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Radovan Geist




Location: Slovakia
Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Likes: 5 pages

Posts: 399

PostPosted: Sun 08 Mar, 2015 10:55 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

The first musket is now basically finished, save for some details (match holder screw, sights), which will be done later. Here is the assembled piece, with some details of the lock, lever, etc.


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Radovan Geist




Location: Slovakia
Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Likes: 5 pages

Posts: 399

PostPosted: Mon 25 Jan, 2016 12:04 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

In the meanwhile, another arquebuse has been nearly finished. I have not taken any progress pictures this time, as the work has been more or less the same as on the first one (same lock mechanism), with only some alterations to details and design.


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Jean Thibodeau




Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Joined: 15 Mar 2004
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PostPosted: Mon 25 Jan, 2016 1:00 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Radovan Geist wrote:
In the meanwhile, another arquebuse has been nearly finished. I have not taken any progress pictures this time, as the work has been more or less the same as on the first one (same lock mechanism), with only some alterations to details and design.


Ah, that is interesting with the butt stock in the petronel style popular with the French. A very attractive arquebuse. Big Grin Cool

Let us know how it shoots, assuming that you also do shoot with it.

With a tight fitting ball and patch these smooth bores where not as inaccurate as many believe and could hit a man sized target at 100 to maybe 150 meters from what I have been told by Gordon Frye who has a lot of experience shooting muskets.( Gordon is a member here although he hasn't posted anything recently and is a good friend of mine ).

The 18th century muskets with no sights and very loose ball with lots of windage where optimized for mass volley fire and quick reloading, in the late 15th,16th and mid 17th centuries they still tried to get good accuracy out of each musket or archebuse.

At more than 150 meters the rainbow like trajectory does make accurate shooting difficult if range is not accurately estimated and compensated for I think.

Below 75 meters a tight fitting ball/musket combination can be very accurate and deadly and if one shoots ball and buck the odds of making a hit are quite high I think.

You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Radovan Geist




Location: Slovakia
Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Likes: 5 pages

Posts: 399

PostPosted: Sun 21 Jan, 2018 11:58 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Another piece to be finished... This one took me some two years, with many breaks and setbacks. Anyway, with only some details left to finish, it´s nearly complete. Here we go: Landsknech arquebuse in the mid-16th C. style. The stock is made from cherry-wood, with bone inlays. Buttstock has three additional barrels, and a small storage place. I will post better pictures later.


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Henry O.





Joined: 18 Jun 2016

Posts: 189

PostPosted: Sun 21 Jan, 2018 3:23 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Jean Thibodeau wrote:
Ah, that is interesting with the butt stock in the petronel style popular with the French. A very attractive arquebuse. Big Grin Cool

Let us know how it shoots, assuming that you also do shoot with it.

With a tight fitting ball and patch these smooth bores where not as inaccurate as many believe and could hit a man sized target at 100 to maybe 150 meters from what I have been told by Gordon Frye who has a lot of experience shooting muskets.( Gordon is a member here although he hasn't posted anything recently and is a good friend of mine ).

The 18th century muskets with no sights and very loose ball with lots of windage where optimized for mass volley fire and quick reloading, in the late 15th,16th and mid 17th centuries they still tried to get good accuracy out of each musket or archebuse.

At more than 150 meters the rainbow like trajectory does make accurate shooting difficult if range is not accurately estimated and compensated for I think.

Below 75 meters a tight fitting ball/musket combination can be very accurate and deadly and if one shoots ball and buck the odds of making a hit are quite high I think.


During the 16th century it seems that most soldiers already were using bullets a couple bores smaller than the caliber of their weapon, although it wasn't yet a standard practice one way or the other. Contemporary writers certainly complained about it enough since they felt it reduced accuracy too much. Thomas Digges thought that a well trained shot should be able to put his bullet between the head and feet of a man at 160-200 yards. Sir John Smythe wanted shot to carry three different sizes of bullet mold: One that fits the bore of the gun exactly for accurate shooting, one 2-3 bores smaller for when faster reloading was needed, and a third size for casting hailshot.

--

@Radovan Geist

This is an interesting project and I look forward to hearing more!

I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are after handling the example with the curved stock. Smythe at least was in favor of curved stock arquebuses like that, claiming that it made it much quicker to level the weapon and take aim in a skirmish:

Quote:
All the stocks of their harquebuzes I would haue them to be crooked (as we call them) and of good forme, and not straight stocks, because that being crooked and com∣passed stocks they doo more readily counterpoise the fore end of their peeces, and more readilie fall into leuell when they are in skirmish, and haue no leisure to take any sight from point at blanke, but from the fore ends of their pee∣ces, then straight stockes doe: Besides that considering the lightnesse of their peeces they may aswell and as rea∣dilie without rests at any time take their sights from point at blanke with crooked stockes of good forme as if they were straight. The Cockes, or serpentines I would haue to be of conuenient compasse and able to receiue any con∣uenient match, and that the feathers and springs that doo belong vnto them should be of so hard and good temper, that they shoulde cause the •ockes or serpentines to fall and rise so strong and quicke, as by their strong falling with the matches into the pannes, they may make the fire to sparcle, thereby in an instant to make the powder to take fire.


For actual muskets the straight stock seems to have been preferred since it fired a much larger bullet and had much more recoil.
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Benjamin H. Abbott




Location: New Mexico
Joined: 28 Feb 2004

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PostPosted: Mon 22 Jan, 2018 6:09 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

That Landsknech arquebuse looks great. What are its stats: weight, length, etc.?
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Radovan Geist




Location: Slovakia
Joined: 19 Aug 2010
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Posts: 399

PostPosted: Tue 23 Jan, 2018 7:31 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Thank you. I will take some better pictures in daylight, hopefully this weekend. There are still some details I need to finish.

Back to the petronel-style arquebuse: I only had a chance to shoot blanks with it. I was using it with my "light infantry" outfit at some reenactment events during last two years. Firing blanks is of course different to shooting bullets, with not much recoil etc., but I had overall good experience. I tried to fire it with stock against my breast, as seen on some illustrations, but I´d found it more cumbersome than having the stock under my arm. But again, that could be different when shooting actual bullets.

"Smythe at least was in favor of curved stock arquebuses like that, claiming that it made it much quicker to level the weapon and take aim in a skirmish." - again, that´s difficult to say when you´re firing blanks. Actually I would not say that I was able to fire faster compared to heavier musket. Where I find a difference is maneuverability: as light infantry skirmishers, we were doing a lot of running. It was much more comfortable to do it with a lighter arquebuse which does not need a musket-rest.

Here are some pictures of the arquebuse "in action":

carrying: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210376673754542&set=a.10210376578952172.1073741857.1273736183&type=3&theater

firing: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210376693315031&set=a.10210376578952172.1073741857.1273736183&type=3&theater
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Michael Beeching





Joined: 22 Jan 2014
Reading list: 2 books

Posts: 270

PostPosted: Tue 23 Jan, 2018 2:13 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

The kit on your Facebook page is extraordinary! You and your fellows (and ladies) look like you have a lot of fun doing what you do, too.

Thanks. Happy
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