner, at least in the "deniable ops liberation of Salusia" carried a .650 Ares Predator. THERE is an impressive gun for you...

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"