Old seal rifles

[Heo]

My father bought some seal rifles.They where
a local guntype along the coast to hunt seals
On the sea ice in the spring caliber from ,500-
Almost one inch Mussel loaders changed from
flintlock to percussion and the oldest is probably
pre flintlock
They had the gun mounted on a ski with a white
sheet with a hole to aim through.And crawled on
the stomach towards the seal.They had to get in
fifty yards range to get a instant kill. If not the seal
would dive in to the water and be lost. Many men
was lost forever if there was a storm and the ice
opened up

[BruceS]

Heo, what time frame are we talking about for these to be used?   I imagine they were used throughout Scandinavia? 

[Heo]

Those are probably used up till late 1800 early 1900 when the Swedish
Mauser was becoming available Then suddenly you could shoot a seal
at 3-4 hundred yards if you had free sight picture
The oldest of those 3 (its not pictured) is probably made late 1500
early 1600 according to have had a snaplock from the beginning and the
form of the stock the other 2 is flintlock originally  so they are mid late
1600 to early mid 1800 All 3 is converted
 to percussion cap sometime in the mid  1800
This type of gun was only used on the coast of the gulf of Bothina both
on the Swedish and Finish side. Massiv caliber with long rifled barrel
just for seal hunting.For bird and squirrel hunting we used small light
rifles around .30 calibre here up north

[Heo]

The one closest is the oldest one