Girl: Come over. Ian: I can't. I'm trying to find some 7.65 French Long ammo. Girl: I have a French musket you haven't seen before. Ian: [Busts through the wall Kool Aid man style]
@@jeromethiel4323 I saw her with a good bottle of bourbon, shot glass in hand, next to any french arms. Me too and AMEN I know a guy in the UK who will make you any cal ball mold you want, mine was less than $150 shipped custom made to the .001
My maternal grandfather was a shipwright and he was a genius at working with wood. He used to make superb doll's house furniture as a sideline from his ship work.
That’s the crazy thing about time. When they were being used, they were just about 60 years old. Old, sure, but flintlocks like the most “modern” weapons of the time so still very much relevant to the fight. Now we look at one as a practically ancient relic that is older than our country. The man whose initials are on it and the king he served have been dead for almost three centuries.
I think it's the fact that you can see the handmade qualities in them. None of the geometric precision/perfection of machine-made parts; everything was coaxed into its shape and place by a craftsman, one file stroke at a time.
"I Think" It Is The History they KNOW 1st hand! and as it is 12-07!! today! "I FEEL" THE SAME for all the Greatest Gen I KNEW! and had the privalge of growing up in their shade of PEACE from Sacrifices for all US and me.
Then you havent seen the locks of actual rampart guns that deserve the name with at least a one inch bore. Those are chunky. Dont think flintlock locks got any bigger than that, even those for cannons dont get that massive
Ian does not often share with us guns that don't use cased ammo. However he found one that fits his three favorite categories guns, history, and french craftsmanship. Congratulations and well done.
This Ian, is my jam. I've been shooting Black powder guns since I was 13 years of age. My first was an Enfield Musketoon, prefect size for a 13 yo boy. I still own it, at 60 yo. Next came an 1858 Remington New Army, that I also still have. Just sharing a bit of my history, just because. Thank you so much for this video!!
I can remember an antiques shop in London 1960's had about 2 dozen of them for cheap. They had a metal spike on the centre band so they could be inserted into a socket in the ramparts.
I love the scratches on the frizzen. Obviously this gun was used, but it's really cool to see scratches that very well could've been made by shots fired during the independence war.
Given the patina all over the non-wear areas and the shiny clean wear on the frisson, this gun has not been spending its retirement quietly sitting on a wall rack. It's still getting recent use.
From what I have seen, the most common small arm the new US had were Charleville infantry muskets. The early Springfield muskets were variations on the French design, not the British Brown Bess.
We didn't get Charlevilles till the French sent them, the Committee of Public safety muskets commissioned earlier were Brown Bess (Short Land Pattern Tower muskets) copies. Our unit has both Charlevilles and Tower muskets, my own personal Fusil is a Tower Ship's Carbine, but then, I'm an officer. At least one of my men carries a Long Land Pattern Tower musket and a couple of the lads have "Ranger" pattern muskets. We're militia, so every man carries what he had when he mustered in. Rifles, however are extremely rare.
Just had one of those in my hands at an antique market, not as awesome condition as this one here, and converted to percussion, but still very nice. A french guy bringing by stuff like that regularly 😁
I have one of these! I inherited it from my Grandfather, I was under the impression it was just a cottagemade Brown Bess, but this just makes it even more special to me!
I was just searching for that answer and the only number I've seen is an article mentioning that they were built strong enough for a charge of 20 grams, allowing a heavy ball to be thrown 300 meters. I would NOT start there, that's 308 grains, I would think that Brown Bess loads should be a good starting point, 75-100 grains. Remember, this includes a few grains for charging the pan from the cartridge.
@@robertlewis8295 Thanks for clarifying. My metric brain always gets confused about "grain of powder". I constantly think "the size of the individual powder flakes". But assume that wasn't really a thing with black powder.
Looking at the scrape marks on the frizzen at 04:55, when the light catches it, it looks as if it was shot not long ago - I wonder if the previous owner took it for a spin every now and again. With a 48 inch barrel it would be interesting to see how it would fare as an entry weapon.
I wouldn’t doubt if it wasn’t a whole lot heavier than a Long Land Pattern Brown Bess. The calibers are about the same, the rampart gun does have overall larger features like the lock though. The regular French Charleville muskets were .69 caliber. Besides no sling mounts and no provision for a bayonet, it’s not nearly as massive as I would expect of a “rampart gun”. The British equivalent was more like a stocked and locked longer swivel gun (complete with swivel) and dwarfs a Brown Bess. Definitely wouldn’t be trying to carry that thing like a regular musket.
Indeed. The better description for this specific gun would be "fortress musket" or "siege musket." They were very much considered infantry small-arms, just optimized for use in and against fortifications. France had plenty of the giant super-musket/shotguns you describe, but they were treated as artillery more than infantry arms.
2:40 Not quite: the French didn't sell us weapons because we had "some" money, they sold us weapons because Alexander Hamilton put us into MASSIVE debt with them. The strategy was that if the French held our debt, and we kept fighting their blood feud enemy the English, we'd be extremely valuable to them and they'd do whatever it took to make sure they could eventually get their money back.
This was before Hamilton had his hands on the nation’s finances, he was still just Washington’s aide de camp when deals like this were made. It’s more merchants like Robert Morris, or, as Ian said, American representatives in France like Ben Franklin and Silas Dean. Most of the massive debt incurred by the Revolution was owed to other Americans after Congress stopped printing Continental currency in favor of issuing bonds or just handing IOUs to domestic suppliers.
people had been using that gun before my idk how-many-times great granpa was born, and it is still there. In shooting conditions (?) Fascinating even if nobody can / dares to shoot it anymore
There's a French word - "biscaeien" I believe it is.. (I think I got the spelling right - the "i" had two dots over it) that means "large musket" or "large musket ball". I came across it when I read "Les Miserables" - it was what killed Gavroche. I never did find out exactly what Victor Hugo was referring to, maybe it was this weapon or the balls it shot.
Bonjour, impressed by your reference to Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables". Concerning the "Biscaïen" or "Biscayen" it is a long-range musket from the 18th century from Spain (province of Biscay) So technically speaking it is not the same model presented by Ian. I think "Biscayen" has become a generic term for all long-range muskets, because Gavroche's death took place during the 1832 revolution, 56 years after the American Revolution , and muskets had evolved in the meantime.
Biscayen or Biscaïen usually refers to the Basque country, a province* of France located on the south west coast. It indeed also applied between the XVIth and the XIXth century to a rampart musket initially, but the meaning derived to name the lead ball used in said musket, which was also used in grapeshot loads for canons or as makeshift mace when embedded into a monkey fist knot fastened to the end of a stick. I believe that Hugo used it in the derived sense throughout his work, but it's not the word used in the part where he describes the death of Gavroche (he only speaks of a "ball" : « Une balle pourtant, mieux ajustée ou plus traître que les autres, finit par atteindre l'enfant feu follet. On vit Gavroche chanceler, puis il s'affaissa. [...] Une seconde balle du même tireur l'arrêta court.»). *Yes I know, it's complicated. The Basque country extends into Spain, and an important fraction of the Basque people seeks independence from both France and Spain.
America owes a LOT to the French for our being able to cast off British rule. I live in Fayette County PA which is named after the Marquis de Lafayette who was instrumental in helping Washington's army during the Revolution.
Towards the beginning of the video, Ian said it was .78 caliber. I thought "cool, so basically a 12 gauge shotgun." Later, Ian says that because of the bore size, it's well-suited to loading with multiple projectiles rather than a single large ball. He even specifically mentions using buckshot loads. I'm like "definitely a 12 gauge shotgun, then."
Ian I would really enjoy seeing a video about how a 1700 flint lock is different than an 1800 flint lock When you say the French moved on to something better I don’t really know what that means to me all flintlocks might as well be the same
When I was up at Fort Ticonderoga, I think they ended up just buying antique cannons, but they had a mix of iron and bronze cannons, some with Spanish and French makers marks. I'm assuming that reflected the cannons that were there, most likely captured during different conflicts. It would be interesting to see where those rampart guns ended up, but I would have to imagine that West Point would have been in an ideal location to use those.
Probably either there, Springfield Armory, or the string of forts heading west from Pittsburgh along the Ohio River that were built in the 1780s, if some veteran didn’t just keep it for himself.
Interesting video, always fun to watch these and learn something new. However, I don't think the french m/1717 was the first standardized musket for an European army since the Swedish army had had standardized models since the late 1600. In 1690 came the first standardized flintlock musket the m/1690, in 1696 came the first model for use with a bayonet, the m/1696. The bayonet became the weapon of choice for the Caroleans and that resulted in the m/1704 which also had a new bayonet, the m/1704. The Caroleans were also equipped with a sword to use in the hand to hand combat they prefered. Another weapon that was used by the Caroleans was the pike, a very efficient offensive weapon when you charge in running at the enemy. Sweden had a professional standing army since the 1500:s and after the Skane war, 1676, when king Charles XI modernized the recruitment base for the armed forces he also standardized alot of the equipment and horses the new army, the Caroleans, would use.
😀Heres something interesting about muskets, they can be used like shotguns or in this case fowling pieces even if they weren't intended to be used like that, the practice of doing that was called "Buck & Ball", which is like what you described it as, they load one large musket ball and 3 to 6 buckshot pellets on top of it. Out of all the old guns through out history, the "Rampart Musket" or "Wall Gun" has to be my favorite one because I really just like big guns. Wallguns are the ancestor of the "Anti-Material Rifle" of today. Also theirs a video on youtube of a dude shoulder firing one of these guns and it was amazing.
I'd like to see a reproduction of this fired on the range using the .78 cal ball to see how much more range the troops achieved and the buckshot loads.
The one thing I can't wrap my head around is when you say they moved on to better things, but a flintlocks a flintlock what makes the next pattern better??... Would love a video where you go through the evolution of muskets (flintlocks) and show us why they changed patterns exactly
In April 1777, Benjamin Franklin, serving as the American ambassador to the French court in Versailles, reported the purchase of 80,000 muskets for 220,000 pounds. He noted that although these were the King’s arms and second-hand, many remained unused and were of exceptional quality. Franklin considered it a significant bargain, stating that even if only half of them were to arrive, it would greatly benefit the American cause.
In those times with so many assorted guns in different bore diameters, plus the low accuracy and general poor marksmanship of the combatants, I bet shotgun-like charges were used a LOT in any smoothbores from little carbines to wall guns. In my country blunderbusses were extremely popular up to the 1880's, specially small one-handed ones converted to percussion lock and those were widely loaded with assorted shrapnel in place of real lead shot.
American soldiers were marching around, and fighting line battles with these nearly 20mm behemoths. Of course, remembering people were smaller back then, too!
I'd be curious to see this compared to a British Long Land pattern infantry musket. They look like a similar length, but the Long Land was a .75 caliber barrel. While the British army was transitioning from Long to Short Lands in the early 1770's, the new arms were not universally issued to the troops in North America by 1775. An effort was made to equip all the light infantry with Short Lands in theater, but most if not all grenadiers and many battalion troops were still using Long Lands for the entire conflict. The British also had wall guns, issued to the Royal Artillery as battery defense, but they were 1 caliber.
Tell me you dont know anything about the American Revolution without telling me. France supplied many arms and other supplies to American and had King George in a headlock as the Colonies kicked him in the shin. Why do you think that the US used a French pattern musket until the Civil War?
It’s either going to be a French Charleville variant or the Brown Bess for that era, and Americans used modified versions of the Charleville design for a long while afterwards.
You can see from the frizzen wear it's been fired, but not a lot in it's lifetime though. I'm surprised Morphy still left a flint in it, our unit uses wooden flint replacements when we don't want them fired, to save wear on the frizzen, most frizzens are only case hardened, so that after a few hundred sparks the case hardening will have been shaved off by the flint and it won't spark as reliably.
Ian, there is nothing "simple" about this or any 17-18th century flintlock design. It only appears simple to "modens" so far up the development curve who can't zoom in to see the major derivative changes in firearm technology or employment. This form of lock is so deceptively simple becuase it was so refined and perfected by the engineering method.
Iain, talking about shot. Next time you visit us in the UK, a visit to one of the three surviving shot towers could be interesting. The eldest is Chester Shot Tower, AKA Boughton Shot Tower, built by Walkers, Parker & Co. in 1799 (So just after your Was of Independence.) You can still visit, though I haven't been since I was a kid.
There are a pair of surviving shot towers only slightly younger in the United States, with Jackson Ferry (Wythe County, VA) built in 1807 and Sparks (Philadelphia, PA) in 1808. The only other surviving 19th-century American shot tower I know of is Phoenix (Baltimore, MD), which was completed in 1828.
Mr. Ian Mc Collum, I have a question for you: Why did armies around the world choose to adopt Bolt-action rifles instead of Lever-action? You have shown that both are RELIABLE (with the 1895 surviving mud better than a mosin), both can be manufactured for an similar cost, both can use stripper clips and full powered cartridges (looking at 1895), both have a similar practical accuracy as service rifles, but one of them is more ergonomic and allow for a faster firing rate than the other. So, why did the bolt action become the standard rifle for most militaries until 1945 and why did the lever gun got relegated to only being a “cowboy gun”? (Appart from a few instances in WW1 which showed them outperforming bolt action rifles) Yes, that’s a long question. I’m sorry about that.
I am repeating what I have heard in various videos, so I could be wrong on some things. Bolt actions were able to fire larger rifle rounds whereas lever actions usually fired pistol caliber rounds. The lever action tube magazine took longer to load than just 5-10 rounds into a bolt action loaded with a stripper clip or en bloc clip. The Mannlicher Gewehr 1895 had a 5 round en bloc clip and the 1891 Carcano rifle had a 6 round en bloc clip. Bolt actions were probably cheaper to manufacture en masse than lever actions. Bolt actions were probably more durable in combat environments than lever actions.
@@Mistah_Boombastic_BiggieCheese Lever action rifle could use full powered rifle cartridges and stripper clips. Just like some bolt action used tubulars magazines.
@ bolt actions stopped using tube mags after the 1880s because the weight distribution of ammo in the tube magazine would be uneven as rounds were fired, same applies to lever actions.
@EtienneMorin-ot1hr that too. So can you see where I am coming from as to why lever actions weren’t adopted? The only exception was the Russian adoption of the Winchester 1895, but that had a 5 round box magazine of 7.62x54 R rifle rounds fed by stripper clips, not a higher capacity tube magazine.
@Forgotten_Weapons On the revolutionary and continental theme, have you ever seen a Hilliard rifle? My mother-in-law was a Hilliard. The guns were made around 1800-ish in the area of Cornish, NH. I think they were sporting arms, not military. Underhammer designs if I remember right.
Fun fact: The Continental Army did not really utilise Brown Bess muskets, instead the Colonial militias had been armed with old land pattern muskets. When the Congress allied with the Dutch Republic, they sold old Dutch land pattern muskets, surplus from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. A few of these examples at Fort Ticonderoga are actually Dutch muskets from the Scots-Dutch Brigade, three regiments of Scots serving in the Dutch States Army (1573-1784). They actually have ‘Douglas’ engraved on them, the name of a Scottish regimental commander.
As long as they work and there's ammo older weapons can have their uses. This is a prime example just like how PPSH-41s are now being used in the Ukraine
Girl: Come over.
Ian: I can't. I'm trying to find some 7.65 French Long ammo.
Girl: I have a French musket you haven't seen before.
Ian: [Busts through the wall Kool Aid man style]
That actually played out in my head. ^-^
"Oh YEAH!"
@@jeromethiel4323same 😂
@@jeromethiel4323 I saw her with a good bottle of bourbon, shot glass in hand, next to any french arms. Me too and AMEN
I know a guy in the UK who will make you any cal ball mold you want, mine was less than $150 shipped custom made to the .001
Ian with a French weapon is like watching a kid at Christmas.
It's beautiful, he's the only firearms lover I ever seen have such love for French small arms.
well it is that time of year after all
Rampart gun sounds alot cooler than big musket
Arquebus would be an even more appropriate term.
they were also called Wall Guns.
@@peabase Arquebus were matchlocks.
Or heavy musket.
Muskets were bigger version of arquebus in mid 16th century
When Ian slides the barrel past the camera, it just keeps going, like the spaceship in SpaceBalls.
It's gone to plaid!
We don't brake for nobody, but in French
Or Tanya's legs in the Naked Gun
I've always been fascinated by the level of craftsmanship in the stock repairs. The pieces fit so perfectly, and that was done with hand tools.
Its crazy what the human eye can do! Had a boss that's could tell if something was .002 off if you took it to QC he's would be dead on
My maternal grandfather was a shipwright and he was a genius at working with wood. He used to make superb doll's house furniture as a sideline from his ship work.
In a shocking turn of events, Ian is now discussing French not-rifle.
"I'm a Bit?" disappointed? in the Lost History lesson from a trusted source. But I have faith, it will come around in its' time.
Ok guys: that wondrous magnificent musket over there, in such great shape, is over 300 years old, prolly. Three centuries. That's a justified wow.
It's sort of mind boggling to me. These guns are older than the entire country.
@@lilwyvern4And are a (small) contribution to it's existence.
That’s the crazy thing about time. When they were being used, they were just about 60 years old. Old, sure, but flintlocks like the most “modern” weapons of the time so still very much relevant to the fight. Now we look at one as a practically ancient relic that is older than our country. The man whose initials are on it and the king he served have been dead for almost three centuries.
Wait until you discover how old King Tut's stuff is. Wowee
@@sakamoto2467 I handled a 3,500 years old Egyptian bronze dagger once. It was still sharp. An awe-inspiring experience.
There's just something about older firearms that I love. It's like there's a soul to them or something.
I like to think about how old the tree was before it was cut to make a stock, plus how old the stock is.
@@wizardofahhhs759Lots of these stocks, along with old houses, are made from tree species that no longer exist. Another reason to preserve them.
I think it's the fact that you can see the handmade qualities in them. None of the geometric precision/perfection of machine-made parts; everything was coaxed into its shape and place by a craftsman, one file stroke at a time.
"I Think" It Is The History they KNOW 1st hand! and as it is 12-07!! today!
"I FEEL" THE SAME for all the Greatest Gen I KNEW! and had the privalge of growing up in their shade of PEACE from Sacrifices for all US and me.
That lock is absolutely massive
Then you havent seen the locks of actual rampart guns that deserve the name with at least a one inch bore. Those are chunky. Dont think flintlock locks got any bigger than that, even those for cannons dont get that massive
Ian does not often share with us guns that don't use cased ammo. However he found one that fits his three favorite categories guns, history, and french craftsmanship. Congratulations and well done.
This Ian, is my jam. I've been shooting Black powder guns since I was 13 years of age. My first was an Enfield Musketoon, prefect size for a 13 yo boy. I still own it, at 60 yo. Next came an 1858 Remington New Army, that I also still have. Just sharing a bit of my history, just because. Thank you so much for this video!!
Wow an actual forgotten weapon today!
Why?.Are antimaterial and antitank guns unknown to you? Nothing new under the sun.
@@brittakriep2938I think he means the opposite of what you're saying???
You shut your mouth
I can remember an antiques shop in London 1960's had about 2 dozen of them for cheap.
They had a metal spike on the centre band so they could be inserted into a socket in the ramparts.
@@brittakriep2938 Uh... no? WHAT?
@6:29 That patch looks like white oak, I'd bet USA east coast. has that pearlescent glow.
I can see that. They were surplus 'scrap.' I can definitely imagine a fella in the colonies having to repair the little chip.
Yeah, that definitely looks like oak to me as well.
.78” bore was not that unusual for a British musket of the same period and the weight is in the same class too. This example is very well made.
I love the scratches on the frizzen. Obviously this gun was used, but it's really cool to see scratches that very well could've been made by shots fired during the independence war.
Given the patina all over the non-wear areas and the shiny clean wear on the frisson, this gun has not been spending its retirement quietly sitting on a wall rack. It's still getting recent use.
Those new scratches are from Ian.
Love when he visits Morpheys!! So much variety and information.
Ohh, the oldest gun found in the US recently was also a wall gun.
Three Hundred Seven Years Old, [beat] and Still Deadly!
Had a good friend that owned a few of these, plus some wall guns. They were a delight to see
Never seen an outside bridle attached to the battery and battery spring on a lock before. Makes it over-the-top robust. What a beast!
From what I have seen, the most common small arm the new US had were Charleville infantry muskets. The early Springfield muskets were variations on the French design, not the British Brown Bess.
We didn't get Charlevilles till the French sent them, the Committee of Public safety muskets commissioned earlier were Brown Bess (Short Land Pattern Tower muskets) copies. Our unit has both Charlevilles and Tower muskets, my own personal Fusil is a Tower Ship's Carbine, but then, I'm an officer. At least one of my men carries a Long Land Pattern Tower musket and a couple of the lads have "Ranger" pattern muskets. We're militia, so every man carries what he had when he mustered in. Rifles, however are extremely rare.
Ian needs to do as many American Revolution videos as possible
Also Indian wars.
More like this! I love to learn new stuff about old stuff.
These are the firearms I love to see. I really enjoy the old stuff.
Just had one of those in my hands at an antique market, not as awesome condition as this one here, and converted to percussion, but still very nice. A french guy bringing by stuff like that regularly 😁
Truly a Forgotten Weapons video when even an American gun is actually a French gun
I have one of these! I inherited it from my Grandfather, I was under the impression it was just a cottagemade Brown Bess, but this just makes it even more special to me!
Perfect timing as I start my muzzle loader arc. This thing is sick. I wonder what grain of powder charge they used.
I was just searching for that answer and the only number I've seen is an article mentioning that they were built strong enough for a charge of 20 grams, allowing a heavy ball to be thrown 300 meters. I would NOT start there, that's 308 grains, I would think that Brown Bess loads should be a good starting point, 75-100 grains. Remember, this includes a few grains for charging the pan from the cartridge.
@@robertlewis8295 Thanks for clarifying. My metric brain always gets confused about "grain of powder". I constantly think "the size of the individual powder flakes". But assume that wasn't really a thing with black powder.
BP is great fun. Enjoy!
Wow, a weapon that served in the American Revolution. Awesome
Thank you Ian and Morphys. Nice piece of history.
Looking at the scrape marks on the frizzen at 04:55, when the light catches it, it looks as if it was shot not long ago - I wonder if the previous owner took it for a spin every now and again. With a 48 inch barrel it would be interesting to see how it would fare as an entry weapon.
Sweet!
More surplus weapons used in the American Revolution, please.
Yeah ... Rampart Street had these... wild to think of these in the French Quarter in New Orleans
THIS is awesome!! An ACTUAL “forgotten” weapon!!
I wouldn’t doubt if it wasn’t a whole lot heavier than a Long Land Pattern Brown Bess. The calibers are about the same, the rampart gun does have overall larger features like the lock though. The regular French Charleville muskets were .69 caliber.
Besides no sling mounts and no provision for a bayonet, it’s not nearly as massive as I would expect of a “rampart gun”. The British equivalent was more like a stocked and locked longer swivel gun (complete with swivel) and dwarfs a Brown Bess. Definitely wouldn’t be trying to carry that thing like a regular musket.
Indeed. The better description for this specific gun would be "fortress musket" or "siege musket." They were very much considered infantry small-arms, just optimized for use in and against fortifications.
France had plenty of the giant super-musket/shotguns you describe, but they were treated as artillery more than infantry arms.
2:40 Not quite: the French didn't sell us weapons because we had "some" money, they sold us weapons because Alexander Hamilton put us into MASSIVE debt with them. The strategy was that if the French held our debt, and we kept fighting their blood feud enemy the English, we'd be extremely valuable to them and they'd do whatever it took to make sure they could eventually get their money back.
Smart tactic.
Somehow this ends us in Vietnam. History gets wild fast
Hmmm...and don't forget that the French handed over Indochina to the Americans.
This was before Hamilton had his hands on the nation’s finances, he was still just Washington’s aide de camp when deals like this were made. It’s more merchants like Robert Morris, or, as Ian said, American representatives in France like Ben Franklin and Silas Dean. Most of the massive debt incurred by the Revolution was owed to other Americans after Congress stopped printing Continental currency in favor of issuing bonds or just handing IOUs to domestic suppliers.
That is an extremely impressive firearm! I find it hard to believe that it's the same weight as an M1 Garand.
I just sent my dad the link to Jonathan's recent video on the Tiny Flintlock, I know what I have to send him next lol.
As a French and Indian war reenact or I just love when Ian talks old muskets
people had been using that gun before my idk how-many-times great granpa was born, and it is still there. In shooting conditions (?) Fascinating even if nobody can / dares to shoot it anymore
There's a French word - "biscaeien" I believe it is.. (I think I got the spelling right - the "i" had two dots over it) that means "large musket" or "large musket ball". I came across it when I read "Les Miserables" - it was what killed Gavroche. I never did find out exactly what Victor Hugo was referring to, maybe it was this weapon or the balls it shot.
Bonjour,
impressed by your reference to Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables". Concerning the "Biscaïen" or "Biscayen" it is a long-range musket from the 18th century from Spain (province of Biscay)
So technically speaking it is not the same model presented by Ian. I think "Biscayen" has become a generic term for all long-range muskets, because Gavroche's death took place during the 1832 revolution, 56 years after the American Revolution , and muskets had evolved in the meantime.
Biscayen or Biscaïen usually refers to the Basque country, a province* of France located on the south west coast. It indeed also applied between the XVIth and the XIXth century to a rampart musket initially, but the meaning derived to name the lead ball used in said musket, which was also used in grapeshot loads for canons or as makeshift mace when embedded into a monkey fist knot fastened to the end of a stick. I believe that Hugo used it in the derived sense throughout his work, but it's not the word used in the part where he describes the death of Gavroche (he only speaks of a "ball" : « Une balle pourtant, mieux ajustée ou plus traître que les autres, finit par atteindre l'enfant feu follet. On vit Gavroche chanceler, puis il s'affaissa. [...] Une seconde balle du même tireur l'arrêta court.»).
*Yes I know, it's complicated. The Basque country extends into Spain, and an important fraction of the Basque people seeks independence from both France and Spain.
@@ordinosaurs Merci pour l'info et les précisions ! 👍🏼
Its great that knowledgeable people can enrich us with these nuggets of info. Big thanks for writing in!
I really like the old guns, predating 1900. This musket was awesome!!!
America owes a LOT to the French for our being able to cast off British rule. I live in Fayette County PA which is named after the Marquis de Lafayette who was instrumental in helping Washington's army during the Revolution.
Towards the beginning of the video, Ian said it was .78 caliber. I thought "cool, so basically a 12 gauge shotgun." Later, Ian says that because of the bore size, it's well-suited to loading with multiple projectiles rather than a single large ball. He even specifically mentions using buckshot loads. I'm like "definitely a 12 gauge shotgun, then."
Nothing cooler than seeing a firearm that helped secure our right now to own firearms! God Bless those patriots and the founding fathers.
Ian I would really enjoy seeing a video about how a 1700 flint lock is different than an 1800 flint lock
When you say the French moved on to something better I don’t really know what that means to me all flintlocks might as well be the same
This is prolly one of the coolest forgotten weapons you have had here. 👍👊😎😎😎
Imagine the noise and recoil on that beautiful thing.
There were some at the museum in Gettysburg back in the 70’s.
When I was up at Fort Ticonderoga, I think they ended up just buying antique cannons, but they had a mix of iron and bronze cannons, some with Spanish and French makers marks. I'm assuming that reflected the cannons that were there, most likely captured during different conflicts.
It would be interesting to see where those rampart guns ended up, but I would have to imagine that West Point would have been in an ideal location to use those.
Probably either there, Springfield Armory, or the string of forts heading west from Pittsburgh along the Ohio River that were built in the 1780s, if some veteran didn’t just keep it for himself.
Interesting video, always fun to watch these and learn something new.
However, I don't think the french m/1717 was the first standardized musket for an European army since the Swedish army had had standardized models since the late 1600. In 1690 came the first standardized flintlock musket the m/1690, in 1696 came the first model for use with a bayonet, the m/1696. The bayonet became the weapon of choice for the Caroleans and that resulted in the m/1704 which also had a new bayonet, the m/1704.
The Caroleans were also equipped with a sword to use in the hand to hand combat they prefered.
Another weapon that was used by the Caroleans was the pike, a very efficient offensive weapon when you charge in running at the enemy.
Sweden had a professional standing army since the 1500:s and after the Skane war, 1676, when king Charles XI modernized the recruitment base for the armed forces he also standardized alot of the equipment and horses the new army, the Caroleans, would use.
Would be fun to see you and Tom shoot one of these! Great content as usual thanks
😀Heres something interesting about muskets, they can be used like shotguns or in this case fowling pieces even if they weren't intended to be used like that, the practice of doing that was called "Buck & Ball", which is like what you described it as, they load one large musket ball and 3 to 6 buckshot pellets on top of it.
Out of all the old guns through out history, the "Rampart Musket" or "Wall Gun" has to be my favorite one because I really just like big guns. Wallguns are the ancestor of the "Anti-Material Rifle" of today. Also theirs a video on youtube of a dude shoulder firing one of these guns and it was amazing.
Every time I see a Revolutionary War rifle, I wonder if any of my ancestors had been near it in camp & such.
I'd like to see a reproduction of this fired on the range using the .78 cal ball to see how much more range the troops achieved and the buckshot loads.
The one thing I can't wrap my head around is when you say they moved on to better things, but a flintlocks a flintlock what makes the next pattern better??... Would love a video where you go through the evolution of muskets (flintlocks) and show us why they changed patterns exactly
In April 1777, Benjamin Franklin, serving as the American ambassador to the French court in Versailles, reported the purchase of 80,000 muskets for 220,000 pounds. He noted that although these were the King’s arms and second-hand, many remained unused and were of exceptional quality. Franklin considered it a significant bargain, stating that even if only half of them were to arrive, it would greatly benefit the American cause.
Last time i was so early for a video, it was Boston tea party
Will GunJesus be wearing a beret or a powdered wig when he hauls Le Fusil to the range?
Honestly disappointed this one isnt up for auction. I'd honestly take a crack at bidding for it.
Can you imagine the destructive power of a .78 caliber ball?
"Let me show you a few of its features."
SO CLOSE!
A rampart musket, an elegant weapon for a more civilized age...
Aw, you beat me to it.
The Bender of the 18th century
and when a general somehow used it (and not his lost sword) to save himself:
so... uncivilized.
Ready, Fire, Aim.
As a total aside, I'm curious what kind of video Ian will do for America's 250th birthday.
I suspect it'll be epic...
“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this range, with those muskets.”
*Revolutionaries heft up the Wall-Gun.*
In those times with so many assorted guns in different bore diameters, plus the low accuracy and general poor marksmanship of the combatants, I bet shotgun-like charges were used a LOT in any smoothbores from little carbines to wall guns. In my country blunderbusses were extremely popular up to the 1880's, specially small one-handed ones converted to percussion lock and those were widely loaded with assorted shrapnel in place of real lead shot.
American soldiers were marching around, and fighting line battles with these nearly 20mm behemoths. Of course, remembering people were smaller back then, too!
just some hours ago, I rewatched "the patriot" by Mel Gibson
Yeaaaah…don’t look to it for historical accuracy
I keep hoping Ian will interview Erik Goldstein and feature the early Brown Bess muskets. French rampart guns are pretty cool though.
I'd be curious to see this compared to a British Long Land pattern infantry musket. They look like a similar length, but the Long Land was a .75 caliber barrel. While the British army was transitioning from Long to Short Lands in the early 1770's, the new arms were not universally issued to the troops in North America by 1775. An effort was made to equip all the light infantry with Short Lands in theater, but most if not all grenadiers and many battalion troops were still using Long Lands for the entire conflict. The British also had wall guns, issued to the Royal Artillery as battery defense, but they were 1 caliber.
Of course you of all people find a French gun from the American Revolution to talk about
His Mustache knows no bounds for its thirst for anything French.
Tell me you dont know anything about the American Revolution without telling me. France supplied many arms and other supplies to American and had King George in a headlock as the Colonies kicked him in the shin. Why do you think that the US used a French pattern musket until the Civil War?
It’s either going to be a French Charleville variant or the Brown Bess for that era, and Americans used modified versions of the Charleville design for a long while afterwards.
Ian and his French guns!
Very nice piece.
You can see from the frizzen wear it's been fired, but not a lot in it's lifetime though. I'm surprised Morphy still left a flint in it, our unit uses wooden flint replacements when we don't want them fired, to save wear on the frizzen, most frizzens are only case hardened, so that after a few hundred sparks the case hardening will have been shaved off by the flint and it won't spark as reliably.
Ian going over a cool old flintlock "and it's French.". Me: ah, THERE it is
That is in such beautiful condition!
I saw a very long, over-and-under two barreled musket at Fort Nelson in the UK
Incredible. A 300 year old firearm still in existence
Ian, there is nothing "simple" about this or any 17-18th century flintlock design. It only appears simple to "modens" so far up the development curve who can't zoom in to see the major derivative changes in firearm technology or employment. This form of lock is so deceptively simple becuase it was so refined and perfected by the engineering method.
Bet these "Rampart" or Wall GUNS are popular in the day with the Navy!
We need a Rifle Shoppe kit of this....soon!
They're almost just a chunky British Long Land Pattern musket. The British rampart gun had a 1" bore!
Iain, talking about shot. Next time you visit us in the UK, a visit to one of the three surviving shot towers could be interesting. The eldest is Chester Shot Tower, AKA Boughton Shot Tower, built by Walkers, Parker & Co. in 1799 (So just after your Was of Independence.) You can still visit, though I haven't been since I was a kid.
There are a pair of surviving shot towers only slightly younger in the United States, with Jackson Ferry (Wythe County, VA) built in 1807 and Sparks (Philadelphia, PA) in 1808. The only other surviving 19th-century American shot tower I know of is Phoenix (Baltimore, MD), which was completed in 1828.
@stephenkissinger4434 Oh, okay a visit to them would be interesting too. Always found it an interesting subject.
I like to imagine one of the French troops here in New York during the revolution nerding out about a continental soldier using a "retro" French gun😂
When I saw that big hole in the end, I immediately thought 'buck and ball'.
Mr. Ian Mc Collum, I have a question for you:
Why did armies around the world choose to adopt Bolt-action rifles instead of Lever-action?
You have shown that both are RELIABLE (with the 1895 surviving mud better than a mosin), both can be manufactured for an similar cost, both can use stripper clips and full powered cartridges (looking at 1895), both have a similar practical accuracy as service rifles, but one of them is more ergonomic and allow for a faster firing rate than the other.
So, why did the bolt action become the standard rifle for most militaries until 1945 and why did the lever gun got relegated to only being a “cowboy gun”? (Appart from a few instances in WW1 which showed them outperforming bolt action rifles)
Yes, that’s a long question. I’m sorry about that.
I am repeating what I have heard in various videos, so I could be wrong on some things. Bolt actions were able to fire larger rifle rounds whereas lever actions usually fired pistol caliber rounds. The lever action tube magazine took longer to load than just 5-10 rounds into a bolt action loaded with a stripper clip or en bloc clip. The Mannlicher Gewehr 1895 had a 5 round en bloc clip and the 1891 Carcano rifle had a 6 round en bloc clip. Bolt actions were probably cheaper to manufacture en masse than lever actions. Bolt actions were probably more durable in combat environments than lever actions.
@@Mistah_Boombastic_BiggieCheese Lever action rifle could use full powered rifle cartridges and stripper clips. Just like some bolt action used tubulars magazines.
@ bolt actions stopped using tube mags after the 1880s because the weight distribution of ammo in the tube magazine would be uneven as rounds were fired, same applies to lever actions.
@@Mistah_Boombastic_BiggieCheese yes.
Also, spitzer and tube is (appart from a few exceptions) a great way to create a disaster.
@EtienneMorin-ot1hr that too. So can you see where I am coming from as to why lever actions weren’t adopted? The only exception was the Russian adoption of the Winchester 1895, but that had a 5 round box magazine of 7.62x54 R rifle rounds fed by stripper clips, not a higher capacity tube magazine.
@Forgotten_Weapons On the revolutionary and continental theme, have you ever seen a Hilliard rifle? My mother-in-law was a Hilliard. The guns were made around 1800-ish in the area of Cornish, NH. I think they were sporting arms, not military. Underhammer designs if I remember right.
very similar to the M1723 (/M1740) Prussian Musket in many details
great video
Fun fact: The Continental Army did not really utilise Brown Bess muskets, instead the Colonial militias had been armed with old land pattern muskets. When the Congress allied with the Dutch Republic, they sold old Dutch land pattern muskets, surplus from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. A few of these examples at Fort Ticonderoga are actually Dutch muskets from the Scots-Dutch Brigade, three regiments of Scots serving in the Dutch States Army (1573-1784). They actually have ‘Douglas’ engraved on them, the name of a Scottish regimental commander.
People in the 16th to 19th century: What if musket, but big?
The German Empire, 1918: What if Mauser, but big?
I always have an eye out for a chunky butt stock.
that would be called buck and ball
Pretty on the nose, the average weight of a Brown Bess was circa 10.5 lb (4.8 kg).
Wonder how many got cut down
I have read accounts that talk about "French Fusil" or even Dutch muskets from decades before.
Could Ian have dry-fired it for us? Would have been cool to see the sparks and that would be quite safe for the gun and himself, right?
an awesome video and rifle Mr. GJ. happy pearl harbour remembrance day Mr. have a good one Mr. Gun Jesus.
As long as they work and there's ammo older weapons can have their uses. This is a prime example just like how PPSH-41s are now being used in the Ukraine
...and DP27s, Maxim 1910s, and many others