Whilst there are documentations of buccaneers utilizing the tap loading technique(known to them as "Chargée a la Boucanier) it is rather dangerous to attempt yourself. Spitting a bullet down the muzzle is hard in a stressful situation, and if you've primed the pan and poured down powder, the cock might go off and burn your face off! It's best to keep any flesh as far away from the gun as possible .)
The inaccuracy of muskets is often greatly exaggerated, they were plenty accurate enough for engaging within 100 yards and you could still hit an animal-sized target (like a human) within that range with a degree of reliability, and combat of the time mostly took place within a hundred so the accuracy of muskets was not that big of a drawback, rifling became more of a necessity as combat started to take place at longer and longer range. Firing in volleys was more of a way to keep steady gunfire going to ensure a hit on the enemy due to the slower rate of fire of muskets compared to modern firearms and this practice carried on into the era of bolt action firearms until after WWI when the role of delivering steady fire was given over to the designated machine gun (WWI changed combat entirely, we were still using parts of the 1700s model up until then). The Machine Gun is still the deliverer of steady fire today and combat rifles today are moreso for picking off targets and personal defense or covering the machine gunner, even these days Machine Guns are not the most accurate (barrel heats up and expands throwing off bullets and it's built to looser tolerances than rifles) but like in the olden days of muskets they don't need to be.
Just a note, while I agree with everything here, and I feel with the other info the original poster put here, they likely know this. But for anyone less familiar with firearms reading this, modern machineguns are intentially less accurate. One of the weaknesses of the Brengun was being too acurate, thus not having as large of a beating zone. Machine guns are area affect weapons, which, to a degree a formation of muskets were too, though individual muskets were used for hunting, and did need to be more accurate than often described, for at the very least that reason. Muskets were quite inacurate compared to the precision weapons of today, but a number did in fact have a front sight (though I am not sure when that started, I know they did in the Napoleonic era, but not 100% about the buccaneer era), which you could line up with, not unlike my shotgun, which I can aim slugs with just fine. A dove tail rear sight would have been helpful, but not having them did not mean they had no sights.
Being a reenactor I once owned a Brown Bess reproduction in .75 caliber. I fired live rounds at a man sized target to see the accuracy. I could consistently hit the target at 50 yards. Beyond that it progressively got harder. I would say it was probably a 50-50 chance at 100 yards. This would be compounded by powder fouling after 6 or 7 rounds and reloading time increased. Rogers Rangers of the American French and Indian war would drill their musket touch holes out so powder would get into the pan from the barrel with the frizzen closed and drop the ball down the barrel with no patch. These tactics greatly increased their firing speed and some of this may have been done at sea. As a side note to your excellent video, the longer the barrel, the better the powder burn, no unburned powder blowing out of the muzzle. THAT would contribute to bullet energy and accuracy. Just some practical info for you.
was it really the smoothbore's fault or 100 yard was just naturally hard to shoot...? especially with gun that long and delay lock time with no sights, I don't think a rifling would help much
@@dolsopolar actually, rifling helps greatly. I also own a flintlock rifle made as they were in the 18th century. Its lock is also made like the originals and is as fast as a percussion lock. Rifling stabilizes the ball, making a flinter accurate up to even 300 yards. For that the sights are very necessary but a tight seal is necessary for accuracy on either a smooth bore or rifle. What I said about Rogers Rangers was true because they used the ball w/o patch at close in woods fighting.
Fun enough , most of the modern Portuguese words for weapons are still the names from the flint lock era , a fusil is a single shot carabine , a carabina is a automatic , a escopeta , although less used it's a shotgun. Says a lot about our country weapons wise.
Our krewe held a fund raising event at the local gun range about 3 years ago or so. Several of our pirates are certified with blackpowder weapons. I got a chance to fire a flintlock musket. I can say this for sure it was so much fun! A totally different experience than firing modern firearms! There is an element of danger firing them too! Lol! The re-enactors fire flintlocks and cannons for the Pirate Seale's Invasion of St Augustine (I did a video of it a few years ago). I only have replica flintlock pistols in my Pirate Armory! Very informative video mate!
@@GoldandGunpowder Sounds similar to here with the gun laws. I’ll eventually invest in a firing flint lock. A couple months ago I bought my 1st fully forged sword that is period correct for 1660-1720.
@@GoldandGunpowder In the US they sell a flintlock kit, including powder, shot, and wadding, for $150 at Walmart! No licenses required for muzzle loaders here. Can you buy a modern reproduction without license? Or does your piece have to actually be manufactured before that date?
Good job! It's refreshing to hear someone talk intelligently about early firearms. I'm a collector of firearms, both early and modern, and most self proclaimed "experts" know little about the true nature of early back powder firearms.
I've heard from Brandon F that reloading via the pounding method could be quite dangerous and spitting the musket balls into a musket would be unwise after firing multipe shots.
If I remember right, the wooden gunpowder holders on the bandolier were not called apostles until long after they went out of fashion, and were called so retroactively. I believe the period appropriate term is "charges"
Good question. Armor wasn't popular amongst them since they primarily fought enemies with guns that could easily penetrate the armor they had available. Captains during the period did however wear breastplates as an extra measure, so it's possible that some sea rovers or their commanders wore armor. I will cover armor more in upcoming videos.
My take on this question would be: It depends on the time period. I assume that the further you go back, say the 16th century with guys like Francis Drake, soldiers on ships would still try to wear as much armor as possible (like helmets, cuirasses, chainmail, maybe even almost full plate) because early firearms would still be used alongside with bows and crossbows. At least if I was the captain of a 16th century ship, I would be happy to have lots of armored fighters to defend against boarding actions from other ships.
Think about it. As a pirate, you'll trying to board another's ship and wearing armor, one slip or miscalculation about distance from railing to railing meant a quicker sinking to Davies Jones Locker.
Problem with armor is the fact that you're surrounded by water and it only takes ten to twelve pounds worth of weight to neutralize the buoyancy of the average human. Wool was the common cloth back then and it soaks up water really nicely, meaning that falling into the water wearing wool clothing and a sturdy pair of leather boots - never mind weapons and any other gear strapped to you - means that you've already used up your ten to twelve pounds and are probably in the negatives while adding a steel breastplate or chainmail shirt means that you're going to sink like a stone.
In terms of the accuracy and range of a musket, most armies of the time period could engage targets up to 300 yards, but the commonly accepted best combat range was 100-150 yards
That's not entirely true. If you are speaking of rifled muskets, yes. Smooth bore muskets, no. In the 18th century the standing armies of the world had smooth bore muskets. I commented on my own experience with a Brown Bess reproduction about 8 months ago in this comment section. I encourage you to read it.
At 1:23, that inside view of a rifled barrel reminds me of part of the opening sequence to the 007 movies. The name’s Sparrow. Jack Sparrow. Licensed to take all you can, and give nothing back 🏴☠️
Arrrrr! This content really shiver me timbers! You have earned a subscriber matey. Are there any plans making a video about pirate ship weapons (cannons, swivel guns etc)?
0:59 one other thing is cannon were normally double shotted and sometimes triple shotted meaning they had 2 or 3 cannon balls being fired at once making them more expensive
Please refer to the comments I made in your first video allowing me to convey my appreciation and gratitude for your videos! I am impressed by how comprehensive and well-presented what I have seen is so far! Even presenting some very obscure yet interesting points. Like I mentioned previously, I will not be able to comment on each video but thank you for each video I look forward to the series and applaud you for your efforts and meticulous attention to detail! 0 Your series is on auto-play and I am not going to be able to comment after each video, so again let me convey my appreciation and gratitude for your whole series!
You're correct about impact not setting off gunpowder, but since the guns of the day spit a lot of flame, you could ignite powder by firing a flintlock gun close enough so the flame would ignite the powder. Of course, you would have to be fairly close, thus doing so would kill you. If you made a trail of powder and then ignited it, that would work. As long as you ran like hell! Note that fire arrows were used on more than one occasion to ignite a powder storage room, destroying the fortification and anyone nearby.
@@GoldandGunpowder Some Articles specified "No snapping of locks in the hold." I assume just for this reason. Makes you wonder if that rule came about after Morgan's disaster.
Francis Drake’s sailors carried a massive number of bows. However, the advantage in rate of fire is offset by, among other advantages of the musket, 1) the greater “stopping” force of being hit by a musket ball vs an arrow, 2) the inability of an arrow to penetrate light wooden structures such as the upper works of a ship, and 3) to be easily discharged at very close, crowded range such as in combat on deck or below deck.
OMG!!!!! Willem can you do in the future a video about a pirate by the name of Roberto Cofresí. He was a puertorican pirate that operated from 1791 to 1825. This really means a lot to me because I am from Puerto Rico. Also would love to know more of Puerto Rico’s role during, or around the period of the pirates and privateers.
Of course, of course, I understand. I was just thinking of a suggestion for the later future on your next season. If it has to wait until next year I’m willing to wait.
i feel like reloading would be frustrating, especially in the heat of battle. you're being blasted yet you have to do this slowish process only for it to miss.
I own a couple of muzzle loaders and the paper cartridges are a must if you're doing anything other than hunting or target shooting and even then, trying to pour a proper measure directly from the horn is a PITA.
on square shot: this was common=ish in the Balkans. Austrian musketeers would poor extra lead into a trough to make a square bar and then coil that to make it easy to carry. if they ended up in a fight were they lacked round balls they'd cut of pieces of the bar and use that.
I am so happy we do not have to use these types of weapons any longer. I can't even imagine having to load one of these things just to fire one round and aiming them must have been a nightmare. Addendum- modern pistols might be typically used in close quarters but their effective range is 100 to 150 feet. Further, using the Weaver Stance with both hands and controlled breathing you can hold a pistol grip very steady.
What the Hell is wrong with me?! I forgot to mention...this was a fantastic video that taught me so much I did not know about weapons from the true era of piracy. Black Beard would look at these new so called pirates today with disgust and then he would keelhaul them. "Arrr you be stealing your last password matey. Now, over the ship ye go and be sure to watch fer the barnacles on yer way down..." subscribed.
I think the very concept of firearms is just ridiculous. Imagine two opponents firing their pistols, missing and then just awkwardly staring at each other
@@Снайпер_Хренов The concept of old percussion cap/ball and powder guns was ridiculous. Even when militaries and civilians moved to Manet Balls they were still very problematic. Thankfully, with the invention of the Lefaucheux Model 1854 Revolver that fired self-contained metallic cartridges firearms became very, very reliable and a fantastic tool everyday use. No more did one have to worry about rain soaking your powder and man did they become incredibly accurate. Now, handguns are very accurate making dueling a dangerous proposition. It's likely that both shooters would easily hit each other ending in a -Double Kill. I guess it could help by weeding the morons from our gene pool.
That's why you had a bayonet on the end of your musket or a brace of pistols so that you could fire several times. But since everyone suffered from the same limitation - it's not like you had a single shot musket while the other guy had an AR15 with a thirty round magazine - so you ducked down behind something solid, reloaded it and then fired again - rinse and repeat until it came down to melee combat or one side surrendered.
@@seanfoltz7645 correct! That is why the sword was still the primary weapon until the mid to late 19th century for soldiers and sailors. Even when the 6 shot cartridge revolver came out the sword was still in use by the military in Europe and the U.S.
Smoothbore bullets dont "bounce around the barrel" when firing, they just arent spin stabilized after they exit. Anything small enough to do that would be wasting powder because most of the expanding gas would go around the bullet instead of accelerating it
I'd love to know more on Golden/Silver Age sharpshooters who fired from the rigging. The Buccaneering ages and the Buccaneer/Flibustiers had their go-to marksmen of the old Boucaniers, though I can never find any information on 18th century, Golden/Silver Era pirates who sniped from the fighting tops, aside from in your (great) videos. Did those who fought in the rigging/tops use Buccanner Guns/fowling pieces as the previous Buccaneers or did they just use typical muskets? Did they just designate any (well, capable) crewman as sharpshooter and send them up in the rigging or was it a specific role?
Fowling pieces were typically too low caliber to be good against anything other than birds. Buccaneer Guns were the go-to Sea Service musket until like 1730 or 1750, I think I said it in the video, so they would have been used in the 1710s/20s aswell. As for who was selected for the role, there are no written records of it, so it's highly unlikely that there were pirates specifically employed as snipers and given special pay or a sniper's badge or anything. Either they owned a musket and had a reputation for proficiency and were deployed based on that, or they volunteered based on their own desires - this is usually how roles are assigned in modern and vaguely similar organizations, based on my own experience. I will release a YT short on mast fighting and snipers in the future, featuring some 18th century paintings that depict this fighting style
@@GoldandGunpowder Thanks for the reply. Wow, I didn't realise that Buccaneer Guns were so long-lived - they truly were legendary firearms! Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case for the role/job thing. I look forward to that YT Short :)
@@GoldandGunpowder Really? Hmm...wonder why they never used the bow and arrow. In the right hands, they can be just as deadly as a musket or pistol. And it had some advantages over a flintlock pistol or musket.
' Thump Loading ' a musket can be very dangerous after a couple shots if the ball gets stuck on fouling and not firmly compressed onto the powder like it's supposed to be. This will allow the build up of hot gas behind the ball and can blow up the musket
The hammer does not cause steel sparks, instead, it is the flint which is sparking since the steel is harder than flint. Trivia - the term "running off half-cocked" comes from folks forgetting to fully cock their guns before attacking and thus running into combat and being unable to fire until they realize they need to fully cock the weapon. This could be fatal since if you're depending on your firearm to discharge at the person rushing at you with a weapon or aiming their own gun at you and it doesn't fire because it's only at half-cock, they could hurt or kill you in the time it takes you to realize and then fully cock the weapon. The wheel-lock was never in favor because it was an expensive gun to manufacture, with it typically only being used by nobles and other wealthy individuals and normally just as a hunting rather than a combat weapon. In addition to being expensive, wheel-locks required a lot of maintenance and upkeep and could easily fail if they got dirty, something which would be inevitable on the battlefield or on a ship, never mind the risk of rust from the salt water and moist air. Three shots a minute for a flintlock was considered expert level shooting as that was the qualifying requirement for the Minutemen during the American Revolution. The six shot a minute trick was done by using smaller balls than normal, hence the reason they didn't need to be rammed home. Muskets were realistically accurate out to around 50 yards for individual targets while firing volleys - a bunch of people all firing together - into a crowd made them feasible out to a hundred yards or so but beyond that, it required a skilled shooter. It wasn't until the invention of rifling and the Minie Ball - a bullet which resembles our modern bullets - that aiming at an individual target at ranges of 100+ yards started to become realistic, with the Pennsylvania Long Rifles of the American Revolution regularly killing individual targets at 250 yards. Black powder smells like sulfur when fired, not charcoal, due to sulfur being one of the three components, the other two being charcoal and potassium nitrate, or salt peter as it was known back in the day. The bullets didn't burst due to imperfect metallurgy as there's nothing fancy about making lead bullets, especially round balls, while lead itself is extremely easy to process and purify thanks to its low melting point - you can melt lead on your stove top or any small fire which is capable of boiling water, heck, put a small piece of lead on a spoon and hold it over a candle long enough and it will melt. Instead, bullets would easily deform upon impact due to them being made of pure lead, which is extremely soft and thus far more likely to deform upon impact. Square bullets were unique to the Puckle gun, which was a muzzle loading version of the modern Gattling guns. The thought was that the square bullets made nastier wounds, so nasty in fact that it was declared they could not be fired at Christians and the Puckle gun was to be used exclusively against savages and Muslims. Nothing mythical about firing arrows from a musket - or more likely, a blunderbuss - as that was one of the first things people fired in addition to rocks when firearms first started being invented - whether or not wrapping cloth around it and causing it to set stuff on fire worked out is another matter.
I managed to pick up a black powder pistol a long time ago and it was really quite a ride to play with I didn't have any ammo for it at first and I ended up wanting to shoot it so bad that I just use a grease fitting it's pretty hilarious! Actually a great weapon the fact that you can kind of make anything be your projectile is pretty handy ! Even the item that I was shooting was pretty accurate and trust me you would not want to be hit with it
6:40 Spit-loading? That happened in Sharpe, but it is very criticised for that, because it was not historically accurate and was pointless too. Did it really happen with buccaneers?
buccaneers used plug bayonets, though they might have primarily been a hunting tool, and the buccaneers battled mostly on land, haven't heard anything else
Another hazard of being shot with a musket ball was fabric from clothing getting pushed into the wound channel causing infection if not extracted (usually with bare fingers).
What is the pirate/naval movie whose clips are used in many of your videos? Looks like it's from the 1960s or 70s by the film quality. I want to check it out! I worked at a gun shop for a time and we had a collector sell a few of his older items through us. Among the guns we got from him was a blunderbuss with hilariously-flimsy spring-loaded spike bayonet (was made in the early 1800s), a Queen Anne pistol from 1810 or so in great shape, and a mystery muzzle-loading flintlock pistol from the late 1700's. All were well worn from use over their centuries of life, but they all still worked well and I've no doubt they'd have fired if we put new flints on them. I still kick myself for not buying the Queen Anne pistol for myself.
During the age of muskets a lot of people had with them a bayonet but were much more comfortable using a sword. So when out of ammo, they would fix bayonets, and throw the musket like a javelin before drawing their sword and charging.
Idk about the evolution of the word, but the word “fusil” which originally referred to a musket, now generally means gun or firearm, so that’s kind of interesting
There is only a single historical example of wooden cartouches, cartridge's or flasks being referred to as "Apostles" and it was done so in quoting a Spanish monk who was drunk and raving. There are no other examples of these flasks being called such and bandoleers could have between 10 to 24 flasks. 12 was common only because it matched the number of musket balls commonly produced from a 1 pound bar of lead. "Apostle" is a common modern contrivance among reenactors taken from a source that was actively mocking the man who used that term by pure chance.
"I’d never even held a blunderbuss afore. I’m like… “Well, I be needin’… I be needin’ some shot, too.” And the ol’ salt reached under the counter, put two boxes of shot on the counter. He said, “All right, matey. Which box do ye want?” I didn’t know. One box had a picture of some seagulls on it. The other box had a picture of some stags. I said, “Well, what’s that box with them seagulls?” He said, “Oh, that there’s swanshot.” And then he goes just like this, I’m not exaggerating, he goes, “That won’t kill a man.” He said, “It’ll just pepper him up nicely.” I said, “What the blazes? Pepper?” Ye know what it means to pepper a scallywag up? It means that when the shell explodes, hot BBs will shoot out of the barrel of the blunderbuss, not killing a scallywag, but penetrating their skin and shallow flesh. Boy, that’s gotta hurt. Hot BBs? “Aah! Aaaah!” Remember when Dick Cheney shot a scallywag in the face and he lived? That was swanshot. I said, “Well, what’s that box with the stag on it?” He goes, “Oh, that there is buckshot. That’ll put a hole in a goddamn galleon if ye wanted to. So, which box do ye want?” And he picked the one with the stag up and shook it. I thought he was trying to trick me. I was like, “Do ye have a box, uh, with a picture of a white landlubber trespassing on it? 'Cause… …that’s exactly the strength I’m looking for. But I didn’t know that if ye’re defending yer home with a blunderbuss, the formula dictates that ye’re supposed to buy both boxes. This was not a formula that I was familiar with. It goes like this: there’s six shots in a 12-gauge blunderbuss. So when ye load the gun, ye load it like this. First shot, swanshot. Next shot, buckshot. Swanshot, and then after that, gun’s Jamaican. Buckshot, buckshot, buckshot.”
@@GoldandGunpowder you can add memes and funny stuff in your videos like oversimplified, bill wurtz, thebearwhisperer, sam onella academy and sciencephile the AI do. your channel will blow up in like 8 months.
Man, nothing spells Overkill; like Poisoned drenched lead-balls! Also about the square-bullets thing; I've only ever heard of such accounts for the puckle gun here. And those are really relatively very weak with little (or no) supporting evidence at all to back them up (other then being failed potential prototypes, of course). (That being here: used for a or some type of special/prototype version of a puckle, that was supposed to be used against heathens in the Mediterranean). I highly doubt that such properly existed outside of puckle's gun, let alone even used here in active combat.
They didn't use actual poison, instead, they would drill a hole into the ball and then fill it with feces and even then, from what I've read, that was mostly just an Italian thing. The "poison" refers to the practice of cutting an X into the ball or bullet - it was just an expression to describe how much deadlier they thought that made them.
rapier is a duelling weapon that requires space and footwork, it is too delicate to use for shipboard combat, which was fought in clusters of people in tight confinements
"What about the late 15th century to early 16th century Ottoman,🕌☪ Turkish,🇹🇷 Kilij Sabre or Muslim Persian,🇮🇷☫ Shamshir Sabre and Separ damascus steel buckler shield,🛡?"
i don't think that muskets often been used as bats, because of the thin wood of the buttstock, much likely they just used it as a spear more often. But hey in dire circumstances anithing goes i guess
Cia land lubbers glow and thus are easier to keelhaul on your ship, arrrgh. You can also be keepin one up the navigator's nest as a dasdardly spotlight, but they need a lot of strange white nose sugar to work!
This video is almost 2 years old and I've got over 100 videos published, but I think it stems from this: "To carry their ball and powder, the Spanish used the traditional bandolier with individual charges of powder in small wooden containers, along with a priming flask, ball bag, and a powder flask for extra powder, although for speed in loading, trained soldiers often kept several musket balls in their mouths." Little, Benerson. The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main, 1674-1688 . Potomac Books. Kindle Edition. Might not necesserily meant they spat it, they could have taken out the bullets with their fingers and shoved it down.
6:37 it's very hard for me to believe that they'd put musket balls in their mouth to then spit down the barrel like in the Sharpe Series. It's completely stupid.
Whilst there are documentations of buccaneers utilizing the tap loading technique(known to them as "Chargée a la Boucanier) it is rather dangerous to attempt yourself. Spitting a bullet down the muzzle is hard in a stressful situation, and if you've primed the pan and poured down powder, the cock might go off and burn your face off! It's best to keep any flesh as far away from the gun as possible .)
Do Charles Gibbs
Always pull your cock back fully.
"Ouch!"
"Bite the bullet?"
rifled musket for the Sharpshooters on the top because those did exist?
The inaccuracy of muskets is often greatly exaggerated, they were plenty accurate enough for engaging within 100 yards and you could still hit an animal-sized target (like a human) within that range with a degree of reliability, and combat of the time mostly took place within a hundred so the accuracy of muskets was not that big of a drawback, rifling became more of a necessity as combat started to take place at longer and longer range. Firing in volleys was more of a way to keep steady gunfire going to ensure a hit on the enemy due to the slower rate of fire of muskets compared to modern firearms and this practice carried on into the era of bolt action firearms until after WWI when the role of delivering steady fire was given over to the designated machine gun (WWI changed combat entirely, we were still using parts of the 1700s model up until then). The Machine Gun is still the deliverer of steady fire today and combat rifles today are moreso for picking off targets and personal defense or covering the machine gunner, even these days Machine Guns are not the most accurate (barrel heats up and expands throwing off bullets and it's built to looser tolerances than rifles) but like in the olden days of muskets they don't need to be.
.....no sights.
Very, very accurate analysis
@@rm5902 As accurate as a musket I'd reckon
Just a note, while I agree with everything here, and I feel with the other info the original poster put here, they likely know this. But for anyone less familiar with firearms reading this, modern machineguns are intentially less accurate. One of the weaknesses of the Brengun was being too acurate, thus not having as large of a beating zone. Machine guns are area affect weapons, which, to a degree a formation of muskets were too, though individual muskets were used for hunting, and did need to be more accurate than often described, for at the very least that reason. Muskets were quite inacurate compared to the precision weapons of today, but a number did in fact have a front sight (though I am not sure when that started, I know they did in the Napoleonic era, but not 100% about the buccaneer era), which you could line up with, not unlike my shotgun, which I can aim slugs with just fine. A dove tail rear sight would have been helpful, but not having them did not mean they had no sights.
@@jjs8426 as accurate as a M405 i'd reckon
Being a reenactor I once owned a Brown Bess reproduction in .75 caliber. I fired live rounds at a man sized target to see the accuracy. I could consistently hit the target at 50 yards. Beyond that it progressively got harder. I would say it was probably a 50-50 chance at 100 yards. This would be compounded by powder fouling after 6 or 7 rounds and reloading time increased. Rogers Rangers of the American French and Indian war would drill their musket touch holes out so powder would get into the pan from the barrel with the frizzen closed and drop the ball down the barrel with no patch. These tactics greatly increased their firing speed and some of this may have been done at sea. As a side note to your excellent video, the longer the barrel, the better the powder burn, no unburned powder blowing out of the muzzle. THAT would contribute to bullet energy and accuracy. Just some practical info for you.
was it really the smoothbore's fault or 100 yard was just naturally hard to shoot...? especially with gun that long and delay lock time with no sights, I don't think a rifling would help much
@@dolsopolar actually, rifling helps greatly. I also own a flintlock rifle made as they were in the 18th century. Its lock is also made like the originals and is as fast as a percussion lock. Rifling stabilizes the ball, making a flinter accurate up to even 300 yards. For that the sights are very necessary but a tight seal is necessary for accuracy on either a smooth bore or rifle. What I said about Rogers Rangers was true because they used the ball w/o patch at close in woods fighting.
Yo this channel deserves attention
thank you!
Fun enough , most of the modern Portuguese words for weapons are still the names from the flint lock era , a fusil is a single shot carabine , a carabina is a automatic , a escopeta , although less used it's a shotgun. Says a lot about our country weapons wise.
Treasure Island 1990 might be the only pirate movie to show pirates (not soldiers fighting pirates) actually fire a volley.
The show Black Sails does it
My favourite is the blunderbuss. Because who wouldn't love a predecessor to the Shotgun.
Our krewe held a fund raising event at the local gun range about 3 years ago or so. Several of our pirates are certified with blackpowder weapons. I got a chance to fire a flintlock musket. I can say this for sure it was so much fun! A totally different experience than firing modern firearms! There is an element of danger firing them too! Lol! The re-enactors fire flintlocks and cannons for the Pirate Seale's Invasion of St Augustine (I did a video of it a few years ago). I only have replica flintlock pistols in my Pirate Armory! Very informative video mate!
Where I live you dont' need license for weapons produced before like 1890, so I'm looking into acquiring some shooties when funds allow .)
@@GoldandGunpowder Sounds similar to here with the gun laws. I’ll eventually invest in a firing flint lock. A couple months ago I bought my 1st fully forged sword that is period correct for 1660-1720.
"Arrgh!" 🏴☠️ ☠️ 🦜
@@GoldandGunpowder In the US they sell a flintlock kit, including powder, shot, and wadding, for $150 at Walmart! No licenses required for muzzle loaders here. Can you buy a modern reproduction without license? Or does your piece have to actually be manufactured before that date?
As a fan of Flintlocks and Pistols I appreciate this video very much and in terms of history
glad you enjoyed it sir o7 shoot safe
Good job! It's refreshing to hear someone talk intelligently about early firearms. I'm a collector of firearms, both early and modern, and most self proclaimed "experts" know little about the true nature of early back powder firearms.
I've heard from Brandon F that reloading via the pounding method could be quite dangerous and spitting the musket balls into a musket would be unwise after firing multipe shots.
If I remember right, the wooden gunpowder holders on the bandolier were not called apostles until long after they went out of fashion, and were called so retroactively. I believe the period appropriate term is "charges"
Love this channel, I wonder if any pirates ever wore some sort of armor?
Good question. Armor wasn't popular amongst them since they primarily fought enemies with guns that could easily penetrate the armor they had available. Captains during the period did however wear breastplates as an extra measure, so it's possible that some sea rovers or their commanders wore armor. I will cover armor more in upcoming videos.
My take on this question would be: It depends on the time period. I assume that the further you go back, say the 16th century with guys like Francis Drake, soldiers on ships would still try to wear as much armor as possible (like helmets, cuirasses, chainmail, maybe even almost full plate) because early firearms would still be used alongside with bows and crossbows. At least if I was the captain of a 16th century ship, I would be happy to have lots of armored fighters to defend against boarding actions from other ships.
Think about it. As a pirate, you'll trying to board another's ship and wearing armor, one slip or miscalculation about distance from railing to railing meant a quicker sinking to Davies Jones Locker.
Problem with armor is the fact that you're surrounded by water and it only takes ten to twelve pounds worth of weight to neutralize the buoyancy of the average human. Wool was the common cloth back then and it soaks up water really nicely, meaning that falling into the water wearing wool clothing and a sturdy pair of leather boots - never mind weapons and any other gear strapped to you - means that you've already used up your ten to twelve pounds and are probably in the negatives while adding a steel breastplate or chainmail shirt means that you're going to sink like a stone.
just found this channel, this is definitely top tier content
In terms of the accuracy and range of a musket, most armies of the time period could engage targets up to 300 yards, but the commonly accepted best combat range was 100-150 yards
That's not entirely true. If you are speaking of rifled muskets, yes. Smooth bore muskets, no. In the 18th century the standing armies of the world had smooth bore muskets. I commented on my own experience with a Brown Bess reproduction about 8 months ago in this comment section. I encourage you to read it.
3:55 the quality of that shot, the video shot, was incredible
At 1:23, that inside view of a rifled barrel reminds me of part of the opening sequence to the 007 movies. The name’s Sparrow. Jack Sparrow. Licensed to take all you can, and give nothing back 🏴☠️
There was a pirate called James Bonny, most known for being Anne Bonny's husband, and being cuckolded on several occasions
Arrrrr! This content really shiver me timbers! You have earned a subscriber matey. Are there any plans making a video about pirate ship weapons (cannons, swivel guns etc)?
Thanks for the sub .) The artillery weapon is coming in the future and it will have a lot of juicy content like this one!
loved the glowie joke
...and I have no privacy! Whoah!
Very well done!
0:59 one other thing is cannon were normally double shotted and sometimes triple shotted meaning they had 2 or 3 cannon balls being fired at once making them more expensive
Please refer to the comments I made in your first video allowing me to convey my appreciation and gratitude for your videos!
I am impressed by how comprehensive and well-presented what I have seen is so far! Even presenting some very obscure yet interesting points.
Like I mentioned previously, I will not be able to comment on each video but thank you for each video I look forward to the series and applaud you for your efforts and meticulous attention to detail!
0
Your series is on auto-play and I am not going to be able to comment after each video, so again let me convey my appreciation and gratitude for your whole series!
Love your videos! Beautiful work!
Thank you, glad you like em
You're correct about impact not setting off gunpowder, but since the guns of the day spit a lot of flame, you could ignite powder by firing a flintlock gun close enough so the flame would ignite the powder. Of course, you would have to be fairly close, thus doing so would kill you. If you made a trail of powder and then ignited it, that would work. As long as you ran like hell! Note that fire arrows were used on more than one occasion to ignite a powder storage room, destroying the fortification and anyone nearby.
it is true, it's an effective way of igniting a powder train, likely happened a lot as an accident(sparks from a lock spilling into a magazine etc)
@@GoldandGunpowder Some Articles specified "No snapping of locks in the hold." I assume just for this reason. Makes you wonder if that rule came about after Morgan's disaster.
Golden Info my Pirate friend
Thank you Steve, glad you enjoyed it!
"Arrgh!" 🏴☠️ ☠️ 🦜
Bows and crossbows are not often associated with pirates, but they were probably also used. Could be an interesting topic.
Bows and crossbows were used by pirates but eventually fell out of favor during the golden age of piracy for a variety of reasons.
Francis Drake’s sailors carried a massive number of bows. However, the advantage in rate of fire is offset by, among other advantages of the musket, 1) the greater “stopping” force of being hit by a musket ball vs an arrow, 2) the inability of an arrow to penetrate light wooden structures such as the upper works of a ship, and 3) to be easily discharged at very close, crowded range such as in combat on deck or below deck.
OMG!!!!! Willem can you do in the future a video about a pirate by the name of Roberto Cofresí. He was a puertorican pirate that operated from 1791 to 1825. This really means a lot to me because I am from Puerto Rico. Also would love to know more of Puerto Rico’s role during, or around the period of the pirates and privateers.
At the moment I'm not going to cover Sea Roving outside the 1630-1730 period sadly
Of course, of course, I understand. I was just thinking of a suggestion for the later future on your next season. If it has to wait until next year I’m willing to wait.
You ever heard of Charles Gibbs
i feel like reloading would be frustrating, especially in the heat of battle. you're being blasted yet you have to do this slowish process only for it to miss.
combat is rarely pleasant. equipment is often clunky and annoying to deal with
Depending on the time and access, there is always the new York reload
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Or just carry a second pistol
I own a couple of muzzle loaders and the paper cartridges are a must if you're doing anything other than hunting or target shooting and even then, trying to pour a proper measure directly from the horn is a PITA.
on square shot: this was common=ish in the Balkans. Austrian musketeers would poor extra lead into a trough to make a square bar and then coil that to make it easy to carry. if they ended up in a fight were they lacked round balls they'd cut of pieces of the bar and use that.
interesting, thanks for sharing
One of my favorite pirate weapons was actually a dagger or knife, perfect for dealing with friend or foe... we are pirates after all.
mostly useful as a tool, but yeah i like knives
If a gun isn’t drawn and you can reach your target within 6 seconds, you win if you have a knife and the other guy doesn’t know how to grapple
Another outstanding video.
I am so happy we do not have to use these types of weapons any longer. I can't even imagine having to load one of these things just to fire one round and aiming them must have been a nightmare.
Addendum- modern pistols might be typically used in close quarters but their effective range is 100 to 150 feet. Further, using the Weaver Stance with both hands and controlled breathing you can hold a pistol grip very steady.
What the Hell is wrong with me?! I forgot to mention...this was a fantastic video that taught me so much I did not know about weapons from the true era of piracy. Black Beard would look at these new so called pirates today with disgust and then he would keelhaul them. "Arrr you be stealing your last password matey. Now, over the ship ye go and be sure to watch fer the barnacles on yer way down..." subscribed.
I think the very concept of firearms is just ridiculous. Imagine two opponents firing their pistols, missing and then just awkwardly staring at each other
@@Снайпер_Хренов
The concept of old percussion cap/ball and powder guns was ridiculous. Even when militaries and civilians moved to Manet Balls they were still very problematic. Thankfully, with the invention of the Lefaucheux Model 1854 Revolver that fired self-contained metallic cartridges firearms became very, very reliable and a fantastic tool everyday use. No more did one have to worry about rain soaking your powder and man did they become incredibly accurate.
Now, handguns are very accurate making dueling a dangerous proposition. It's likely that both shooters would easily hit each other ending in a -Double Kill. I guess it could help by weeding the morons from our gene pool.
That's why you had a bayonet on the end of your musket or a brace of pistols so that you could fire several times.
But since everyone suffered from the same limitation - it's not like you had a single shot musket while the other guy had an AR15 with a thirty round magazine - so you ducked down behind something solid, reloaded it and then fired again - rinse and repeat until it came down to melee combat or one side surrendered.
@@seanfoltz7645 correct! That is why the sword was still the primary weapon until the mid to late 19th century for soldiers and sailors. Even when the 6 shot cartridge revolver came out the sword was still in use by the military in Europe and the U.S.
I am sooo enjoying these videos, thank you!
Another great informative & interesting video. I’m subbing right now! ✨👏🏼😎✨
Da best pirate channel
Smoothbore bullets dont "bounce around the barrel" when firing, they just arent spin stabilized after they exit. Anything small enough to do that would be wasting powder because most of the expanding gas would go around the bullet instead of accelerating it
I'd love to know more on Golden/Silver Age sharpshooters who fired from the rigging. The Buccaneering ages and the Buccaneer/Flibustiers had their go-to marksmen of the old Boucaniers, though I can never find any information on 18th century, Golden/Silver Era pirates who sniped from the fighting tops, aside from in your (great) videos. Did those who fought in the rigging/tops use Buccanner Guns/fowling pieces as the previous Buccaneers or did they just use typical muskets? Did they just designate any (well, capable) crewman as sharpshooter and send them up in the rigging or was it a specific role?
Fowling pieces were typically too low caliber to be good against anything other than birds. Buccaneer Guns were the go-to Sea Service musket until like 1730 or 1750, I think I said it in the video, so they would have been used in the 1710s/20s aswell. As for who was selected for the role, there are no written records of it, so it's highly unlikely that there were pirates specifically employed as snipers and given special pay or a sniper's badge or anything. Either they owned a musket and had a reputation for proficiency and were deployed based on that, or they volunteered based on their own desires - this is usually how roles are assigned in modern and vaguely similar organizations, based on my own experience. I will release a YT short on mast fighting and snipers in the future, featuring some 18th century paintings that depict this fighting style
@@GoldandGunpowder Thanks for the reply. Wow, I didn't realise that Buccaneer Guns were so long-lived - they truly were legendary firearms!
Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case for the role/job thing.
I look forward to that YT Short :)
Interesting video!
Great video! Thanks for the information
Nice video!
Did they ever use weapons, besides flintlocks and cutlasses? Like axes, or bows/arrows?
axes yes, bows/arrows no
@@GoldandGunpowder Really? Hmm...wonder why they never used the bow and arrow. In the right hands, they can be just as deadly as a musket or pistol. And it had some advantages over a flintlock pistol or musket.
@@hyrulianhero9004Took way too much training to use compared to a musket, which is why they were abandoned by warfare in the first place.
A patch was put around the lead ball to make them fit tight and shoot straighter. At close range 1/4 inch shot was used they called pea shot .
Nice video as usual
' Thump Loading ' a musket can be very dangerous after a couple shots if the ball gets stuck on fouling and not firmly compressed onto the powder like it's supposed to be.
This will allow the build up of hot gas behind the ball and can blow up the musket
The hammer does not cause steel sparks, instead, it is the flint which is sparking since the steel is harder than flint.
Trivia - the term "running off half-cocked" comes from folks forgetting to fully cock their guns before attacking and thus running into combat and being unable to fire until they realize they need to fully cock the weapon. This could be fatal since if you're depending on your firearm to discharge at the person rushing at you with a weapon or aiming their own gun at you and it doesn't fire because it's only at half-cock, they could hurt or kill you in the time it takes you to realize and then fully cock the weapon.
The wheel-lock was never in favor because it was an expensive gun to manufacture, with it typically only being used by nobles and other wealthy individuals and normally just as a hunting rather than a combat weapon. In addition to being expensive, wheel-locks required a lot of maintenance and upkeep and could easily fail if they got dirty, something which would be inevitable on the battlefield or on a ship, never mind the risk of rust from the salt water and moist air.
Three shots a minute for a flintlock was considered expert level shooting as that was the qualifying requirement for the Minutemen during the American Revolution.
The six shot a minute trick was done by using smaller balls than normal, hence the reason they didn't need to be rammed home.
Muskets were realistically accurate out to around 50 yards for individual targets while firing volleys - a bunch of people all firing together - into a crowd made them feasible out to a hundred yards or so but beyond that, it required a skilled shooter. It wasn't until the invention of rifling and the Minie Ball - a bullet which resembles our modern bullets - that aiming at an individual target at ranges of 100+ yards started to become realistic, with the Pennsylvania Long Rifles of the American Revolution regularly killing individual targets at 250 yards.
Black powder smells like sulfur when fired, not charcoal, due to sulfur being one of the three components, the other two being charcoal and potassium nitrate, or salt peter as it was known back in the day.
The bullets didn't burst due to imperfect metallurgy as there's nothing fancy about making lead bullets, especially round balls, while lead itself is extremely easy to process and purify thanks to its low melting point - you can melt lead on your stove top or any small fire which is capable of boiling water, heck, put a small piece of lead on a spoon and hold it over a candle long enough and it will melt. Instead, bullets would easily deform upon impact due to them being made of pure lead, which is extremely soft and thus far more likely to deform upon impact.
Square bullets were unique to the Puckle gun, which was a muzzle loading version of the modern Gattling guns. The thought was that the square bullets made nastier wounds, so nasty in fact that it was declared they could not be fired at Christians and the Puckle gun was to be used exclusively against savages and Muslims.
Nothing mythical about firing arrows from a musket - or more likely, a blunderbuss - as that was one of the first things people fired in addition to rocks when firearms first started being invented - whether or not wrapping cloth around it and causing it to set stuff on fire worked out is another matter.
Great video, excellent thanks for the education/ entertainment
cheers lad
Stay strapped PPL.
great video!
I managed to pick up a black powder pistol a long time ago and it was really quite a ride to play with I didn't have any ammo for it at first and I ended up wanting to shoot it so bad that I just use a grease fitting it's pretty hilarious! Actually a great weapon the fact that you can kind of make anything be your projectile is pretty handy ! Even the item that I was shooting was pretty accurate and trust me you would not want to be hit with it
love the information!
Lots of modern idioms from these old firearms. "Half-cocked" for unprepared, and "flash in the pan" for a showy event with no lasting effect.
Nice video! There's still pirates today. They use RPGs and AK-47s.
6:40 Spit-loading? That happened in Sharpe, but it is very criticised for that, because it was not historically accurate and was pointless too. Did it really happen with buccaneers?
speed-loading techniques described by buccaneer eyewitnesses never mentioned spitting, as the ball in its cartridge would fall down on its own
Great info!
Would pirates have ever used bayonets on their firearms? I'm curious about that, even though it seems like they would be too unwieldy in a melee.
buccaneers used plug bayonets, though they might have primarily been a hunting tool, and the buccaneers battled mostly on land, haven't heard anything else
👍 thank you
What movie footage did you use? that film looks good.
Awesome video! I would love to know more about their relationship with arms dealers of the period
What movie or show was playing in the background of this video @7:13 and numerous other times throughout?
Just asking how did ships use mortars during the age of sail?
i'm not exactly sure, i've only read one account of a privateer using them, and thats when it blew up
11:57 nice lose yourself reference
May love pirates
we all do lad
Great vid
That Terry Davis reference totally caught me off guard 😂
he lives on through this channel
Another hazard of being shot with a musket ball was fabric from clothing getting pushed into the wound channel causing infection if not extracted (usually with bare fingers).
Great weapon!
Great games aswell .)
What is the pirate/naval movie whose clips are used in many of your videos? Looks like it's from the 1960s or 70s by the film quality. I want to check it out!
I worked at a gun shop for a time and we had a collector sell a few of his older items through us. Among the guns we got from him was a blunderbuss with hilariously-flimsy spring-loaded spike bayonet (was made in the early 1800s), a Queen Anne pistol from 1810 or so in great shape, and a mystery muzzle-loading flintlock pistol from the late 1700's. All were well worn from use over their centuries of life, but they all still worked well and I've no doubt they'd have fired if we put new flints on them. I still kick myself for not buying the Queen Anne pistol for myself.
Treasure Island from 1990, featuring Charles Heston. Also called the Devil's Treasure
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Island_(1990_film)
Pirates favorite arms are actually their right ones
no the left one, the right one they blew away in a gunpowder accident
What is that movie that keeps showing up in the video
Treasure Island(1990)
I`d love to fire one
same .(
During the age of muskets a lot of people had with them a bayonet but were much more comfortable using a sword. So when out of ammo, they would fix bayonets, and throw the musket like a javelin before drawing their sword and charging.
Idk about the evolution of the word, but the word “fusil” which originally referred to a musket, now generally means gun or firearm, so that’s kind of interesting
love your videos! Did buccaneers use paper cartridges?
yeah they adopted them very early
Cool! I love it!
glad you enjoyed erik
Just one question... If I watch your whole series will that make me an expert on pirating?
I’m not sure, but it definitely makes you more knowledgeable than most people lol
There is only a single historical example of wooden cartouches, cartridge's or flasks being referred to as "Apostles" and it was done so in quoting a Spanish monk who was drunk and raving. There are no other examples of these flasks being called such and bandoleers could have between 10 to 24 flasks. 12 was common only because it matched the number of musket balls commonly produced from a 1 pound bar of lead. "Apostle" is a common modern contrivance among reenactors taken from a source that was actively mocking the man who used that term by pure chance.
what is that film or series playing in the background
Maintaining a black powder gun is no joke. I destroyed the barrel of my hawken rifle by cleaning it improperly.
I'm sorry to hear that, those are fine guns
@@GoldandGunpowder thankfully it was a kit gun. I'll replace the barrel sooner or later.
"I’d never even held a blunderbuss afore. I’m like… “Well, I be needin’… I be needin’ some shot, too.” And the ol’ salt reached under the counter, put two boxes of shot on the counter. He said, “All right, matey. Which box do ye want?” I didn’t know. One box had a picture of some seagulls on it. The other box had a picture of some stags. I said, “Well, what’s that box with them seagulls?” He said, “Oh, that there’s swanshot.” And then he goes just like this, I’m not exaggerating, he goes, “That won’t kill a man.” He said, “It’ll just pepper him up nicely.” I said, “What the blazes? Pepper?” Ye know what it means to pepper a scallywag up? It means that when the shell explodes, hot BBs will shoot out of the barrel of the blunderbuss, not killing a scallywag, but penetrating their skin and shallow flesh. Boy, that’s gotta hurt. Hot BBs? “Aah! Aaaah!” Remember when Dick Cheney shot a scallywag in the face and he lived? That was swanshot. I said, “Well, what’s that box with the stag on it?” He goes, “Oh, that there is buckshot. That’ll put a hole in a goddamn galleon if ye wanted to. So, which box do ye want?” And he picked the one with the stag up and shook it. I thought he was trying to trick me. I was like, “Do ye have a box, uh, with a picture of a white landlubber trespassing on it? 'Cause… …that’s exactly the strength I’m looking for. But I didn’t know that if ye’re defending yer home with a blunderbuss, the formula dictates that ye’re supposed to buy both boxes. This was not a formula that I was familiar with. It goes like this: there’s six shots in a 12-gauge blunderbuss. So when ye load the gun, ye load it like this. First shot, swanshot. Next shot, buckshot. Swanshot, and then after that, gun’s Jamaican. Buckshot, buckshot, buckshot.”
I cannot unsee the rooster.
I liked the vid before it even started
when I see guns, I like
@@GoldandGunpowder you can add memes and funny stuff in your videos like oversimplified, bill wurtz, thebearwhisperer, sam onella academy and sciencephile the AI do. your channel will blow up in like 8 months.
Man, nothing spells Overkill; like Poisoned drenched lead-balls!
Also about the square-bullets thing;
I've only ever heard of such accounts for the puckle gun here. And those are really relatively very weak with little (or no) supporting evidence at all to back them up (other then being failed potential prototypes, of course). (That being here: used for a or some type of special/prototype version of a puckle, that was supposed to be used against heathens in the Mediterranean).
I highly doubt that such properly existed outside of puckle's gun, let alone even used here in active combat.
They didn't use actual poison, instead, they would drill a hole into the ball and then fill it with feces and even then, from what I've read, that was mostly just an Italian thing.
The "poison" refers to the practice of cutting an X into the ball or bullet - it was just an expression to describe how much deadlier they thought that made them.
Rapier vs Cutlass ?
rapier is a duelling weapon that requires space and footwork, it is too delicate to use for shipboard combat, which was fought in clusters of people in tight confinements
"What about the late 15th century to early 16th century Ottoman,🕌☪ Turkish,🇹🇷 Kilij Sabre or Muslim Persian,🇮🇷☫ Shamshir Sabre and Separ damascus steel buckler shield,🛡?"
i don't think that muskets often been used as bats, because of the thin wood of the buttstock, much likely they just used it as a spear more often. But hey in dire circumstances anithing goes i guess
What movie is that at 1:09?
Lol I love pirates so much! Just would want to get scurvy. That's my one and only dream in life
Cia land lubbers glow and thus are easier to keelhaul on your ship, arrrgh. You can also be keepin one up the navigator's nest as a dasdardly spotlight, but they need a lot of strange white nose sugar to work!
Gold and Gunpowder: This doesn't derive from anything dirty
Me at 6:27: *takes it dirty anyway* 🤣
I was so happy when I heard that the Spanish got the short end of the stick for once, instead of the Dutch.
18:00 I have fired an arrow out of a musket. Worked well.
Good videos
Nice one
You're a big guy
4 u
1:06 what movie is this?
12:26 That looks like a sawed off shotgun bazooka
😨🤔
What's your source on spit loading? I'm pretty sure that was something invented by films and bored re-enactors.
This video is almost 2 years old and I've got over 100 videos published, but I think it stems from this:
"To carry their ball and powder, the Spanish used the traditional bandolier with individual charges of powder in small wooden containers, along with a priming flask, ball bag, and a powder flask for extra powder, although for speed in loading, trained soldiers often kept several musket balls in their mouths."
Little, Benerson. The Buccaneer's Realm: Pirate Life on the Spanish Main, 1674-1688 . Potomac Books. Kindle Edition.
Might not necesserily meant they spat it, they could have taken out the bullets with their fingers and shoved it down.
@@GoldandGunpowder Thank you for the source.
@natedigger5678 you're such a redditor
They glow in the dark at night I hit them with my car
6:37 it's very hard for me to believe that they'd put musket balls in their mouth to then spit down the barrel like in the Sharpe Series. It's completely stupid.
What is the movie in the background of the video
Treasure Island 1990
what is the show or movie that some of the clips are from
devil's treasure
@7:20 what movie is that?
treasure island 1990