Historic Qusetion

[musketman]

Was there ever any double-barrel handgonnes made?

Sort of like the great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddaddy of the double barreled shotgun...

 

[Henry]

I have not seen a double barreled one , but
at the fort Ticonderoga ( we call it fort Carillon )
there is a contraption made of about 20 or 30
short ( 6 ") barrels on a beam . Light the first
one and the others fire in succession .

 

[Teleoceras]

Musketman:

I know that quadruple barrelled Handgonnes were made.

 

[WV_Hillbilly]

Are you referring only to pre-flintlock handgonnes OR, to ANY multi barrelled piece of either antique OR modern status?

The "duck's foot" triple barrel was an interesting pistol that let all three barrels fire together.

Shoot Safely!
WV_Hillbilly

 

Was there ever any double-barrel handgonnes made?

Sort of like the great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddaddy of the double barreled shotgun...

There probably was at least one attempt. :hmm: The quest for superior firepower gave birth to more than a few multiple shot, multi-bore and multi-barrel gonnes. I have a photos of Chinese triple barrel and a Korean six shot multi-bore. Click here to see my Handgonne page. I've seen illustrated manuscripts with pictures of gonnes with stacked charges. One had as many as twelve! :: Talk about precision loading!

 

[benvenuto]

There was a Chinese one I have seen in a manuscript. However, it had one barrel aimed forwards and one backwards, not side by side. You rotated the gun end for end to fire the second shot

I think there is a similar model in the "Codex Monacensis" as well.

The Europeans used three and four barreled models as well, but almost all of the "mace gonnes" you see in photos are Burmese, Malay, or Korean.

 

> it had one barrel aimed forwards and one backwards

You would be hoping that there never is a double discharge!

Robert

 

[Keith]

There was a Chinese one I have seen in a manuscript. However, it had one barrel aimed forwards and one backwards, not side by side. You rotated the gun end for end to fire the second shot

Not hard to see why that didn't catch on.

 

[bezoar]

Well logistically its a sad day when you need to feed and equipe two men to fire one gun as one aimed and fired the gun itself and one held the bipod upright.
And if you managed to get a chainfire, youd be sending projectiles into your own defensive line, an act that would have gotten you beheaded on the spot. And then think of the second charge, its going to be hard to keep it from sliding down the barrel when the first barrel is shot. and construction was a big problem. Its hard to make a very long iron barrel, in the illustrations ive seen, these guns in question were using 2 barrels that were each about 2.5 times the height of the user.
On the other hand a properly sized ball and patch with some load testing could make a reallly nice accurate smoothbore.

 

[Bartek]

Bohemian Hussites have used four-barrel handgonnes frequently and every shooter has carried three or four handgonnes. This idea was quickly imitated even by their enemys. The project of Germanic anti-hussitian crusade from Norimberg from 1430 said, that every shooter should have three handgonnes. There were special handgonnes companys in hussitian army too. On the battlefield that company stand in 10 lines. All soldiers have kneeled exept shooters in last line. This row shot as the first. After them the ninth line stand up and shot, then the eighth, then seventh, etc. The first line of shooters has shoted as the last of them. The good example is battle of Kank. The hussitian marching column was surrounded, then they marched to Damazlice; hussitian town besieged by Germans. Shooters and artillery have marched on the top of the column. Following salvations of hangonnes and cannons have broken the ring of enemy

 

My "Poison Tulip" is similar in design to a handgonne called the "T

 

[Bartek]

The word "tabor" has here two denotation :
1. the hill in Czech named exactly "Tabor". The place of this great battle. Today a small city in this place too.
2. train, group of wagons (in military seans), as You said.

Czech "T

 

For those of us that are metric impaired, 15mm to 20mm means .59 to .79 caliber and 22mm to 33mm converts over to .866 to 1.299 caliber.

So Zeus, my 4-bore gonne, would fall into the czech "ru

 

[benvenuto]

The Hussites chose the name "Tabor" for their camp from the bible-
Book of Kings
1 After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.
3 Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.
5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.
6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor.
7 I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.' "
8 Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go."
9 "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh,
10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses' brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,
13 Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, "Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?" So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men.
15 At Barak's advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.
16 But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.

 

[Bartek]

You have right benvenuto :thumbsup:. The evolution of denotation of the word "Tabor" in this case had following direction:
Radical hussite prophets, like Vaclav Korand and Martinek Huska, have proclaimed, that Christ will come and judge at an early date. Judgment

 

[Bartek]

My pleasure
If You will search some information in czech web-sites use word "rucnica" not "ru

 

[robinghewitt]

Amazing, before this I thought that a tabor was merely a three hole fipple flute :thumbsup:

 

Mistake is quite forgiven. How about some other terms, words and/or phrases that you could suggest. Powder Flask and ramrod would be a good start.

:thanks:

 

[schizuki]

Regarding Bartek's awesome history lesson, it seems "plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose."

(Apologies for butchering the spelling).

 

[Bartek]

Ok, :agree: i will send You soon the list of polish and czech key words in as PM