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 ...
Awesome, thanks for posting
Pensacola was actually settled before St. Augustine. Non one knows what became of them.
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.
“...I cant figure out why the heck the Brits switched from the longbow to the smooth bores...”
My understanding is that the long bows used in war required strength and practice to use effectively. They have a heavier draw weight than those used for hunting. They required time to learn to use well and they started the archers out young. On the other hand, any previously untrained person who could lift one could be taught to load and aim a smooth bore in short order.
Smoothbores can be used very effectively for hunting but you have to know something about hunting to do so. The Pilgrims were religious separatists from the urban areas of England, they were ill prepared for a subsistence lifestyle in the new world. Farmers and their families would have likely had an easier time of it. The Pilgrims knew little of farming and essentially nothing about hunting, plus as mentioned they had ideas of operating as some sort of socialist commune and we all know how that inevitably works.
To the poster that asked about longbows vs. firearms, even the most primitive firearm was a monumental leap over the longbow. English longbows were effective at the time but firearms quickly displaced them. Longbows take a lifetime of training to employ effectively while a conscript soldier can quickly be trained to use a musket. Firearms vastly multiplied the lethality of armies at the time. Never take a knife to a gunfight as they say.
Wow.
Thanks for all the info.
I will investigate myself what animals would have been available to them in that area at that time, as I have no idea.
“Plymouth Rock” was 1620. I AM amazed that the little carbine was the only long gun aboard the Mayflower, according to this NRA article.
Takes a lot less training to use a gun than a bow.
“Pensacola was actually settled before St. Augustine. Non one knows what became of them.”
The Luna expedition arrived in 1559 and lost most of their supplies in a hurricane shortly after arrival, they hung on until 1561 when the Spanish navy removed them to Cuba and Santa Elena which is now where the Marine Corps boot camp on Parris Island SC is located.
The location of the Luna colony was found about three years ago when someone was excavating to build a house in downtown Pensacola.
https://www.pnj.com/story/news/2015/12/17/we-found-lunas-colony/77449884/
“...if they would have used longbows if they could have sent those arrows into the German trenches what the results would have been.”
The British must have surely thought about the longbow or any weapon that could break the bloody stalemate of trench warfare.
The effectiveness of the English longbow at Crecy & Agincourt depended on massed volleying and archers’ ability to loose a fifth shaft while the first was still in the air.
The German response to a storm of incoming longbow arrows (which were heavy & meant to pierce armor) would have been from another indirect fire weapon: the trench mortar. German mortars were without peer both in size & destructive power.
But, your interesting question was about the transition from longbows to firearms. Archers were deadly at range, but other soldiers such as dragoons & infantry had to actually close with the enemy with pikes & swords. Archers took up to ten years to acquire their skill; their lives were precious on the battlefield.
Masses of footsoldiers armed with muskets & bayonets were a far more mobile force. Note that earlier generations of soldiery wore helmets & chain mail armor. These were made moot by the advent of gunpowder.
Just my thoughts. Come to think of it, the crossbow was used by commandos. Yanks used shotguns in the trenches. What’s past is prologue.
Glad the NRA has it. The idiots in Massachusetts would have put a trigger lock on it like they did with the Committee of Safety Musket in their legislature.
Our thoughts also. To this day, I wonder what it must have been like to be on the receiving end of a hail of arrows like that.
BTW, the French did charge with calvary at both Crecy and Agincourt and they got cut down. The remarkable thing is to look at the casualties on both side of those battles. And to look at the number of fighting men on both sides. The English were vastly outnumbered.
As to WW1, I would suppose the best way to do it is at night or early morn and when things were more quiet. And to do it with no warning at all.
Fun discussing this.
The firing rate was about 10 to 3 in favor of the longbow.
At Crecy, they had some 7 thousand or so firing up to 10 arrows a minute, depending.
Not something I would care to be on the receiving end of.
Are you friggin' kidding me?!
You're not, are you?
Good grief!
*Sigh*
To this day, I cant figure out why the heck the Brits switched from the longbow to the smooth bores
Now dont get me confused with my discussion about the issue saying that a longbow was better than a firearm. I am not saying that at all, but the following I found about the range far a longbow..
The range of the medieval weapon is not accurately known, with estimates from 165 to 228 m (180 to 249 yds). Modern longbows have a useful range up to 180 m (200 yd). A 667 N (150 lbf) Mary Rose replica longbow was able to shoot a 53.6 g (1.9 oz) arrow 328 m (360 yd) and a 95.9 g (3.3 oz) a distance of 249.9 m (272 yd). A flight arrow of a professional archer of Edward III’s time would reach 400 yds. It is also well known that no practice range was allowed to be less than 220 yds by order of Henry VIII.
220 plus yards is a hell of a long way.
220 plus yards is a hell of a long way.Between a 3 wood and a driver for me.
Heck I couldnt even hit one that long anymore.
The indigenous peoples had no guns. They managed.
The Romans and Carthaginians managed to kill nearly 100,000 of each other in one day at Cannae. They did it without guns.
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