Posted on 11/22/2012 5:19:28 AM PST by marktwain
Wheellock rifles were used for hunting well into the flintlock era as they gave reliable & quick ignition. The drawback as noted was cost.
He had a good trade (barrelmaking). He probably could afford good weapons. He certainly made a good choice there.
“Assault” wheel lock with “cop killer” ammunition.
A state of the art weapon...at the time.
Editorial note: the article used the words musket and rifle interchangeably, but this is not accurate. This gun is a musket, a smooth bore weapon fired at the shoulder.
Rifles are distinct from muskets by having a rifled, or grooved barrel interior that imparts a spin to the bullet, drastically increasing its accuracy and range. Effectively, they have only existed since the middle of the 19th Century, but were a major breakthrough.
Typically, a musket only had a range of 50 yards, with an effective range of half that, at best. The rifle increased the range to 300 yards, with accurate fire perhaps 2/3rds of that distance.
Hat tip to French Army captains Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d’Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne.
By the time of the US Civil War, until rifled artillery could be developed, rifles had a range just slightly less than field artillery. Bad for field artillerymen.
You are saying this sentence is incorrect?
So is it a musket or a rifle?
The purchase of that wheelock carbine for Alden was roughly equivalent to one of us purchasing a luxury automobile. That was a BIG ticket item for him.
@DanRiehl: Thanksgiving’s First Rifle: The Mayflower Wheel-lock Carbine http://t.co/pryb5iUZ http://t.co/mGJUIxiE
“Effectively, they have only existed since the middle of the 19th Century, but were a major breakthrough.”
Not so. I used to think the same thing, until my son sent me this. They were rifling barrels in Europe in the mid 1700’s......
And riflemen in the Rev. War could hit a 7” target at 250 yds. WITH OPEN SIGHTS! I’ve got some great rifles, but couldn’t do that with any of them.......
http://www.sniperinfo.com/forum/showthread.php?938-The-American-Rifleman-in-the-Revolutionary-War
As someone has already pointed out on this thread, rifling hadn't been invented yet, and any competent gun writer oughta know that.
Because of the commonality of the term “musket” in military drill and terminology, it appears to have been used even early on as a synonym for “military long guns”. I have seen the term “rifled musket” in contemporary letters from the Revolution.
http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/history-of-armour-and-weapons-relevant-to-jamestown.htm
Two complete and six fragmentary wheel locks have been discovered at Jamestown which pre-date the Plymouth Colony by more than a decade.
Thanks I enjoyed this article...
John Alden’s House in Duxbury, Massachusetts
https://s5-us4.ixquick-proxy.com/do/show_picture.pl?l=english&cat=pics&c=pf&q=Alden+family+dwelling+Duxbury,+Massachusetts&h=788&w=1198&th=105&tw=160&fn=AldenHouse.jpg&fs=933.1 k&el=boss_pics_1&tu=http:%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DI.4952664965120786%26pid%3D15.1%26W%3D160%26H%3D105&rl=NONE&u=http:%2F%2Fwww.benbowfamily.com%2Fshowmedia.php%3FmediaID%3D435%26medialinkID%3D605&udata=d98ca16937714f81185a257cddcc9e19&rid=LHLNPNPTQQNL&oiu=http:%2F%2Fwww.benbowfamily.com%2Fphotos%2FAldenHouse.jpg
I suspect that you are correct. I will point out, however, that rifling had been experimented with as early as the mid 15th century. Odds are good though that John Alden’s weapon was not a rifle.
Excuse me but rifling had been invented at that time, actually, even earlier. It was not used often as rifles were difficult to load fast after being fired a couple times due to black powder residue build up in the barrel and were also expensive, therefore smooth bores, or muskets, were normally purchased.
Barrel rifling was invented in Augsburg, Germany at the end of the fifteenth century.[5] In 1520 August Kotter, an armourer of Nuremberg, Germany improved upon this work. Though true rifling dates from the mid-16th century, it did not become commonplace until the nineteenth century due to loading difficulties and cost of manufacture.
Most likely this intelligent young man realized that where he was going money was worthless and a fine weapon was priceless. He likely spent every penny he had to buy the best weapon available. Good call.
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