The emergence of firearms and their use in combat would have been impossible without black powder. Soon after its appearance, the musket was invented - a powerful and heavy weapon, the predecessor of which was the arquebus. Thanks to A. Dumas and his famous work about the musketeers, many contemporaries mistakenly believe that the French invented muskets. In fact, they had a hand in improving it, but not in the invention itself. In general, the meaning of the term "musket" can be different depending on the historical period.

The first arquebus firearms appeared in the middle of the 16th century and is, in fact, the predecessor of the musket. At first, arquebusses were considered deadly and powerful, but in reality they turned out to be an unreliable weapon. The charges that were used for them were too small in caliber and weight (up to 20 g) to penetrate the armor or chain mail of the enemy. And reloading the arquebus was so long that the invention of a more effective weapon was only a matter of time.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the musket in the history of firearms. His own history remains unknown (there are several versions), but the information that is closest to reality suggests that the first gun with a long barrel and a wick lock was invented in Spain. Presumably, its creator was a certain Mokketo, who lived in the city of Veletra.

A musket shot could easily pierce a wooden partition

The barrel length of the first musket, according to old records, was about one and a half meters. In comparison with arquebusses, the caliber also increased - up to 22 mm, and the weight of the charge for muskets was about 50 g. In the process of firing, more gunpowder was used, and therefore the bullet had greater acceleration and flew over a greater distance. This means that its destructive power increased significantly - the charge easily penetrated plate armor and other armor, which was common in the infantry troops in the 16th century.

At first, muskets could only fire from pre-prepared positions, since the weight of the gun reached 9 kg, and it was very inconvenient to carry them. Loading a musket required skill and dexterity, and the strong recoil made the shooting process much more difficult. Despite all the negative features of muskets, European soldiers (this weapon was common among the armies of Spain, France and Germany), after arming with muskets, became a formidable force.

The functioning of the musket-gun is associated with the operation of the firing mechanism. It was the appearance of the castle that prompted the development of all methods of ignition of gunpowder in firearms. The wicked muskets remained in service with the European armies for a very long time, despite the simplicity of the design and the fact that this method of activating the gun was far from ideal.

With the development and improvement of muskets, during the domination of the Spanish fleet in the sea, this type of weapon began to be used on ships. Handguns provided powerful fire support in naval battles, where the situation was usually resolved more quickly than in land skirmishes. Rifle and artillery salvos were capable of causing significant damage to rigging, manpower and the ship itself.

Muskets were especially popular in sea battles, as their heavy bullets easily destroyed wooden ship structures. The close range shooting that preceded the boarding fight was accurate and crushing.

Manufacturing technology

Making a working musket at home is extremely difficult and unsafe.

It should be immediately noted that the manufacture of a valid firearm is not only a difficult, but also a dangerous process. Especially when it comes to early models, to which the musket belongs.

Even factory samples of such weapons often led to injuries, jamming and bursting right in the hands of the shooter, therefore it is better to limit ourselves to creating a model, without going into the intricacies of the functioning of the combat prototype.

Material selection

The best material for making a do-it-yourself musket model is wood. And so that your weapon does not lose its attractive appearance, twisting under the influence of moisture, the workpiece should be dried within a year. To do this, you must follow these recommendations:

1. We cut off a branch or trunk.
2. We paint over the cuts on both sides. For this, varnish, paint or adhesive can be used. This approach is necessary to ensure that the wood dries more evenly and does not develop internal cracks.
3. Now the workpiece is placed in a dry, dark place where the sun's rays should not penetrate.
4. A year later, the bark can be carefully removed from the workpiece, after which it should dry for another week.
5. Now you should cut the branch in half, after which you can proceed to the direct creation of the musket.

Assembling the model

Exploded view of a musket

In addition to a block of wood, you will need a small piece of pipe and strong wire to make a model of a musket. It is advisable to choose a not very thick chrome-plated pipe or, on the contrary, covered with rust (this approach will allow you to create a layout with a touch of antiquity).

Initially, we make the handle. To do this, you must follow the following steps:

1. We find on the Internet a picture of a musket, which will become our model.
2. Carefully transfer the handle of the product onto a sheet of paper. In this case, it is necessary to try to comply with all proportions.
3. Cut out the resulting pattern.
4. We apply the pattern to the wooden beam and securely fasten it to it.
5. We draw the contours of the future workpiece.
6. Using a clerical knife, remove the extra layers of wood until we get a handle that matches our pattern.
7. The last stage is surface treatment with sandpaper. At this stage, you can hide the small irregularities that were made earlier. As a result of such processing, the workpiece should become perfectly smooth.

Advice! To protect the wooden surface from moisture, it is advisable to soak it with oil, varnish or paint.

After you have finished making the handle, you should attach a pre-prepared tube to the top of it. In the original muskets, the muzzle is slightly "recessed" into the handle, so a small indentation should be made in it to securely fix the elements.

After the parts are fitted to each other, they are fixed to each other by means of a wire. The musket model is ready. Now it can be decorated with patterns by burning on wood.

Features of the wick system

It was impossible to provide rapid-fire musket fire.

If you have a desire to equip your musket with a wick system, then you should understand its main nuances.

Such a weapon was loaded from the muzzle of the barrel using a special charge. It was a case with a precisely metered dose of gunpowder required for one shot. In addition to him, in the arsenal of the arrow there should have been a small powder flask, represented by natrus, from which small powder was poured onto the seed shelf.

The bullet was sent to the barrel by means of a ramrod. To ignite the charge in such designs, a smoldering wick was used, pressed by the trigger against the powder shelf. A short trigger appeared in such designs only in the 17th century.

The weight of the combat match musket was 7, and sometimes 9 kg. In addition, the recoil of this weapon was so strong that only a strong person with a certain training could withstand it. Therefore, attempts were constantly made to soften the blow - special soft pads were used.

It took about two minutes on average to reload the match musket. True, already at the beginning of the 17th century there were virtuoso shooters who managed to make several non-aiming shots per minute.

In battle, such high-speed shooting was ineffective, and even dangerous due to the abundance and complexity of methods for loading a musket: for example, sometimes the shooter in a hurry forgot to pull the ramrod out of the barrel, as a result of which it flew away towards the enemy battle formations, and the hapless musketeer was left without ammunition.

In the worst case, with careless loading of the musket (an unnecessarily large charge of powder, loose landing of a bullet on the powder, loading with two bullets or two powder charges, and so on), barrel ruptures were not uncommon, leading to injury to the shooter himself and those around him.

In practice, the musketeers fired much less often than the rate of fire of their weapons allowed, in accordance with the situation on the battlefield and without wasting ammunition, since with such a rate of fire there was usually no longer a chance for a second shot at the same target.

Silicon system

German craftsmen also made their significant contribution to the improvement of the musket. They improved the musket's shooting mechanism. Instead of the wick method of firing, the flint method appeared.

The flintlock rifle, which replaced the matchlock, was a revolution in the development of weapons in medieval Europe. The lever in the wick mechanism was replaced by a trigger, when pressed, a spring with a flint was released, the flint hit the chair, as a result of which a spark was struck and ignited the gunpowder, which, in turn, threw a bullet out of the barrel.

The flint musket was much easier to fire than the match one.

To make a musket, you can train on the Lego constructor

Lego constructor is a great option for making various models. It allows not only a child, but also an adult to embody a whole range of ideas by creating models, structures, buildings and even mechanisms. With the right choice of blocks, you can build anything.

In the case of the Lego constructor, you should not count on creating a working model, since it will be very problematic to integrate even a mechanism with an elastic band into such a structure. However, creating an effective layout is quite possible.

To make the final product really attractive, you need to prepare building blocks in three colors:

1. Brown - for making a handle.
2. Dark gray or black to create a muzzle.
3. Light gray, from which the trigger will be made.

Naturally, when making your own model, you don't have to stick to this color scheme.

Having prepared everything you need, you can proceed directly to the assembly. To do this, we collect the individual parts of our model:

1. Trunk. Since the Lego constructor assumes the creation of angular models, then in our case the trunk will have a square section. Collect the muzzle using the dark blocks.
2. Handle. The shape of this element can be arbitrary, but it is better to be guided by photographs of real muskets when assembling. Otherwise, you may end up with an ordinary pistol. The main difference between the musket is the handle, which flows smoothly into the body of the weapon, on which the muzzle tube lies.
3. The trigger. A small detail that can be represented by one block. Attaches to the bottom of the handle. The musket model may be deprived of the trigger - in this case, this part is optional.

In the end, it remains only to fasten the resulting parts to each other, having assembled a solid model of the musket.

Most people know very roughly. First of all, this word is associated with the heroes of the novels of A. Dumas - the famous French musketeers. Many will be surprised to learn that the first musket did not appear in France at all, and the French have nothing to do with its invention. And they first learned about what a musket is in completely unpleasant circumstances for themselves.

The history of the appearance of the musket

By the beginning of the 16th century, soldiers' equipment had reached such a level that the "light" firearms available at that time simply lost their effectiveness. Bullets fired from the arquebus (predecessor of the musket), due to their low weight (18-20 grams) and small caliber, could not penetrate the armor and chain mail of enemy soldiers. A new weapon was required, with increased damaging properties. And the invention of granular gunpowder became a fundamental factor for the modernization of weapons and the creation of a musket.

The first musket (a gun with a long barrel and a match lock) appeared in Spain, and, according to some historians, it was invented by the Spanish gunsmith Moccheto from the city of Veletra. His invention had a barrel, the length of which reached 140 cm. It was the increase in the barrel length that made it possible to increase the caliber of the gun and the mass of the powder charge, and, accordingly, its firing range and penetrating ability.

But the granular gunpowder allowed to increase the length of the barrel. It did not need to be pushed to the breech of the gun with a ramrod, as it was required to do with the powder pulp adhering to the walls of the bore. Now the granules of gunpowder were poured to the breech without assistance, and the wad was hammered from above with a ramrod. In addition, such gunpowder burned densely and evenly, which also increased the muzzle velocity and range of the bullet.

Characteristics of the first musket

The total length of the musket was 180 cm, and it weighed about 8 kg, so a support was needed when firing. A buffet table (stand) was set up, which was stuck into the ground with one end, and the support trunk lay on the other.

With an increase in the caliber to 23 mm (in the arquebus, it was 15-17 mm), the weight of the bullet also increased. With a musket, it began to weigh 50-60 grams. At the same time, the firing range was 200-240 meters, and at this distance the bullet easily pierced the most durable armor. However, to hit the enemy with a musket, you had to try very hard. The probability that a target measuring two by two meters, set at a distance of 70 meters, would be hit was only 60%.

In addition, only a person with good physical training could withstand a powerful recoil when fired. In order to somehow soften the blow, a padded cushion was put on the shoulder, which played the role of a shock absorber.

In order to load a musket, a whole ritual was required.

The musket was loaded through the muzzle hole. Gunpowder, necessary to produce one shot, poured into it from a special wooden case (charger). The gunpowder in the charges, which were hung on the shooter's harness, was measured in advance. Fine powder was poured onto the seed shelf of a musket made of natruska (a small powder flask). The bullet was pushed into the barrel with a ramrod. The charge was ignited with a smoldering wick, which was pressed by a lever against the seed shelf. The gunpowder ignited and propelled the bullet.

Thus, it took about 2 minutes to prepare for a shot, while this was considered a good rate of fire.

Initially, only the infantry was armed with muskets, and the crew for servicing the musket consisted of two people: the second number watched the burning fuse, and also carried the ammunition and buffet table.

for musketeers

Due to the low rate of fire, special tactics were used for the use of muskets. The soldiers, armed with muskets, lined up in a rectangular square, the depth of which could reach 12 ranks. After the first rank fired a volley, it gave way to the next, while itself retreating to the end of the formation to reload the muskets. Thus, the shooting was carried out almost continuously. All actions the musketeers performed on command, including the loading process.

Armament with muskets of Europe

In 1515, the French first learned what a musket was in a battle with Spanish soldiers. Musket bullets easily pierced the toughest armor. The Spaniards, with the help of their long-barreled novelties, won an unconditional victory over the French.

In 1521, muskets were already en masse adopted by the Spanish army. And in 1525, again in the battle with the French, which received the historical name "Battle of Pavia", the Spaniards showed in all its glory all the superiority of muskets over other weapons. The Musketeers proved to be an insurmountable wall for the French cavalry.

It was after this battle that Europe decided to learn more about what a musket is. They began to arm infantry units in France and Germany, and later - in other European states.

In the future, the musket began to undergo improvements. Gunsmiths from Germany replaced the wick Trigger, which replaced the lever, released a spring with a flint, which, when struck against the chair, struck sparks that set the gunpowder on fire. The wick was no longer needed.

The Dutch have improved the barrel. They replaced the metal it was made from with a softer one. This excluded cases of its rupture when fired.

The Spaniards, having borrowed the experience of the Dutch and lightening the musket to 4.5 kg, created a weapon for the cavalry. Such a musket became universal, it could be used in any kind of troops, which was done in all European armies.

Muzzle-loading weapons of the past - muskets, squeaks, fuzei - did not have high accuracy and rate of fire, but were incredibly deadly, any wound threatened with death or injury. Moreover, each major improvement in weapons led to a change in military tactics, and sometimes to a change in the military paradigm.

It is believed that hand firearms appeared in the 14th century at the same time as artillery. The first samples were essentially the same cannons and bombards, only reduced so much that they could be fired from hands. They were called that - hand cannons. Structurally, these were bronze or iron pipes with a tightly sealed end and an ignition hole near it. The short trunks were laid on rough stocks, similar to elongated logs. Sometimes, instead of a box, a long metal pin protruded from the sealed end of the pipe, for which the weapon was held. The shooter aimed him at the target and set fire to the gunpowder with a smoldering wick or a red-hot rod (often two people participated in this process).

The last battle of the Middle Ages

For nearly two centuries, handguns have not provided any advantage. Bulky and inconvenient "hand cannons" lost in rate of fire to bows and crossbows - a good archer could shoot up to 12 times per minute. The firearm operator spent several minutes on just one shot. In terms of penetration, the bullets of the first guns did not surpass crossbow arrows. In the second season of the documentary series Deadliest Warrior, an experiment is shown: a bullet fired from six meters from a modern replica of a Chinese handbrake from the Ming dynasty ricochets off the shell of a musketeer, leaving only a dent on it.

Everything changed in the 15th century thanks to large-caliber muskets that fired bullets weighing 50-60 grams - they were guaranteed to hit the knight in armor. By the way, the term "musket" (like most other names for muzzle-loading weapons) is conditional. This was the name of both the heavy wick guns of the 15th-16th centuries and the flintlock shotguns of the 17th-19th centuries.

No matter how primitive the early firearms were, they revolutionized military affairs: skillful and strong professional warriors soon found themselves powerless against the muzzle of a musket. Historians consider the battle of Pavia in 1525 between the French and the Spaniards to be the turning point - it is called the last battle of the Middle Ages. It was then that firearms showed unconditional superiority over the knightly cavalry. From that time on, the musket became the main weapon of the infantry, its tactics changed, and special musketeer units were created.

The wick guns of the 15th-16th centuries are still slow and cumbersome, but they acquire more or less familiar features, the wick is no longer manually brought to the ignition hole - it is fixed on a serpentine serpentine lever, actuated by a kind of trigger. The ignition hole is shifted to the side, next to it is a special priming shelf on which gunpowder is poured.

And muskets and arquebusses are unusually deadly - being hit by a heavy and soft bullet almost always leads to death or serious injury - a soldier wounded in an arm or leg, as a rule, lost a limb.

Wheels of Leonardo

But even the most advanced wick muskets are too inconvenient - the shooter thought more about how to ignite the gunpowder, and not about how to aim more accurately. The wick was easily extinguished in bad weather, matches and lighters had not yet been invented, and it was impossible to quickly light the wick with the help of a flint in the event of a sudden alarm. Therefore, the wick of the sentries smoldered constantly, hidden in a special wick, wound on the butt of a musket or directly on the hat of the musketeer. It is believed that the guards burned out five to six meters of the wick during the night shifts.

The state of affairs was slightly improved by the wheel castle, known since the 15th century. In it, a spark to ignite the gunpowder on the seed shelf was carved using a rotating wheel with a notch. Before firing, it was started with a key, like a music box, and when the trigger was pressed, it rotated, at the same time a holder with a fixed piece of pyrite was pressed against it from above. Several engineers claim authorship of the wheel lock, in particular, drawings of such devices are in the work of Leonardo da Vinci under the name Codex Atlanticus.

Let the wheel lock outperform the wick lock in reliability, but it was too capricious, complicated (they were made by watchmakers) and expensive, and therefore could not completely supplant the serpentine with a smoldering wick. In addition, almost simultaneously with the wheel lock, a much simpler and more perfect shock-flint lock appeared - it is also called shock, battery, armchair. In it, a trigger with a flint beat on a metal plate-chair, striking sparks, at the same time a shelf with priming powder was opened. It flashed and ignited the main charge in the barrel.

Historians believe that the shock lock was invented in the Middle East. In Europe, this scheme was first used by the Spaniards, and the French brought it to perfection. In 1610, the gunsmith Maren Le Bourgeois combined the best features of different models and created the so-called French battery lock, which almost until the middle of the 19th century was the basis of hand-held firearms in Europe, the USA, many countries of the East (not all, in Japan until the last quarter of the 19th century wick guns were used for centuries). By the 17th century, the final shape of the flintlock was formed - the total length was about one and a half meters, the barrel was up to 1.2 meters, the caliber was 17-20 millimeters, and the weight was four to five kilograms. Everything is approximate, because there was no unification in production.

In addition to the classic muskets, the military was armed with hand mortars for firing grenades and short blunderbuss with thick trunks-trunks, from which they fired with chopped lead, nails or small stones.

Why bite a cartridge

Perhaps the most famous flintlock weapon is the 1722 British land musket, nicknamed Brown Bess. The wood stock of the musket was brown, and the barrel was often covered with a so-called "rusty" varnish. "Dark-skinned Bess" was used in Britain itself, in all its colonies and was in service until the middle of the 19th century. This weapon did not possess any outstanding characteristics, but gained its fame thanks to its wide distribution. The singer of British militarism and colonialism Rudyard Kipling even dedicated one of his poems to the brown musket - it is called Brown Bess. In the British Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue of 1785, the expression "to hug Darkie Bess" means "to serve as a soldier."

Experts call the French musket of 1777 the best flintlock. By that time, the engineer and master of fortification, the Marquis Sebastien Le Pretre de Vauban, had improved the flintlock and invented a bayonet tube that made it possible to shoot with a bayonet attached - before that, the bayonet was inserted into the barrel. With this gun, the French infantry went through all the wars of the Revolution and the Empire. A shotgun with a Vauban castle was almost immediately adopted by all European armies. The Russian musket of the 1808 model was essentially a copy of a French gun with a slightly modified caliber.

The shock lock and the development of the loading algorithm significantly increased the rate of fire of muzzle-loading rifles. Historians claim that the Prussian infantry of the 17th century fired up to five rounds per minute with four reloads, and individual arrows up to seven rounds with six reloads.

To speed up charging, gunpowder, wad and bullet were combined in one paper cartridge. The French manual for loading weapons included 12 teams. Briefly, the process looked like this: the soldier put the trigger on the safety platoon, opened the lid of the seed shelf, bit a paper cartridge, poured some of the gunpowder onto the shelf, and then closed it. The rest of the gunpowder poured into the barrel, sent a paper cartridge with a bullet there - the paper served as a wad, nailed the bullet with a ramrod, then put the trigger on a combat platoon. The rifle was ready to fire.

By the way, the paper cartridge played a cruel joke with the British - it is believed that it was he who served as the reason for the Sepoy uprising of 1857-1859 in India. In February 1857, a rumor spread in the 34th Bengal Indigenous Infantry Regiment that the shell of the new paper cartridges was impregnated with either cow or pork fat. The need to nibble on such patrons insulted the religious feelings of Hindus and Muslims. One of the native soldiers announced that he would not bite the cartridge, and when a regimental lieutenant arrived to investigate the incident, the native shot him, injuring the horse.

How the demons spun the bullets

But even the most advanced musket did not differ in accuracy - hitting a target with an area of ​​meter by meter from a hundred meters was a very good result. Aimed salvo firing was carried out at distances of 50-100 meters - it was believed that it was impossible to get into the enemy's line further than 200 meters. In most armies, soldiers were allowed to fire three to five training shots to familiarize themselves with the loading process. All the rest is in battle.

But the techniques of salvo firing were worked out to perfection - to reduce the time intervals between volleys, a formation of shooters from several ranks was used. The first rank fired a volley, went back to load the guns, its place was taken by the second with loaded muskets, after the volley it gave way to the third rank, etc. There were techniques for shooting in three ranks at once: the soldier of the first rank became half-turned, the next one, remained in place, the third took a step to the right.

The first examples of rifled weapons date back to the 15th century - there is a rifled gun from 1476 in Turin's arsenal. By the first quarter of the 16th century, high quality rifled guns were available in various European countries, primarily in Germany. But these were isolated samples available only to the rich.

Early rifled weapons are sometimes referred to as "premature inventions," in the sense that the level of technological development at the time precluded their widespread use. The first flint revolvers belong to the same premature inventions - one of the oldest samples dates back to 1597 (the first Colt revolver appeared in 1836), and in the Kremlin Armory there is a revolver handwheel of 1625.

The accuracy of the first rifled gun made such a strong impression on contemporaries that it provoked a religious debate. In 1522, a Bavarian priest (according to other sources, a warlock) named Morecius explained the accuracy of a rifled weapon by the fact that demons swarming in the air cannot hold onto rotating bullets, because there are no devils in the rotating heaven, but there are plenty of them on Earth. Opponents of Morezia insisted that demons like everything that rotates, and that they are probably directing a rotating bullet.

An experiment carried out in the German city of Mainz in 1547 put an end to the dispute. First, simple lead bullets were fired at targets from a distance of 200 yards 20 times, then another 20 shots were fired with consecrated silver bullets with crosses inscribed on them. Half of the lead bullets hit the target, and the silver bullets missed. The answer was obvious. Church authorities banned "devil's weapons", and frightened townspeople threw their rifles into the fire.

True, those who could afford rifled weapons continued to use them. But it took more than three hundred years before, by the end of the 17th century, a rifled gun was created, suitable for the relatively mass armament of the infantry. It was only in the second half of the 19th century that rifled muzzle-loading rifles drove classic muskets out of the army.

What to give a person who is fond of weapons?

Unfortunately, in Russia it is impossible to come and buy a pistol as a gift, you cannot even buy and donate a smoothbore gun.

Of course, you can always buy a model of a PM pistol as a gift, but models are not that. The layout must be valid!

However, existing models are not for sale, and there is a criminal article for making firearms with your own hands in Russia.

You can get around these contradictions by making a large-scale souvenir copy.

Watch the video below to show you how to make a DIY firearm musket at a scale of 1:20.

Such an improvised firearm will not be accepted as a weapon by any expert examination. Especially if you use candle stearin or a piece of eraser as a bullet.

Moreover, a large amount of gunpowder or sulfur from matches will simply break the barrel instead of firing.

However, nevertheless, the souvenir musket is quite capable of hitting paper targets at a distance of a meter. Which is very spear, since real muskets were also fired no further than 20 meters, it is simply impossible to get to a greater distance.

To make a souvenir homemade firearm musket, you need a thin-walled copper or brass tube, a piece of wood, a small gas burner (can be replaced with a turbo lighter or a soldering iron) and 0.5 mm copper foil.

The foil can be peeled off the old circuit board of the electronics that you are going to throw away.

A screwdriver is also desirable, but you can do without it. But a knife for making a homemade musket will be needed.

To begin with, a musket barrel is made - the end of the tube heats up to red and cools in air, this is the release of the metal and it becomes very pliable for machining - flaring the end of the muzzle.

In muskets, such a bell served to fill up the gunpowder and increase the dispersion of shells; in those days, 3-5 stones were usually poured into the barrel on top of the wad that covered the gunpowder.

The excess part of the tube is cut off, the pilot hole is drilled with a thin drill, and the end farthest from the socket is sealed tightly. To improve soldering, it is better to use soldering acid, then the tin will stick well to the tube and foil plug.

Then the butt is cut out and it will have an ironed look with a knife and file files. It will not be superfluous to grind the stock with a fine sandpaper and varnish it. If walnut is used, then you do not need to paint the butt with markers.

The barrel is glued with superglue, a piece of foil is installed on the edge of the barrel as a decorative clamp.

It remains only to install the decorative trigger and safety guard. Both parts can be bent out of a paper clip.

A pair is poured into the barrel - another match heads, pressed (not too tightly) with a paper wad, and then a bullet from candle wax is inserted.

A thread impregnated with nitrate is used as a fuse. If you do not have saltpeter, then you can use a ready-made soaked thread from small firecrackers.

Observe safety precautions and do not point the musket anywhere except at the target!

Happy shooting! :)

The wick lock was invented around 1430, making it much easier to handle the gun. The main differences in the device of the new weapon were as follows: the predecessor of the modern trigger appeared - a serpentine lever located on the stock of the gun, with the help of serpentine the wick was activated, which freed the shooter's hand. The seed hole was moved to the side so that the wick was no longer covering the target. On later models of wick guns, the serpentine was equipped with a latch and a spring that held it, a powder shelf for the dummy appeared, which later became closed, there was also a version of wick guns, in the device of which the trigger was replaced with a trigger button. The main disadvantage of wick guns was their relatively low resistance to moisture and wind, a gust of which could blow off the seed, moreover, the shooter had to constantly have access to open fire, and in addition, the smoldering carbon deposits in the barrel bore that remained after the shot threatened to instantly ignite the charged gunpowder. Thus, loading a match gun from a powder flask with a large amount of gunpowder became quite dangerous, and therefore, in order to protect shooters from serious burns, cartridge belts were introduced, equipped with containers containing a smaller amount of black powder than before - exactly as much as needed to fire a shot.

The appearance of the first muskets

A musket is a long-barreled gun with a matchlock. This was the first mass infantry firearm to appear before anyone else in the Spaniards. according to one version, muskets in this form initially appeared around 1521, and already in the battle of Pavia in 1525 they were used quite widely. The main reason for its appearance was that by the 16th century, even in the infantry, plate armor had become massive, which did not always break through from the lighter coulevrin and arquebus (in Russia - "pishchal"). The armor itself also became stronger, so that arquebus bullets of 18-22 grams, fired from relatively short barrels, turned out to be ineffective when firing at an armored target.

A wick musket and everything you need to load and fire it

Thanks to the manufacture of granular powder, it became possible to make long barrels. In addition, the granular powder burned more densely and evenly. The caliber of the musket was 18-25 mm, the weight of the bullet was 50-55 grams, the barrel length was about 65 calibers, the muzzle velocity was 400-500 m / s. The musket had a long barrel (up to 150 cm) and a short buttstock with a cutout for the thumb in neck. The total length of the weapon reached 180 cm, so a stand was placed under the barrel - a buffet table. Musket's weight reached 7-9 kg.
Due to the high recoil, the butt of the musket was not pressed to the shoulder, but held in weight, only leaning against it with the cheek for aiming. The recoil of the musket was such that only a physically strong, strong-built person could withstand it, while the musketeers still tried to use various devices to soften the blow to the shoulder - for example, they wore special padded pads on it.

The loading was carried out from the muzzle of the barrel from the charger, which was a wooden case with a dose of gunpowder measured for one shot. These charges were suspended from the shooter's shoulder harness. In addition, there was a small powder flask - natruska, from which fine powder was poured onto the seed shelf. The bullet was taken out of a leather bag and loaded through the barrel with a ramrod.
The charge was ignited with a smoldering wick, which was pressed by the trigger against the shelf with gunpowder. Initially, the trigger was in the form of a long lever under the butt, but from the beginning of the 17th century. it took the form of a short trigger.
On average, it took about two minutes to recharge. True, already at the beginning of the 17th century there were virtuoso shooters who managed to make several non-aiming shots per minute. In battle, such high-speed shooting was ineffective, and even dangerous due to the abundance and complexity of methods for loading a musket: for example, sometimes the shooter in a hurry forgot to pull the ramrod out of the barrel, as a result of which it flew away towards the enemy battle formations, and the hapless musketeer was left without ammunition. In the worst case, with careless loading of the musket (an unnecessarily large charge of powder, loose landing of a bullet on the powder, loading with two bullets or two powder charges, and so on), barrel ruptures were not uncommon, leading to injury to the shooter himself and those around him. In practice, the musketeers fired much less often than the rate of fire of their weapons allowed, in accordance with the situation on the battlefield and without wasting ammunition, since with such a rate of fire there was usually no longer a chance for a second shot at the same target.

Musket wick lock

The low rate of fire of this weapon forced the musketeers to line up in rectangular squares up to 10-12 rows deep. Each row, firing a volley, went back, the next rows advanced forward, and the rear ones were reloading at this time.
The firing range reached 150-250 m. But even at such a distance, hitting individual targets, especially moving ones, from a primitive smooth-bore musket, devoid of sighting devices, was impossible, which is why the musketeers fired in volleys, providing a high density of fire.

Improvement of wicked muskets

Meanwhile, in the 17th century, the gradual withering away of armor, as well as a general change in the nature of hostilities (increased mobility, widespread use of artillery) and the principles of manning troops (a gradual transition to massive recruitment armies) led to the fact that the size, weight and power of the musket over time began to feel clearly redundant.

In the XVII century. there appeared muskets lightened up to 5 kg with a rifle stock, which were pressed against the shoulder when fired. In the 16th century, the musketeer was supposed to have an assistant to carry the bipod and ammunition; in the 17th century, with some relief of the infantry musket and a decrease in the caliber and length of the barrel, the need for assistants disappeared, then the use of bipods was also canceled.
In Russia, muskets appeared at the beginning of the 17th century during the creation of "foreign order regiments" - the first regular army, formed on the model of the European musketeer and Reitar (cavalry) regiments and before Peter I existed in parallel with the streltsy army, armed with pishchal. The muskets in service with the Russian army had a caliber of 18-20 mm and weighed about 7 kg. At the end of the 17th century, for use in hand-to-hand combat (which still remained the decisive type of infantry and cavalry combat), the musket was given a baguette - a cleaver with a wide blade and a handle inserted into the muzzle. A closed baguette could act as a bayonet (the name "baguette" or "bayonet" remained behind bayonets in various languages), however, it did not allow firing and was inserted into the barrel immediately before the shooters entered hand-to-hand combat, which significantly increased the time between the last volley and the ability to act as a musket as a melee weapon. Therefore, in the musketeer regiments, part of the soldiers (pikemen) were armed with long-tree weapons and engaged in hand-to-hand combat while the arrows (musketeers) were adjacent to the baguettes. In addition, it was inconvenient to use a heavy musket to deliver long thrusting attacks necessary in a battle with a mounted enemy, and when attacking cavalry, the pikemen provided the shooters with protection from saber attacks and the ability to shoot point-blank at the cavalry.
In the second half of the 17th century. this type of weapon is gradually being replaced throughout Europe by military rifles (fuzei) with a flintlock.

Specifications:
Weapon length: 1400 - 1900 cm;
Barrel length: 1000 - 1500 cm;
Weapon weight: 5-10 kg;
Caliber: 18 - 25 mm;
Firing range: 150 - 250 m;
Bullet speed: 400 - 550 m / s.