Posted on 11/22/2018 9:45:19 AM PST by PROCON
Photo: NRA Museum
What’s even more American than turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie these days? An Italian gun, that’s what. The only known surviving firearm that crossed the wild Atlantic aboard the good ship Mayflower, settled with the pilgrims at Plymouth Colony and ultimately helped the first colonists not only survive, but prosper. Meet the Mayflower Gun.
Affectionately dubbed the Mayflower Gun and thought of as an American icon, the gun is actually an Italian-made wheel-lock carbine. This single-shot musket was originally chambered in .50 caliber rifle, though ages of heavy use have worn away the majority of the rifling. Given the combination of natural wear, repairs and modifications, if the gun were to be loaded and fired today, it would require a .66 caliber.
Photo: NRA Museum
According to curators at the NRA’s National Firearms Museum—where the gun has found a most comfortable home—markings recorded on both the barrel and lockplate demonstrate a connection with the Beretta family of armorers.
One of the features making this musket instantly recognizable is its namesake. The surviving detail of the actual wheel-lock device—the rotating mechanism, which provides spark and ignition, not unlike that of our modern day cigarette lighters—is a thing of fine craftsmanship and beauty. The wheel-lock’s engineering, execution and efficacy far exceed those of its predecessor, the matchlock.
(Excerpt) Read more at guns.com ...
This Ping List is for all things pertaining to the 2nd Amendment.
FReepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.
More 2nd Amendment related articles on FR's Bang List.
One FReeper, who gave me a very good response when I asked why pilgrims starved when I figured there were many animals around, said the guns they had were not rifles and not good for hunting.
Comments?
I don’t know if he was right or wrong on that point, but he made many other valid ones, so i am not knocking him.
This doesn’t make sense to me. The earliest wheel locks are figured to be 1500 or so, not earlier than 1495. The first pilgrims were 1492.
The pilgrims were much more likely to have a few matchlock guns, which were popular at the time.
According to the article, this gun was rifled.
The Mayflower arrived in 1620
Ah...Pilgrims arrived inPlymouth in 1620.
The pilgrims were much later than 1492.
IIRC: Rifles were rare. Most armies used matchlock muskets back in the 17th century. Didn’t need a lot of accuracy when firing into a wall of men. Pistols were wheelock, but smoothbore.
Hunters on the other hand, did have some rifles.
They first tried to live as a "socialist" collective and they almost starved the whole colony.
Yes, that’s right. I was thinking of the Columbus guy. Who likely carried some matchlock on his hold.
Correcting my earlier date for the arrival of the pilgrims, smooth note matchlock were common in the early settlements, matchlock relics (and morion comb helmets) have been dug up on the old Virginia colony sites.
1492 was when Columbus came to slaughter as many innocent native-Americans as he could find.
Then in 1620, the Pilgrims came and slaughtered the ones Columbus missed. </socialjusticewarrior>
Yea. Riffles were expnsive back then. The peice pictured must have cost a pretty penny.
Well then!
So they left to find a socialist utopia, among other reasons?
Good thing they wised up.
Hmm
Thanks
Got into a discussion the other day about the longbow and the smooth bore rifles. To this day, I cant figure out why the heck the Brits switched from the longbow to the smooth bores when they had way more firepower, and most likely better accuracy, with the longbow. I.E at Crecy, they figured the longbowmen fired in excess of 90,000 arrows a minute at the French.
I wonder if during WW1, at certain areas where the lines were close if they would have used longbows if they couldnt have sent those arrows into the German trenches what the result would have been. Keep in mind that a rifle shoots horizontal while the longbow arrows would have come down on them.
Second thanksgiving. First was held in St Augustine Fl
Very cool! Thanks for posting!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.