Arrows?

GBG · Sep 18, 2008

I've read that some of the first firearms shot arrows. I did a forum and net search but found little info. Is there a reliable source with details and has anyone built or tested replicas? Just curious, thanks for any help.

mr.fudd · Sep 18, 2008

There's nothing traditional about my experience, but maybe you can get something out of it.

I did some experimenting several years ago shooting arrows out of a modern shotgun with reduced powder charges. It worked surprisingly well when I got the loads right. I had to modify the arrows by replacing the nock with something wider, (I used RG6 cable TV fittings). The fletchings centered the back of the arrow and prevented it from sliding out and I used a twist of newspaper wrapped around the arrow near the muzzle to center the front end.

My main problem was consistency. I was trying for a silent arrow flinger and sometimes it worked like a dream. I couldn't count on that however as sometimes it sounded like a gunblast and sometimes the arrows barely made it out the muzzle. This probably had to do with inconsistent ignition due to a tiny powder charge in a 12g shotgun shell. Also I had no reloading supplies at the time and the way I was making the ammo was by cutting open a shotgun shell, dumping out the powder and shot and then adding a couple scoopfuls of powder back using a .22lr casing as a measure.

All in all it was a half-assed project, but I have no doubt whatsoever that someone who did a better job than I did could make it work.

Russ T Frizzen · Sep 18, 2008

There isn't as much on the subject as you might think. Try typing handgonnes & matchlocks in your browser window. And watch the History Channel and History International as they have a couple of shows that discuss this to a degree.

mr.fudd · Sep 18, 2008

I was looking through old threads tonight just seeing what caught my eye and I happened to stumble upon this.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/192749/

robinghewitt · Sep 18, 2008

It's that earliest picture of a gun. The artist had obviously never seen one, but you can see how it was described to him...

"A gun is vase shaped, mounted on a wooden table, lit with something on the end of a stick and fires a fat arrow" :yakyak:

Elnathan · Sep 29, 2008

You might want to have a look at Robert Held's Age of Firearms. I don't recall what exactly is in there, but Held is likely to have something.

benvenuto · Oct 11, 2008

theres some pictures on my website:
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dispater/handgonnes.htm
The arrows they used were more like crossbow quarrels, they called them "sprites" or "springalds" .
The fletching was made out of tin or brass sheet, and they were loaded over a wad with some more wadding wrapped just below the head to keep it centred in the bore. They were used up until elizabethan times.
As you can see from the pictures on my page longer veresions were used to launch incediaries.

GBG · Oct 13, 2008

Many thanks benvenuto for the detailed information and link to your website. I had no idea arrow launching firearms were used to that late a date.

Oct 13, 2008

Actually, dart like projectiles, called fletchettes, have been used in modern warfare. There is a tank killer round that uses such technology.

CP

benvenuto · Oct 14, 2008

good article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette

the anti-tank version is called a kinetic energy penetrator or more precisely Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) round
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_energy_penetrator

scary stuff!

hakujin · May 23, 2009

Some ideas never seem to die: http://www.lauerweaponry.com/subcats.cfm?Category=150

Russ T Frizzen · May 23, 2009

The beehive rounds were very effective in Viet Nam. I've always been glad that we had had them and the other side didn't!

We played around with a version of a flechette that we fired from a smoothbore flintlock pistol. Essentially a dart with the fins trimmed down to fit the bore and a wooden "sabot" surrounding part of the shaft, it was accurate enough at thirty or forty feet that an aluminun pie plate was in serious danger. It was a fun experiment, but basically had no practical use that we could discover.

Colonial Boy · Nov 2, 2024

There were steel flechettes used by; the Germans in WW I, they came in a wooden box and were thrown or the box tipped over, from planes.
Saw a box of them in the former Technical Museum, Ultimo, Sydney, when there on a school excursion.
Darts were about 8 in long

TNGhost · Nov 2, 2024

A ramrod is kind of an arrow, sort of,...can be like one at least, sometimes.

French Colonial · Nov 3, 2024

BPMS did a video of this recently.
@B P Maniac Shooter

Flint62Smoothie · Nov 3, 2024

Some of the early Chinese ‘fire lances’ were but bamboo tubes, like the HUGE bottles rockets we used as kids. See: https://www.thoughtco.com/early-fireworks-and-fire-arrows-4070603

Uncle Miltie · Nov 3, 2024

We had a fellow in SE FL about 20 years ago who shot modern arrows out of a T/C Hawken: it shot well.
He used aluminum shafts, field points and plastic fletching. A wad over the powder, then the arrow.
He could keep them in the target at 50 yards, and usually hit it at 100 yards.

TNGhost · Nov 3, 2024

Yep, take a ramrod put some feathers and a pointy end on it and you've got an arrow. They fly real good...so I've heard.

snakebit · Nov 3, 2024

BPMS did a video shooting an arrow from his trade gun I believe. It was a carbon arrow. I imagine if you shot a traditional arrow, say river cane fletched with turkey, or goose feathers, probably be a one shot deal. And it would probably stink. I had an old feather burner I got from a yard sale lone time ago, and fletched some cedar shafts using it. Even being in the basement, made the whole house stink. Management was NOT happy.

rickystl · Nov 3, 2024

Think you will find this interesting information...

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15788&highlight=arrows

Rick

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