F.S. Piekarczyk
Pilgrim
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2009
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As regards bore of older guns I have seen wheellocks (German) in an art museum which looked to be about ten gauge. With enough velocity they should be able to smash through some plate armor - but that is a bunch of "ifs". On the other hand a winder point of contact can reduce a tendency to penetrate as lbs/square inch is lower. But then again it's a matter of tensile or shear strength, etc, in how a piece of metal holds up. Everyone dealt with those problems by making better powder, better rifles/muskets, and using perhaps harder alloy lead. As is the case with modern weapons there is a big race between armor and penetrators as was the case with arrows and bolts.
Crossbow bolts were made long ago with the issue of deflection in mind as a blunt cone point with four penetrating "wings" (to dig in and prevent deflection) were developed probably soon after plate armor appeared.
I have a couple presumably early 19th century barrels in 11/16" and 13/16" bores, 35" and 36" long. One is marked "London". One has a hooked breech, one is apparently flint, possibly welded up and centerpunched for drilling and the other is integral percussion with a 45 degree angle screw-in nipple provision. One of these is half-stock ribbed with two ferrules. Can't imagine why the bores were that big for the time frame but this suggests a less than common sporting use. Then again the Suhl muskets in 1865 were 20mm or about .78 caliber. I had one once. My barrels are part octagon whereas military barrels were normally just plain round.
These could have fired a discarding sabot bolt had anyone discovered a need for that kind of penetration. It is done today with tank ammunition.
Crossbow bolts were made long ago with the issue of deflection in mind as a blunt cone point with four penetrating "wings" (to dig in and prevent deflection) were developed probably soon after plate armor appeared.
I have a couple presumably early 19th century barrels in 11/16" and 13/16" bores, 35" and 36" long. One is marked "London". One has a hooked breech, one is apparently flint, possibly welded up and centerpunched for drilling and the other is integral percussion with a 45 degree angle screw-in nipple provision. One of these is half-stock ribbed with two ferrules. Can't imagine why the bores were that big for the time frame but this suggests a less than common sporting use. Then again the Suhl muskets in 1865 were 20mm or about .78 caliber. I had one once. My barrels are part octagon whereas military barrels were normally just plain round.
These could have fired a discarding sabot bolt had anyone discovered a need for that kind of penetration. It is done today with tank ammunition.
