Will complete this blog entry on the morrow if all goes well - might even do a short history of the blunderbuss - at the moment all I really need is me eight hours. Goodnight All.
9.20 a.m. Wednesday. A day or so ago I was looking at the three blunderbusses (blunderbii ? no - looks pretensious!) photographed above. Among collectors of weaponry these are usually the most popular, and, I think, probably the most effective of muzzle loading guns. There are though, various "urban myths" surrounding them. The worst concerns the projectiles with which they were loaded. It was not, despite the boys' comics, scrap iron and broken glass ; this would have resulted in (at best) badly damaged barrels, and (at worst) burst barrels and dead or wounded, users of the weapon. It would have been loaded with a measured charge of black powder and fifteen or twenty lead pistol balls. This would have been sufficient to take out the most determined highwayman and his horse. Another 'urban myth' dating from the days of their use (and continuing today) is that the flared muzzle of the weapon encouraged the spread of the shot. It has been shown by modern experiment that the flared muzzle has little or no influence on the spread of the projectiles. It does, however, have two advantages :- one is that anyone looking into the business end of a blunderbuss cannot really see whether the weapon is pointing accurately at him; and the second is that when reloading, a flared muzzle makes the job very much easier. When you think that often these weapons were used from the higher rigging of a ship, or from the top of a careering, swaying, stage coach, ease of reloading is an important consideration. "Ah" do I hear someone say ? "but it took ages to reload them! I have read this one in otherwise quite respectable publications, and it's tosh! I have, in the dim and distant past fired these weapons, and, when properly equipped (i.e. with a powder flask fitted with a proper measuring device, a bag of lead pistol balls, and properly sized wads in a weskit pocket) I found meself able to reload (steady and careful) in twenty seconds flat. Mark you, if you're out with a flintlock sporting gun or fowling piece, a surprising amount of game can go over in twenty seconds.
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Got to go out to a funeral, so will try and write more on the subject later.
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Just got back. Good Funeral, as these things go.
Back to blunderbusses . From, I'm told 'donderbusche' (thunder gun), although I find the English version of that - blunderbuss - a perfectly expressive word. Historically the weapon we recognise as a blunderbuss appears early in the second half of the sixteen hundreds, and had developed into the item we recognise as the weapon carried on stage coaches around the middle of the seventeen hundreds.
3 comments:
Very informative, thank you, although your readers might assume, from your admission of practical knowledge of these weapons in the past, that your age may be greater than your actual 26 years, as I can confirm as your official age keeper.
Hello Rough. As the official keeper of my age you make a good point. I'd better make it clear that the last time I had occasion to fire a blunderbuss must have been at least six or seven years ago (or so.....)
P.s. Or it might have been a little more than that. But at least it was from the top of a moving stage coach. Think about it Rough, and you'll probably agree with me.
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