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.
The Mayflower arrived in 1620
Ah...Pilgrims arrived inPlymouth in 1620.
The pilgrims were much later than 1492.
The Pilgrims landed in 1620, the year generally accepted as the dawn of the true flintlock, which was the standard lock mechanism for the next 200 years.
Wheellocks like this example had been existed since the mid-1500’s. Its great advantage was to eliminate the need for a constantly burning `match’. The wheellock had faster lock time than the flintlock that succeeded it (meaning flash-to-bang time) but was much more complicated.
Matchlocks remained in use well into the 20th century among Afghans & other Central Asian peoples.
The gun mistakenly used to symbolize Pilgrim arms was the blunderbuss, a weapon meant for defense at close range with its bell mouth muzzle, and nonexistent in the early 17th century.
“Plymouth Rock” was 1620. I AM amazed that the little carbine was the only long gun aboard the Mayflower, according to this NRA article.
You flunked history. Columbus discovered the new world in 1492; the pilgrims landed in 1620 or thereabouts. You were only off by 128 years