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Helge B.
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 Posted: Fri 06 Mar, 2009 3:15 pm Post subject: Shooting flintlocks from horseback |
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How difficult is it to get an aimed shot with a flintlock from a riding horse in comparison to a horse archer?
Is the delay from pressing the trigger till the bullet leaving the barrel too long to get any good results?
Since a trained archer can achive a better accuracy especially at longer ranges I want to assume a distance of maybe 150m or the firearm beeing a rifle.
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Lin Robinson
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| Posted: Sat 07 Mar, 2009 5:34 am Post subject: Re: Shooting flintlocks from horseback |
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| Helge B. wrote: | How difficult is it to get an aimed shot with a flintlock from a riding horse in comparison to a horse archer?
Is the delay from pressing the trigger till the bullet leaving the barrel too long to get any good results?
Since a trained archer can achive a better accuracy especially at longer ranges I want to assume a distance of maybe 150m or the firearm beeing a rifle. |
The one part of your question which I feel I can answer concerns the "delay". A well-timed and constructed flintlock, properly primed and charged experiences very little lag time from the ignition of the priming to the detonation of the main charge. It is not as fast as a percussion lock, but the difference is not significant enough to affect the aim of a trained marksman.
Lin Robinson
"The best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian, 1982
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Lafayette C Curtis
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| Posted: Sat 07 Mar, 2009 10:38 pm Post subject: Re: Shooting flintlocks from horseback |
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| Helge B. wrote: | | Since a trained archer can achive a better accuracy especially at longer ranges I want to assume a distance of maybe 150m or the firearm beeing a rifle. |
Especially at longer ranges? Where did you get that? Maybe it's true with archery on foot compared to smoothbore flintlock weapons, but a horse-archer was supposed to shoot from relatively short ranges and 150 meters is an unrealistically long distance for reliably accurate horse archery. You could shoot from that distance but your shots would only be relatively inaccurate harassment shots rather than well-aimed single-target killing shots--though when the enemy is that far away you could just as well dismount and start shooting on foot.
Of course, that being said, I barely know anything about the accuracy of flintlock carbines when fired on horseback, so I guess it's still possible for horse-archers to be more accurate in purely relative terms at longer ranges despite their general lack of absolute accuracy at such distances....
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Hanns Wiechman
Location: Minneapolis, MN Joined: 17 Jun 2007
Posts: 21
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| Posted: Sun 08 Mar, 2009 10:40 am Post subject: |
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Also what is a "aimed shot"? Is it one horseman firing his pistol/carbine at a single target at range? Is it a group of horsemen firing at a group of infantry? The latter would be a more realistic engagement and fire against a group would be more likely to hit. Considering modern weapons and short engagement ranges the hit percentage of police shootings is less than 7% hit rate versus ammo expended! That's with autoloading pistols or rifles with rates of fire for a single weapon that would rival that of a period rifle company. A few more clarifications on the question might be able to narrow the scope so that a reasonable answer could be given. Cheers,
Hanns
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This is a standard topic