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.
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.
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
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
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.
An early assault rifle.
from mayflowerhistory.com-
Priscilla Mullins was born probably in Dorking, Surrey, England, to William and Alice Mullins. She, her parents, and her brother Joseph all came on the Mayflower to Plymouth in 1620. Her entire family, herself excepted, died the first winter. She was shortly thereafter, in 1622 or 1623, married to John Alden, the Mayflower's cooper, who had decided to remain at Plymouth rather than return to England with the ship. John and Priscilla lived in Plymouth until the late 1630s, when they helped found the neighboring town of Duxbury. John and Priscilla would go on to have ten or eleven children, and have an enormous number of descendants, including poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and Vice President Dan Quayle.
America founded by religious nuts with guns -— Bless ‘em.
Bookmark.
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