| Progression of British Military Weapons |
| History | British Military Weapons | Repeating Rifles | Breech Loader Hammer Shotgun | Hammerless Shotgun |
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Widespread military use of the gun was hindered by the slow development
of ignition systems. Until the early sixteenth century, ignition
was by a string or fuse touched to a hole in the top of the barrel.
This string or fuse box as attached to the soldier's belt, and
was not only painfully slow, but also rather dangerous. At the
battle of Wittenmergen in 1638, the Duke of Weimar's troops only
managed to discharge seven volleys in an eight hour battle. |
The Progression of British
Military Weapons  Click on each gun for full screen version |
| This was developed in Germany and basically worked
by striking a spark from iron pyrites in the serpentine coming in
contact with a steel grooved wheel. This was difficult and expensive
to manufacture and was soon superseded by the flint lock, developed
in Spain in the mid 1600's. With the Flintlock, a flint held in
the jaws of a cock struck the hammer (or pan cover) knocking it
back and causing a spark which ignited the powder in the pan. These various types of ignition so popularised the gun for sporting purposes that in the late 1500's the Elector of Saxony complained that guns were so commonplace that "peasants and shepherds are found to use them". Shot was also developed in the middle 1500's and this, combined with reliable ignition systems, meant that the shooting of flying game rapidly developed as a sport. Some quite ornate matchlocks and wheel locks were made and of course some very fine English, Spanish, German and Italian flintlocks were produced. The flintlock rapidly became the standard ignition system during the seventeenth century and apart from minor improvements remained the gun of choice for over 250 years. The famous military weapon of the British during this period was the Brown Bess (1730 -1835) with which accuracy was sacrificed in exchange for the devastation caused by volley fire. The discipline of British troops in firing volley after volley of at closely massed troops often meant that they prevailed against much larger armies of less disciplined soldiers. The volleys of withering fire from Brown Besses cutting huge swathes in the opposing ranks, which could then be further, decimated by fixed bayonets. It is no exaggeration to say that an empire was largely built on the successful use of the Brown Bess. It was also mainly during this period that shooting as a sport, primarily for the gentry, was developed in parallel with the successes of the British army abroad. Percussion systems first appeared in the early 1800's - the Reverend Alexander Forsythe generally being credited with its invention in 1807. The first metal cap was made in Britain in 1818 and although it was a faster and superior system of detonation it did cause a greater recoil and was not universally accepted for sporting purposes. Colonel Hawker, a very famous sportsman of the time argued the superiority of the flintlock system for sporting purposes. Some flintlocks were adapted through drum and nipple conversion to percussion and indeed such a weapon by none other than Holland of Belfast is in the writer's possession. Up to this time the gun was mainly a muzzle loading weapon and the shooter had to carry a large range of accessories. Firstly there was the ramrod, an important tool in seating charge and projectiles, then the powder flask containing black powder - this measured a charge to be poured into the barrel, then a card or wad to retain the powder and form a seal then wad or shot, followed in the case of shot by another wad or retaining card. This meant that reloading was slow and relatively complicated and so shooting was restricted to mainly "ambushing " game or " walked up" shooting over pointers or other questing dogs. |
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