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Here is my fantasy medieval scenario

There is pair of adventurer, a Supportive/Non-Offensive mage and a swordsman.
The swordsman is actually a disguised rifleman that carries a scoped rifle.

In order to not arouse any suspicion by guards, and to avoid the rifle getting seized by them, the rifle must be perceived as something normal.... or at least something that they don't want to inspect

Casting illusion magic or something simmiliar on the rifle is not preferable.
This is because magic might leave traces on it and risk it being detected by anything that could sense traces of magic.

Rifle length is 116cm (M16 is +-100cm)

My possible disguises :

● Disguise it as Cursed Item.

This will prevent guards from being curious, but.... might lead to 'seize or dispose on site' if they're told to prevent anything cursed from entering the city

● Disguise it as property of someone important (Magic research item)

The mage mentioned above is apprentice of a well renowed Archmage.

Judging by how hierarchy and power distance during medieval period works, the guards will try to stay out of trouble from someone with higher authority than them.

It would be better if I could smuggle that rifle without using 'false authority' .... if the guards managed to see through the lies (ie : not informed by archmage about his/her item arrival) .... we might get a warrant arrest (It means torture in medieval settings)

Any more concealment options ?

I may be reading your question wrong, but I'm going from the assumption that the rifle isn't a typical weapon for this setting, but is imported from another timeline or world.

In this case you just need to disassemble it. A medieval guardsman won't recognize this as a firearm:

if he expects a firearm to look like this:

Smugglers have been smuggling things in and out of controlled borders for as long as controlled borders exist.

Some of your options:

• A concealed double bottom. It can be just the bench of the carriage transporting your men.


• Something smelly: put the rifle in its case, lay it on the bottom of the carriage and load the carriage with something smelly, like manure, fermented fish, etc.

If you have no carriage and are bound to walk, you can try disguising the rifle as a crutch. Just make sure it is not loaded, a thundering clutch would sound, pardon the pun, really suspicious.

One simple way to conceal nearly anything is to hide it inside something else no one would think to look in. In this case, a log would work, hollowed out and with a plug of the same wood driven in. With a little care, the end result would weigh about what the unaltered, original log did, and there need be no palpable movement of weight inside (padding will keep the rifle from moving around in the hollow).

The log, in turn, could be one of several in a cart load of firewood. No one would be suspicious of a cart load of wood -- and even more so, they aren't likely to unload the cart and chop or split every log when there's no reason not to expect such stuff to be brought into the city.

All depends on whether the rifle can be fully disassembled.

If yes, then it can be concealed inside a large number of innocuous objects, even crutches, like in "Day of Jackal".

If not, then the range of objects is much more narrow, and, unless your character is bringing a whole cart or wagon with him (which, actually, can be the only option), would likely be scrutinized. Keep in mind that wherever you can hide a full length rifle you can hide a sword, and sword is probably something that guards don't want to miss.

Modern rifle and its parts, while not recognizable in medieval setting, would undoubtedly be looked at with great suspicion.