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arrows in your handgonne?

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I once met someone who was shot with a ramrod out of a matchlock musket...

snapt in half mid air and hit him in the thigh and side... not nice! needless to say after that they stopped letting people load their blanks with ramrods.

I suspect 12 inches of .75 cal ash with a steel head and brass vanes might be even less pleasent :)
 
I've done a bit of it out of my .56 caliber gonne. I use a 3/8 or 1/2 inch birch or hickory shaft about 7 1/2 inches long. I split the back end of the shaft and put in a triange of leather for fletching then bind the split back together with a bit of linen thread. Points have ranged from modern glue on feild points and broadheads to some mideval style bodkins. To shoot them I load a reduced powder load (25 grains of fffg) with a wad (cloth, leaves, tow, whatever I have handy) then twist the leather fletch around the shaft and push it down over the wad. Fire as usual. They work pretty well and for me seem to be more accurate than a lead ball. I can usually hold a 6-8 inch group with them at 25 yards. They are also pleanty powerful, I have shot them half way through a 4x4 pine post. In fact I was thinking about taking it out after a deer this season.
 
thats interesting about the accuracy...

I hadn't thought about it until just then, but why bother using rifling if you had a self-stabilising projectile anyhow? :)

anyone else on the board keen to have a go?
 
In my archery circle this has come up.It was sed that some guy's were going to load up there in-lines and try for deer.The traditonel archery crowed is WAAAY more critical of modern gear use then anyone here could ever be teords in lines.I also wonder if somthing like this would be coverd by any stste reg's.
 
There's a modern version that drops in a Ruger 10/22.
so it should not be a problem at all. hmmm smoke and arrows - two past times at once - it couldn't be legal
 
Count me in. I've seen a fellow with a trade gun pick up some arrows at our range and shot them with a great deal of acaccuracy. He just pushed an overwad on the powder, that did the trick! I think it has the hand gnome wrtitten all over it. If there was a shoot I would play!
 
In 1326 the city council of Florenzia ordered by unknown gumsmith: "pilas seu pallectas ferreas et canones de metallo", also "iron arrows and metal cannons". This order is the first unequivocal information about metal cannons in Europe. The good known picture of cannon ("pot-de-fer"), that shot big iron arrow in the gate of enemy castle You can see in manuscript of Walther de Milemete (1327). The French manuscript from 1338 describes the production of iron arrows for cannons and black powder to shot them. In the same year French navy used these iron arrows with iron "fins" (sorry, i'm not sure the english word :redface:) against Southampton. Cannons were used by French against English in 1339 (Perigord and Cambrai) and 1340 (Quesnoy). In these cases they most probably used havy iron arrows too. The first relation about cannon balls came from 1341. In this year in Lucca was noted the new type of cannon, that shooted iron balls. French used still "pot-de-fer".
I hope You are content :)
 
"The French manuscript from 1338 describes the production of iron arrows for cannons and black powder to shot them. "

Pots de fer a traire garros a feu
:)
 
In russian BP forum i found information about "modfa" - arabic handgonne :
modfa.jpg

Arabian shooters used arrows and balls interchangeable.
midfa18zc.gif
 
my T/C hawken has a 28" barrel and i shoot 30" arrows....hmmm....so i can leave the broadheads on the arrows....might have to give it a shot....(pun intended)....what size powder charge would i start with....my arrows are 500 grains and the hornady balls i shoot are 175 grain..........bob
 
start smaller than you would with the ball and work your way up I would say...
you arrow is roughly the same weight as three balls... you don't want a dangerous overpressure to develop.
You'll need a wad between the powder and the arrow, and another to keep the shaft central in the bore up front
:thumbsup:
 
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