Associate
Here's an example of a wheelock holster pistol, the first mechanism on a gun in history that could be carried loaded and instantly ready to fire at any time.
The Most Influential Weapons of History
- Thread starter Edrof
- Start date
Knowing Von, he wants one that still goes bang!
Try York Guns as a starting point, or see if Henry Krank in Pudsey might be able to point you in the right direction. They still do a lot of black powder and repro things, as far as I can tell.
http://www.henrykrank.com/
Man of Honour
Definitely want a one that goes bang.
Associate
If its just the action you're interested in I think you'd find plenty of Greener GP Shotguns about. These guns are darned indestructible and pretty much a smoothbore MH.
Associate
.45 Martini Henry Boxer ? it'll definately go bang alright
Here's a bloke firing one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COrifJSmL0o
a weapon that was completely useless, was only worth the cost against 2 targets in the US, and the plane that carried it would be so slow and obvious it would be shot down instantly.
Also you'd need a suicide crew to fly the plane as it wouldn't have the fuel to return.
Not sure how it was influential?
Lots of good vids of lots of different types of guns in use on hickok45's youtube channel for anyone that's interested. http://www.youtube.com/user/hickok45
Soldato
Weapons that changed warfare imho:
Sword
Chariot
Trebuchet
Maxim
Fokker (Aeroplane in general)
Long Bow
Rifle (forgotten the name of it, used in the middle ages, and could pierce knights armour, was the first proper gun that wouldn't just blow you up)
Bayonet
Torpedo
Submarine
Tank
Helecopter
Nuke
Sword
Chariot
Trebuchet
Maxim
Fokker (Aeroplane in general)
Long Bow
Rifle (forgotten the name of it, used in the middle ages, and could pierce knights armour, was the first proper gun that wouldn't just blow you up
)Bayonet
Torpedo
Submarine
Tank
Helecopter
Nuke
Some specific examples that sping to my mind:
Springfield Rifled Musket - revolutionary not just because if its' accuracy and reliability but also because it was one of the first weapons to be truly 'mass produced' in the modern sense by the Confederates in the US Civil War.
Fokker Eindecker - not so much for the plane itself but for the 'interruptor gear' which was introduced on this aircraft in WW1, which enabled the pilot to fire his machine gun safely through the arc of the propellor. The result was the decimation of RFC pilots in what became known as the 'Fokker Scourge'
Sidewinder Missile - THE benchmark air-to-air missle since its' introduction in the 1950s and probably responsible for more A2A kills than any other weapon since.
Fieseler 103 - Otherwise known as the V1, the world's first cruise missile
Von Braun A-4 Rocket - Otherwise known as the V2, the world's first ballistic missile and directly led to the Apollo 11-carrying Saturn 5.
(slightly controversial)
Sea Harrier - "Without the Sea Harrier, there could have been no Task Force" - a quote from Admiral Sir Harry Leach. The UK would've had to surrender the Falklands with barely a whimper without it, and nothing else could keep operating as often and for as long in the atrocious conditions in the South Atlantic. No mean performer in A2A combat too.
Springfield Rifled Musket - revolutionary not just because if its' accuracy and reliability but also because it was one of the first weapons to be truly 'mass produced' in the modern sense by the Confederates in the US Civil War.
Fokker Eindecker - not so much for the plane itself but for the 'interruptor gear' which was introduced on this aircraft in WW1, which enabled the pilot to fire his machine gun safely through the arc of the propellor. The result was the decimation of RFC pilots in what became known as the 'Fokker Scourge'
Sidewinder Missile - THE benchmark air-to-air missle since its' introduction in the 1950s and probably responsible for more A2A kills than any other weapon since.
Fieseler 103 - Otherwise known as the V1, the world's first cruise missile
Von Braun A-4 Rocket - Otherwise known as the V2, the world's first ballistic missile and directly led to the Apollo 11-carrying Saturn 5.
(slightly controversial)
Sea Harrier - "Without the Sea Harrier, there could have been no Task Force" - a quote from Admiral Sir Harry Leach. The UK would've had to surrender the Falklands with barely a whimper without it, and nothing else could keep operating as often and for as long in the atrocious conditions in the South Atlantic. No mean performer in A2A combat too.
Associate
Thought I'd re-read this thread in full (yes, I know, I've too much free time at the moment ).
Suddenly realised how many folks mentioned the Baker rifle. In reality the BR was of little real value on the battlefiend because the need to patch a ball to grip the rifling and the extra resistance of ramming a patched ball home made it increadibly slow to reload compared to a smoothbore musket.
The really influential step was the invention of the Minie Ball, which wasn't actually a ball but was shaped like a modern bullet. The key was that it didn't expand to fit the rifling until fired. So was as quick to load as any unpatched musket ball. Only then could rifling be taken advantage of universally. "The adoption of this ammunition allowed soldiers to reload their rifled muskets faster and fire them more accurately. This increased the lethality of weapons used on the battlefield and effectively rendered conventional line infantry tactics obsolete."
See -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini%C3%A9_ball
In reality the Minie ball truly was a very influential development indeed.
).Suddenly realised how many folks mentioned the Baker rifle. In reality the BR was of little real value on the battlefiend because the need to patch a ball to grip the rifling and the extra resistance of ramming a patched ball home made it increadibly slow to reload compared to a smoothbore musket.
The really influential step was the invention of the Minie Ball, which wasn't actually a ball but was shaped like a modern bullet. The key was that it didn't expand to fit the rifling until fired. So was as quick to load as any unpatched musket ball. Only then could rifling be taken advantage of universally. "The adoption of this ammunition allowed soldiers to reload their rifled muskets faster and fire them more accurately. This increased the lethality of weapons used on the battlefield and effectively rendered conventional line infantry tactics obsolete."
See -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini%C3%A9_ball
In reality the Minie ball truly was a very influential development indeed.
Soldato
Glock 9mm?
C4?
C4?
Associate
Tell me is MikeHunt truly your name? I'd love to phone your local and get the barmaid to call out and ask if anyone had seen you? Can you imagine it? The barmaid calls out, "Has anybody seen Mike Hunt"..............
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Associate
Leave out the crossbow, it was never a serious contender in a battle other than firing off battlements, forget the modern ones you can load in seconds because the medieval ones sometimes required a 'cranequin' which was a pulley/ratchet mechanism to draw back the bowstring so a longbow could fire off 15 arrows while the other bloke was still loading his crossbow.
Interestingly the matchlock is probably the most long used firearm type ever invented and it was still in use in many parts of the world up till the 1950's virtually unchanged even after 5 centuries.
When soldiers of Victoria's Empire fought in Africa & India with the latest weapons it was with matchlocks that the tribesmen fought them off