Yet more proof that we aren't smarter than the people from the past. They were just as smart as us. We are merely standing on the shoulders of near continuous iteration and progress.
@@no1DdCwe’ve distributed the needed IQ across more people. Say you need a combined IQ of 300, then you’d have 2 people at 100+, the other 100 spread over the other 8 people. Now you have 10 people at 30 each, there’s nobody left at the top of the IQ chain. They’ve done studies on the top IQ’s and it’s been on the decline for the past 5 decades. Yea, IQ isn’t the best, or only, measure, but it’s one to look at.
@@rockets4kids I mean that exactly the same time horse archers coexisted and probably fought guys with 30 round lever action rifles. That's some alternative history stuff
The G-11 of the renaissance, coolness 11/10, reliability a bit questionable and obviously this would be very expensive back in 1659. One major issue would be fooling of the mechanism, also if it get wet while shooting you have an problem.
You probably can trace it to the maths with original meaning of calibre, the one still used for artillery - how many lengths of bore diameter is the barrel long, which tells you how much space you have in some kind of a tube below the barrel. And just because you need this and this much length to get a specific speed out of then-standard black powder etc., and it just happened to be "around 30" :D
The entire argument about "high capacity" magazines has always been BS. It's like saying if your vehicle has a gas tank bigger than 14 gallons, it's "high capacity." No. If my stock vehicle has a capacity for 20 gallons of fuel, that is what the standard capacity is. It's defined by the manufacturer not some moronic government official who doesn't know what they are talking about. IIRC the AR-15 was designed with a 20 round magazine in mind, but the AK-47 had a 30 round magazine, so Stoner added a 30 rounder for his rifle, just to say his was just as good capacity wise. But at the end of the day, 30 rounds is standard capacity for an AR platform.
Seconded! Thinking of the machining conditions of the day & the problems flint lock presents with attempts for repeating fire, the finesse it is delivered with is nothing short of beautiful.
I'm sorry but Breechloading Wheellock from 1625 Holy fucking Roman Empire still is the coolest to this day (It's probably still oldest weapon Ian ever covered) Gun itself so cool it has carvings and has custom casings for It's bullets ua-cam.com/video/beOgmCxeh7A/v-deo.htmlsi=u89FPXlnz5sSxXHZ
I don't think I have ever seen Ian act nervous about disassembling a firearm before. Many thanks to the owner for allowing us all to see that mechanism.
@@no1DdC Museums are worthless endeavors. Every firearm I have seen in one have been poorly maintained. Private Collectors at least respect the fact even an unused gun has to be periodically cleaned and maintained.
@@clothar23 Most collectors are mere hoarders, with none of the expertise required for caring for historic artifacts. Like that idiot billionaire who punched a hole into a painting the inflated art market deemed worth hundreds of millions. Furthermore, one important point of museums is making history accessible. It's not accessible if it just sits in the basement of some rich idiot's mansion, shown only to those they deem worthy.
@@ddegn The Puckle gun was my favorite repeater before I saw this. This Rifle pretty much kills the lefties argument that the Founders only believed that firearms were muzzle loaded and the 2nd then does not apply to modern firearms. That is pure nonsense to anyone with a functioning mind but for everyone's next political gun debate remember this rifle.
@@jesusoftheapes I think the 2nd amendment is what enforces the other amendments. I recently watched a video on Blackbelt Barrister's channel. He was amazed to learn how strong our freedom of speech protections are in the US. I think our right to bear arms has a huge influence on *US citizens'* abilities to maintain our other rights. The UK's laws have become crazy. From being arrested for posting on eXTwitter to being arrested for carrying a pocket knife. The rights of *subjects in the UK* keep getting more and more restricted. I think the weapon laws and speech laws are very much related. I'm sure glad we kicked the Redcoats out of America when we did.
This would be a great rifle to try and reproduce with modern materials. I realize it would be expensive, but imagine the look on peoples faces at the shooting range and firing 30 shots with a flintlock rifle without reloading. The ingenuity of people hundreds of even thousands of years ago still amazes me. Great video. I really enjoyed this one.
Bonus; It's a black powder flintlock. Legally, it isn't classified as a firearm. That means that it doesn't need to be licensed, registered, etc. Anyone can own them.
I would love to 3D-print a (non-functioning, of course, but otherwise accurate) replica that mimics the mechanics of this thing. It would definitely be possible, if challenging. I just printed a functional repeating crossbow a few weeks ago. While I have the skills to print mechanical parts that fit, designing the actual parts themselves is far above my pay grade, unfortunately.
@@erikdingman9806 This very much depends on the jurisdiction. Repeating black powder firearms are subject to the same restrictions as any other repeating firearms in most countries.
How about reproducing the mechanical action for the ball and black powder elements but replacing the flint with a battery powered/capacitor source of spark ignition? If some form of lugs could also be incorporated to improve the seal between the breech and the barrel the result might be a more accurate cartridge-less repeater with less of a click/bang behaviour?
@@no1DdC That would be a good project. It would be great project for someone to do a complete 3D scan of all the parts and do that with a metal printer. Then it could have a demonstration of it working, even if downsized and light loading.
That anybody was even capable of manufacturing something of this precision and complexity in this period is nothing but astounding. The amount of standardization, tooling, and accurate measuring implied is incredible.
Mmmm...it would be understandable to think that, but it's not true. Craftsmen can achieve incredibly close fits of components with hand filing and hand fitting with virtually nothing in the way of standardized measurements or tooling. With a good understanding of the mechanical principles involved, they can make parts close to their final shape, and then tell if they are too long, too short, too thick, too thin, curve too much, don't curve enough, and then keep making adjustments until they mate as closely as you'd like. Techniques like that have let people make incredible mechanical marvels all the way back to the time of classical antiquity. What standardized measurements and precision tooling allow you to do is make another set of parts that are so identical that you can repair these rifles by swapping parts from donor rifles. While all of these rifles possessed by the Danish Royal Guards were probably made from the same pattern, it's likely each one was subtly different enough that it required the attention of a full gunsmith to make individualized repairs on each one. Loosely-related, but continental Europe was strangely late to the game when it came to true interchangeable parts in firearms; off the top of my head, Lugers, K31s, and Steyr M95s (to pick some random examples) all required a certain degree of hand-fitting to function really satisfactorily. They don't seem to have gotten onboard with truly interchangeable parts until the 1930s.
If we assume all the parts from one would work in any other at least when new before any wear sets in, which is plausible but unlikely you'd be right its incredible. Building something like this with that degree of repeatability even now with fancy CNC tools would be a meaningful challenge, but really the only bit that would be seriously challenging at that point in history is the standardization required to make them that interchangeable. Which I'd be willing to bet they were not. Also have to ponder upon if the less than perfect function of the mechanism Ian reports on now is actually very true to how it was right out of the workshop - seems like the design is good enough a good amount of slop in all the parts can be tolerated and it will function well enough still. Precision measurement and cutting tools that are more than sufficient for building something like this must have existed over 2000 years ago based on the artifacts found, with the Antikythera mechanism being a stand out example. So while there are periods in history between then and now for which there is little evidence of such complex clockwork mechanisms it almost certainly would be an art that never died out, just less of these complex works survive (if they even go built at all - the disposable wealth and need for something that fancy rather than churning out crossbow parts etc..). Plus to be able to build an Antikythera at all implies a serious understanding of many subjects for which it is almost the only datapoint, so there really must have been simpler but similar constructions for a while before, and perhaps even more impressive constructions we will never know about, and all tentatively dated to the ballpark of 100BC
Not as much as you might think. A big part of the reason complex weapons like this weren't more popular is that the parts often weren't fully interchangeable. If you needed to replace a piece, you'd send it back to the gunsmith who made it. Or else the parts they sent you would be just something close to right and you'd have to do all the finishing work yourself.
Just in case anyone wondered: The castle shown in the beginning (Christiansborg, today the seat of parliament) is (obviously) not of the same era as the battle and the gun. A castle has been there since the medieval period, but it was replaced by a Rococo style palace in the mid 18th century. It was much damaged in a great fire in 1794 and rebuild on a slightly smaller scale only to burn completely to the ground in 1884 in another fire. The building seen today was only finished in the 1920's.
@@StevDoesBigJumps Christiansborg and the prior castle of Copenhagen is a bit of a special case bacause it has been one of seats of central power for so many centuries - and the seat of government at least since the late 16th century. And because of the fires of course. But it's very true that Denmark (and the other Scandinavian countries to a lesser degree) is surprisingly poor in medieval castles still visible today. I guess it has to do with early centralization of government in the late 17th and 18th centuries. E.i: how powerful the kings became vis a vis the big nobility. Prussia would be another case in point. The northeastern parts of the German speaking region is still (relatively) poor in medieval castles in relation to the central, western and southern parts where the smaller princely states survived much longer.
@@StevDoesBigJumps One of the reasons for the lack of medieval castles is that after they lost their use due to technological advancements, they were dismantled to recycle the materials for other buildings. This was practical, as the castles no longer served a military purpose and the stone was already cut into blocks. The stone from Kalø castle was reused for the construction of Charlottenborg in Copenhagen.
It is not hard to disassemble but you have to be careful to not damage the wood on such old guns. Often the lock will be stuck in the wood because of linseed oil and grime.
I'm pretty sure the original commenter meant they were delighted that the owner *allowed* Ian to disassemble the gun, not that Ian was capable of getting it apart. It is a nearly 400 year old gun and there's no guarantee that things that age, especially wood like the stock, won't simply disintegrate in your hands if you try to take them apart. The owner likely only allowed it in the first place because this one is in such impossibly good condition; I genuinely thought it must be a modern reproduction until Ian said it was original. EDIT: I'll add that for most antique guns replacing the stock isn't the end of the world, but on this one the wooden stock contains the magazine and is responsible for the spacing of some of the (hand fitted, one of a kind) working parts. The replacement would have to be carved out to an exact match for the mechanism to continue to work the same. Even a relatively small piece splintering off the wood during disassembly could potentially require a conservation armorer to repair.
In 1955 I received my first book on firearms. It was "Guns" by S. E. Ellicott, published in London that same year. On page 24 is a description and illustration of this repeating rifle in wheel lock configuration. As a kid I had a hard time really understanding how the thing worked, despite a well written explanation. Even so, I remembered the book and the article. So almost 70 years had to pass before I saw this video and all became clear. Thanks, Ian!
@@DeltaEcho17The G11 is eternal and has always and will forever exist. It was created out of this earth, and time and again man will peek beyond the veil only to glimpse it, and ruin their lives in a futile attempt to recreate it in our world. It is a kind of eldritch abomination made manifest by man himself trying to achieve perfection. The fools are unaware that the only perfection is the G11, and that is unattainable by man.
My wife doesn't even question why I'm grabbing another gun from the safe 20 minutes after the kids are asleep. All she hears is *click..*rack..*click..
Exactly what I was thinking. I wondered why, If this technology around, was the U.S. war of independence fought with essential pointy sticks? When Franklin went to Paris, why didn’t he buy a bunch of these? Ian explains why at the end, of course.
@@Tesserae The US Revolution was NOT fought with pointy sticks! Muskets with bayonets are NOT "just pointy sticks" (even spears are VERY different from just pointy sticks). In addition to the muskets, there were also rifles, capable of accuracy out to about 300 yards. Cannon fire/artillery was VERY important in the Revolution as well. As other comments pointed out: Repeating arms using black powder is difficult at best. Black powder fouling is a HUGE problem. To be honest, I don't know if the rifle of this video could've actually shot all 30 rounds without stopping.
@@alexsawicki I understand. I only meant that the guns used were metaphorical pointy sticks compared to this advanced technology invented a century earlier.
Honestly, the idea that it saw service for almost 40 years is impressive in of itself. I don't think it being dropped by 1696 is a huge deal- it would have been worn out by then for sure, but that's still a very impressive service record length-wise, especially in that period of firearms development.
I didn’t catch that he said 1696 I thought he said 1669. But yeah it being 1696 that makes a big difference especially with how rapid new arms were probably being made and vying to be adopted into militaries.
@@greathornedowl1783 Yes, you're right ofcourse, but considering the danish army deployed "simple" muzzle loaded muskets a 100 years later in 1864 this weapon is amazing.
@@Mis73rRand0m mass produced isnt tied to the amount of units made, its tied to the way of producting, meaning not artisan. these guns were very much artisan work, so not mass produced
If the folks at C&Rsenal could make one of their 3D animations for this, people would go NUTS for it. I know its outside their typical stuff but the guy they use for animations is so good.
This is utterly incredible. Yes, it’s fragile and not at all suitable for field use, but as an “oh shit, we’re defending this fixed position against a tide of oncoming soldiers/rioters,” it’s incredibly well-suited. It’s an incredible force multiplier and even beyond that, it’s an absolute marvel of engineering. It seems like you wouldn’t get something that fast and applicable for military use for another, what, two hundred years? Just absolutely outstanding.
guess the swede that found their ladders sinking in the ice of the channel while a little garrison on the walls have a piece of witchcraft unleashing rapid fire bullets were thrilled to be in history, albeit on the receveing end of it
Most of the fragility is it age and rarity being over 350 years old. In general metal doesn't become fragile with time when cared for, but the wood definitely will still. Now factor in 350 years of being cycled that does wear it out to point of fragile.
There were a lot of gears involved. And with the decidedly lower precision and quality I'm amazed they managed to make them work. It also makes you wonder how many times one of those guards got a bit over ambitious and either forced the crank to hard or failed to tilt the rifle the right ways. When in stressful situations we tend to get a bit less dexterous. Someone said we developed meat clubs instead of hands when the bullets started flying. With a modern rifle this is not all that bad. You still only have to pull the trigger until the magazine is empty. But with these you would have to remember to tilt the rifle forward to fill the powder transfer. Start to twist the lever forward until the hammer has been cocked and then tilt the rifle upwards so the ball would roll into the sliding block as you full fill the movement of the lever. Give it a shake before turning the lever back again so powder and a ball are certain ti have moved where needed before closing the lock again. Sure it's a lot faster than loading a muzzle loader, but it's just enough that I can see some people getting things slightly wrong now and then. I also think it would be possible to load two balls if you do all this and get a dud. The powder wouldn't overfill but you might be able to ram another ball into the barrel. It would be interesting to know if any reports about these kinds of problems has been retained.
@@blahorgaslisk7763 Keep in mind that the royal guards of the day were literally the same type of guys that now make up the special forces, with the same relative levels of experience and training intensity compared to what regular infantry got.
@@DB-yj3qc Mechanisms can break even if none of their components do, and _that's_ primarily what people are talking about when they say this mechanism is fragile. Jamming, misalignment, desyncing .... there are myriad ways for mechanical systems to fail hard enough that dis/reassembly is required (ie, they become broken) but replacement parts aren't, and the frequency of those failure modes is determined by the design and manufacturing, _not_ the durability of the materials/parts.
I think You are the ONLY person in a world, who is well known, well trusted and bold enough to disassemble an almost 400 years old gun. Thankfully you also record and document this process, so it'll be available for future generations and for reference for future historians.
Slight correction, the Swedes, did a feint attack at another section of Copenhagens walls, during that attack, one of the storm ladders was captured, and measured to 36feet in length, and with that info, 600 Dutch sailors from the fleet that had brought supplies to Copenhagen were sent out, and from 4am to 10am, in the middle of a blizzard to widen the gash in the ice to 44feet, making the Swedish ladders useless. After the battle about 700 dead soldiers had to be fished out of the moat, at Storm ridge to restore the 44feet wide water flow. I all the Swedes lost about 1700 troops out of 10.000 all along the walls
I am utterly in sheer amazement when you opened this up and showed how sophisticated, and unbelievably modern it all seems. I mean 30 rounds? Rifled barrel, semi-lever action? I mean this is technology we wouldnt see for more than 200 years, until like the 1860's or so! The thought they had this in 1659?! Is absolutely unbelievable! I am also genuinely astonished at the quality of craftsmanship and metalworking here. I mean how did they even manufacture all these intricate parts like the gears, springs, breach blocks and all that...its like something you'd expect to see in a the late 19th century industrial society...the fact that they managed to do this way back then is incredible.
Like this dude is as significant as Browning. the creativity to envisage this as a mechanical system is in the context of its time absolutely remarkable.
No CAD, no 3D rendering, no CNC machining, no printed test components. Certain items from antiquity are nothing less than astonishing and represent a different type of mental acuity. I solute not only the engineering but the craftsmen involved. (retired machinist here)
Problem is it seems to be an idea that gets produced and then forgotten/abandoned and probably independently "reinvented" 200 years later. Kaltoff solves a problem (more firepower, please). And 200 years later Gatling and Maxim solves the same problem. Main difference is that industrialization happened in between. If someone had been maintaining a production of Kalthoff guns for a centry or so, how much more modern weapons would have been - in a different timeline.
Just wow. That is just a beautiful piece of machinery. It's so different to the other repeating designs from that period. Someone clearly put a lot of thought into every element, despite its flaws.
And here I thought I would never see a repeating flintlock as amazing as the Belton, but this is almost arguably better. Which is all the more impressive for as early as this is.
Possibly the most interesting gun video on UA-cam. I’d never heard of this and to see it broken down and expertly explained was a real treat. Thank you Ian, your content keeps getting better and better.
I am absolutely floored to see this weapon and ponder the thought, design, and absolute top tier craftsmanship we see here. Just the IDEA of a 30 round repeating firearm from this point in history is mind boggling, but the implementation and production?.... Just, WOW!
The only real negative would be impossible to fix at the time, which is it is black powder. Essentially, you will have those 30 rounds to fire, and the fouling will already be affecting performance. Since there was no substitute for black powder at the time, this was unfixable, but the engineering it took to create this is outstanding. For about two minutes, this would have been devastating firepower.
Yeah, cleaning and reloading this thing would have been a nightmare. It’s clearly not a gun for open field battles and long campaigns, but for its purpose-defending a fixed defensive position against a sudden assault when outnumbered-it’s absolutely perfect. Two minutes of brutal, withering rifle fire could be enough to drive off an attack, and the enemy wouldn’t necessarily know how much time it takes for you to reload. And there’s always the option of having spare guns loaded and ready to go. Swap guns once you expend your rifle, then have your assistant clean and reload.
@@jonathanrich9281 There's also the fear aspect - in that era you expect to be shot at once, survive it and then you can move to swords and knives, then suddenly the guard you're assaulting cranks off 30 shots in the span of a couple minutes and you're not gonna want to risk going into swords at that point if you're alive.
@@Kr-nv5fo Now that you mentioned it, that would have also been a factor to consider for the Kalthoff brothers when designing this. Perhaps the block was made with looser tolerances than what they could have made it with, just to prevent a jam. The two tension springs handled keeping it still in place, regardless of the amount of heat expansion.
@@jonathanrich9281 You could have spare rifles if you could afford them. Cost was a significant factor as well. But yeah, imagine coming in en masse with your standard flintlock, having trust in your numbers, and all of a sudden what was supposed to be a few defenders are laying this devastating barrage of fire in your direction. The horror and confusion would be massive. And like you said, once they rebut you, you might have no idea if they can't just do the same thing if you attack again. And they might if they had enough rifles. ;D
My ancestors! Kalthoff's sound off. Sliding fit surfaces and blackpowder seems dangerous. Thanks for making the best explainer for the Kalthoff design yet seen, Ian.
I am genuinely astonished at the quality of craftsmanship and metalworking here. I mean how did they even manufacture all these intricate parts like the gears, springs, breach blocks and all that...its like something you'd expect to see in a late 19th century industrial society...the fact that they managed to do this way back then is incredible.
I would absolutely love to have a reproduction of this gun. This is way ahead of it's time. I think this might have been more commercially successful if the manufacturing quality were "higher" for lack of a better term. Either way this is truly awesome.
this is exactly why i watch this channel for years now. to have gunjesus blow my mind with gun mechanics. Its incredible what they have done to avoid cased shells :) They basicly build a cartridge without casing with every shot.
Henry VIII had a hunting gun that used metallic cartridges in the 1500s. The problem is that the interfaces for a metallic cartridge have to be manufactured to within a couple thousandths of an inch. They could do that, but it was expensive. And each set of cartridges would only work correctly with a particular gun. So the Kalthoff design makes it all one mechanism that can then be hand-tuned until it works correctly and then you don't have to mess with it again for a while.
I am just stunned. This gun is an absolute marvel to behold! Crazy to think how ingenious these people were with part that are in essence just a bunch of chambers and gears. The precision in manufacture, the attention to small details of its inner workings. Its jawdropping! I cant imagine how the Kalthoff brothers must have felt when their minds exploded when one of them suggested putting a podwer container into the lever and then seeing it actually work exactly like it was intended. I bet they emptied a good couple of bottles in celebration of that success. I consider it an honor to be able to see its inner workings. Thank you, Ian and team! what a lovely day to be your subscriber!
That is SO cool! The engineering that went into this is absolutely insane, especially since it's nearly 400 years old! Normally I don't care much about flintlocks, but this had me totally drawn in for the entire video.
I am dumbfounded at how sophisticated this gun is. I am surprised not to have heard of it before and amazed that it didnt play a bigger part in world arms development. This is a masterpiece. Why isnt more known of this. Fantastic video, Ian.
It blows my mind that someone made that gear system, the matching rack, the rifling, the tubes and chutes and cavities ALL BY HAND as a blacksmith would because there was no other way!
Definitely not a blacksmith. They had highly specialised gunmakers at the time and the skillset they came from was lockmakers and that also had ties to things like clockmaking. They really did know how to make precision gears and things already. Your blacksmiths would be limited to making barrels, if that.
@@Theduckwebcomics Right. And didn't gunsmithing, clock making, locksmithing and all these other very specialized fields come from blacksmithing? I was just saying they made everything without modern day power tools, cnc machines and precision measuring equipment.
I never realized how integrated the cycle of operations were (I thought you'd at least have to recock the lock), and never realized how separated the powder magazine was from the breech. What, one steel door, an extensive air gap, and then two more steel doors separating two individual steel transfer chambers? That's on par with modern Western autoloading naval cannons with bagged charges, which are explicitly designed to not blow the magazines up even if the gun is hit with a penetrating explosive round while loading.
Amazing video, Ian. Thank you. I especially appreciate the owner allowing such a detailed look at its' internals, too. I'm sure the Founding Fathers "never imagined" such an arm, having only been invented 150 years prior to their decision to rebel against English rule.
That must be the most incredible rifle I have seen on Forgotten Weapons (or anywhere else actually) this far. And the action still works after more than 350 years? Unbelievable!
This may well be the coolest firearm ever covered on this channel. There are so many things that could and probably would/did go wrong with these. And yet... Somebody really designed a functional magazine fed black powder flintlock rifle. That's so cool.
Thank you so much to Jan for allowing us to see how this piece works, that was incredibly kind of you sir. Someone like Pedersoli HAS to make these again, what a wonderful thing it would be to own and use.
I already have a reproduction .451 Whitworth rifle. Next I need the Hi-Lux brass scope on it. But if they made a reproduction of this Kalthoff I’m sure lots of people would buy one. I know I would!
That's one of the most sophisticated pieces of technology I've ever seen from that era. I would give somebody's eye and kidney to see the workshop it was made in.
Huge thank you to the collector who allowed you to take that apart. The gun is an incredible feat of engineering and craftsmanship and I am so happy to know about it now.
I read about this when I was a child and the information about it was so sketchy that the author said the reason it was discontinued was because it would blow up. Ian destroyed that notion. Thank you so much. History was just re-written.
When I saw black powder for 30 shots stored in a 300 plus year old flintlock my first thought was what happens when it gets cooked off from stray sparks or loose powder but seeing how it was integral in the design to have the mechanism isolate the powder compartment completely from the chamber and flint sections and literally load the power externally is amazing for the time period…
I LOVE pre-industrial early modern engineering! Something really interesting about water/wind powered factories etc. This gun is a perfect example of that era.
Wow.... just incredible, 1659. Absolutely Ludacris and genius design also immensely beautiful, my jaw was on the floor the entire video!!! Thank you for this historical video Ian, amazing how we got to see the internals too What a Huge privilege Dont suppose she'll ever shoot again but alas a real marvel in engineering!
What a treat this wasthe Kalthoff is such an amazing firearm, glad I finally got to see one disassembled. It's awsome to see how ahead of It's time it was while also being surprisingly simple.
This is one remarkable piece of history. To think that the first iteration of repeating firearms was so advanced already is crazy. And the fact it is still functional is a testament to how well it was built and how well its owners preserved it.
Of course making a gun that can repeat began as soon as muskets were first being introduced. It just took a while before these guys figured it out. I can't even imagine why the gun became the standard weapon in the first place, like for the generations before repeating weapons, everyone must've hated them, and the retarded tactics used. Europe was lucky that another attila the hun didn't arrive with another horde of Calvary archers who could fire 20 arrows (accurately with a 8/10 kill shot rate)before a musketeer could reload after missing the first shot 😅
@@RedDeckRedemption The problem is horse archers, any archers, took many many years to train. You could field an army of guys with guns in a day. Little to no training required and they would be just as deadly, if not more at close range against armour. That's why guns actually took over but they didn't take over immediately. It took about 300 years for them to really get the technology to a point where it was the smart choice. During a lot of that time they were both on the field of battle at the same time often enough.
@@MrBottlecapBill how where they layered in standing armys? pre rifled barrel guns where not the most accurate things, but i dont have enough archery experience to say an arrow would be better, so what rolls where typically asigned to which weapon?
Great video for anybody who believes people today are somehow smarter than people were 300+ years ago. This is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.
Lately each of your videos I've thought "This is the coolest friggin thing I've ever seen" and each one is just getting cooler. I don't know how you're gonna top this
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
After 40+ years as a Mechanical Designer/Draftsman, all I can say is the level of Mechanical Genius shown in this firearm, leaves one speechless.
especially that it was all done with hand tools, way before standardized gears and threads became a thing
Yet more proof that we aren't smarter than the people from the past. They were just as smart as us. We are merely standing on the shoulders of near continuous iteration and progress.
Yes, it does. Just an amazing piece.
@@no1DdCwe’ve distributed the needed IQ across more people. Say you need a combined IQ of 300, then you’d have 2 people at 100+, the other 100 spread over the other 8 people. Now you have 10 people at 30 each, there’s nobody left at the top of the IQ chain. They’ve done studies on the top IQ’s and it’s been on the decline for the past 5 decades. Yea, IQ isn’t the best, or only, measure, but it’s one to look at.
@@c1ph3rpunk I wouldn't mind a source.
This gun is the pinnacle of flintlock era gunsmithing, it's a piece of mechanical art.
It honestly would make flintlock firearms competitive with ball and cap, at least for those first thirty rounds lol..😂
At the same time as horse nomads were conquering china with bows yeah
@@tedarcher9120 That requires a great deal of training. Any grunt can be deadly with a firearm.
@@rockets4kids I mean that exactly the same time horse archers coexisted and probably fought guys with 30 round lever action rifles. That's some alternative history stuff
The G-11 of the renaissance, coolness 11/10, reliability a bit questionable and obviously this would be very expensive back in 1659.
One major issue would be fooling of the mechanism, also if it get wet while shooting you have an problem.
30 rounds is standard capacity and Gun Jesus just proved it .
You probably can trace it to the maths with original meaning of calibre, the one still used for artillery - how many lengths of bore diameter is the barrel long, which tells you how much space you have in some kind of a tube below the barrel. And just because you need this and this much length to get a specific speed out of then-standard black powder etc., and it just happened to be "around 30" :D
Assault musket
It's ablosutly crazy that "common sense" means regular Americans need to be 400 years behind modern arms
The entire argument about "high capacity" magazines has always been BS. It's like saying if your vehicle has a gas tank bigger than 14 gallons, it's "high capacity." No. If my stock vehicle has a capacity for 20 gallons of fuel, that is what the standard capacity is. It's defined by the manufacturer not some moronic government official who doesn't know what they are talking about.
IIRC the AR-15 was designed with a 20 round magazine in mind, but the AK-47 had a 30 round magazine, so Stoner added a 30 rounder for his rifle, just to say his was just as good capacity wise. But at the end of the day, 30 rounds is standard capacity for an AR platform.
@@a330flyguy2 No it can't be. It doesn't have any scary _rails_ on it!
This is unequivocally the single coolest firearm you have ever covered. Period.
My thoughts exactly and I never thought he'd top the AN 94
Reloader's nightmare. :)
Yeah, it's .... like nothing else. Wow.
Seconded! Thinking of the machining conditions of the day & the problems flint lock presents with attempts for repeating fire, the finesse it is delivered with is nothing short of beautiful.
I'm sorry but Breechloading Wheellock from 1625 Holy fucking Roman Empire still is the coolest to this day (It's probably still oldest weapon Ian ever covered)
Gun itself so cool it has carvings and has custom casings for It's bullets
ua-cam.com/video/beOgmCxeh7A/v-deo.htmlsi=u89FPXlnz5sSxXHZ
@@EagleSix52 Oooh. Missed that one, thanks!
Wow, 1659 "Caseless" semi-automatic high capacity rifle. :-)
not semiautomatic, just repeating - but high capacity...
Just as the Founding Fathers intended.
More like a lever action rifle.
German engineering of the 17th century :D
I don't think I have ever seen Ian act nervous about disassembling a firearm before. Many thanks to the owner for allowing us all to see that mechanism.
true huge thanks to the owner
@@Glaaki13 It belongs in a museum though. This is far too priceless to be in private hands.
@@no1DdC Museums are worthless endeavors. Every firearm I have seen in one have been poorly maintained.
Private Collectors at least respect the fact even an unused gun has to be periodically cleaned and maintained.
@@clothar23 Most collectors are mere hoarders, with none of the expertise required for caring for historic artifacts. Like that idiot billionaire who punched a hole into a painting the inflated art market deemed worth hundreds of millions.
Furthermore, one important point of museums is making history accessible. It's not accessible if it just sits in the basement of some rich idiot's mansion, shown only to those they deem worthy.
@@clothar23
Thank you you beat me to commenting that. With that piece alone likely being the owner considers it the pinnacle of the collection.
One of the coolest 'Forgotten Weapon' till date.
Agreed. It blows my mind this technology existed so long ago.
@@ddegn and it's so mechanical and at the same time so contained ... highly fascinating
This and a Puckle-gun . . . you would frighten 99% of 17th century armies.
@@ddegn The Puckle gun was my favorite repeater before I saw this. This Rifle pretty much kills the lefties argument that the Founders only believed that firearms were muzzle loaded and the 2nd then does not apply to modern firearms. That is pure nonsense to anyone with a functioning mind but for everyone's next political gun debate remember this rifle.
@@jesusoftheapes I think the 2nd amendment is what enforces the other amendments.
I recently watched a video on Blackbelt Barrister's channel. He was amazed to learn how strong our freedom of speech protections are in the US. I think our right to bear arms has a huge influence on *US citizens'* abilities to maintain our other rights.
The UK's laws have become crazy. From being arrested for posting on eXTwitter to being arrested for carrying a pocket knife. The rights of *subjects in the UK* keep getting more and more restricted. I think the weapon laws and speech laws are very much related. I'm sure glad we kicked the Redcoats out of America when we did.
This would be a great rifle to try and reproduce with modern materials.
I realize it would be expensive, but imagine the look on peoples faces at the shooting range and firing 30 shots with a flintlock rifle without reloading.
The ingenuity of people hundreds of even thousands of years ago still amazes me.
Great video.
I really enjoyed this one.
Bonus; It's a black powder flintlock. Legally, it isn't classified as a firearm. That means that it doesn't need to be licensed, registered, etc. Anyone can own them.
I would love to 3D-print a (non-functioning, of course, but otherwise accurate) replica that mimics the mechanics of this thing. It would definitely be possible, if challenging. I just printed a functional repeating crossbow a few weeks ago. While I have the skills to print mechanical parts that fit, designing the actual parts themselves is far above my pay grade, unfortunately.
@@erikdingman9806 This very much depends on the jurisdiction. Repeating black powder firearms are subject to the same restrictions as any other repeating firearms in most countries.
How about reproducing the mechanical action for the ball and black powder elements but replacing the flint with a battery powered/capacitor source of spark ignition? If some form of lugs could also be incorporated to improve the seal between the breech and the barrel the result might be a more accurate cartridge-less repeater with less of a click/bang behaviour?
@@no1DdC
That would be a good project. It would be great project for someone to do a complete 3D scan of all the parts and do that with a metal printer. Then it could have a demonstration of it working, even if downsized and light loading.
That anybody was even capable of manufacturing something of this precision and complexity in this period is nothing but astounding. The amount of standardization, tooling, and accurate measuring implied is incredible.
Mechanical clocks have been around since the late 13th century.
Mmmm...it would be understandable to think that, but it's not true. Craftsmen can achieve incredibly close fits of components with hand filing and hand fitting with virtually nothing in the way of standardized measurements or tooling. With a good understanding of the mechanical principles involved, they can make parts close to their final shape, and then tell if they are too long, too short, too thick, too thin, curve too much, don't curve enough, and then keep making adjustments until they mate as closely as you'd like. Techniques like that have let people make incredible mechanical marvels all the way back to the time of classical antiquity.
What standardized measurements and precision tooling allow you to do is make another set of parts that are so identical that you can repair these rifles by swapping parts from donor rifles. While all of these rifles possessed by the Danish Royal Guards were probably made from the same pattern, it's likely each one was subtly different enough that it required the attention of a full gunsmith to make individualized repairs on each one.
Loosely-related, but continental Europe was strangely late to the game when it came to true interchangeable parts in firearms; off the top of my head, Lugers, K31s, and Steyr M95s (to pick some random examples) all required a certain degree of hand-fitting to function really satisfactorily. They don't seem to have gotten onboard with truly interchangeable parts until the 1930s.
If we assume all the parts from one would work in any other at least when new before any wear sets in, which is plausible but unlikely you'd be right its incredible. Building something like this with that degree of repeatability even now with fancy CNC tools would be a meaningful challenge, but really the only bit that would be seriously challenging at that point in history is the standardization required to make them that interchangeable. Which I'd be willing to bet they were not. Also have to ponder upon if the less than perfect function of the mechanism Ian reports on now is actually very true to how it was right out of the workshop - seems like the design is good enough a good amount of slop in all the parts can be tolerated and it will function well enough still.
Precision measurement and cutting tools that are more than sufficient for building something like this must have existed over 2000 years ago based on the artifacts found, with the Antikythera mechanism being a stand out example. So while there are periods in history between then and now for which there is little evidence of such complex clockwork mechanisms it almost certainly would be an art that never died out, just less of these complex works survive (if they even go built at all - the disposable wealth and need for something that fancy rather than churning out crossbow parts etc..). Plus to be able to build an Antikythera at all implies a serious understanding of many subjects for which it is almost the only datapoint, so there really must have been simpler but similar constructions for a while before, and perhaps even more impressive constructions we will never know about, and all tentatively dated to the ballpark of 100BC
@@InfectiousFight Very good post.
Not as much as you might think. A big part of the reason complex weapons like this weren't more popular is that the parts often weren't fully interchangeable. If you needed to replace a piece, you'd send it back to the gunsmith who made it. Or else the parts they sent you would be just something close to right and you'd have to do all the finishing work yourself.
Just in case anyone wondered: The castle shown in the beginning (Christiansborg, today the seat of parliament) is (obviously) not of the same era as the battle and the gun. A castle has been there since the medieval period, but it was replaced by a Rococo style palace in the mid 18th century. It was much damaged in a great fire in 1794 and rebuild on a slightly smaller scale only to burn completely to the ground in 1884 in another fire. The building seen today was only finished in the 1920's.
Huh, if that's the story of all our bigger castles, that would explain the lack of medieval fortresses, save for a few like the Kalø ruin
@@StevDoesBigJumps Christiansborg and the prior castle of Copenhagen is a bit of a special case bacause it has been one of seats of central power for so many centuries - and the seat of government at least since the late 16th century. And because of the fires of course.
But it's very true that Denmark (and the other Scandinavian countries to a lesser degree) is surprisingly poor in medieval castles still visible today.
I guess it has to do with early centralization of government in the late 17th and 18th centuries. E.i: how powerful the kings became vis a vis the big nobility. Prussia would be another case in point. The northeastern parts of the German speaking region is still (relatively) poor in medieval castles in relation to the central, western and southern parts where the smaller princely states survived much longer.
@@phonecallsarejustoverquali1556 Det er rigtig min ven...
Well I wasn't wondering but thank you anyways. Very interesting.
@@StevDoesBigJumps One of the reasons for the lack of medieval castles is that after they lost their use due to technological advancements, they were dismantled to recycle the materials for other buildings. This was practical, as the castles no longer served a military purpose and the stone was already cut into blocks. The stone from Kalø castle was reused for the construction of Charlottenborg in Copenhagen.
Crazy to think that 30 rounds has been the default magazine size for an assault rifle for almost 400 years.
Since literally the first repeating firearm.
standard capacity
The origins of "30 in the tube, one in the spout!"
Nailed it. Awesome comment.
I live in copenhagen and I am danish this makes me proud. Længe leve det danske kongerige.
The historical reference is what makes this channel the jewel of gun enthusiasts. Well done Ian!
I'm delighted that you were able to actually disassemble this gun!
Good engineering requires that an owner-serviceable product be relatively easy to disassemble.
It is not hard to disassemble but you have to be careful to not damage the wood on such old guns. Often the lock will be stuck in the wood because of linseed oil and grime.
@@Willy_Tepes yes If it was may gun and I know he is Jesus, still
I'm delighted (and amazed) he was actually able to re-assemble it!
I'm pretty sure the original commenter meant they were delighted that the owner *allowed* Ian to disassemble the gun, not that Ian was capable of getting it apart. It is a nearly 400 year old gun and there's no guarantee that things that age, especially wood like the stock, won't simply disintegrate in your hands if you try to take them apart. The owner likely only allowed it in the first place because this one is in such impossibly good condition; I genuinely thought it must be a modern reproduction until Ian said it was original.
EDIT: I'll add that for most antique guns replacing the stock isn't the end of the world, but on this one the wooden stock contains the magazine and is responsible for the spacing of some of the (hand fitted, one of a kind) working parts. The replacement would have to be carved out to an exact match for the mechanism to continue to work the same. Even a relatively small piece splintering off the wood during disassembly could potentially require a conservation armorer to repair.
In 1955 I received my first book on firearms. It was "Guns" by S. E. Ellicott, published in London that same year. On page 24 is a description and illustration of this repeating rifle in wheel lock configuration. As a kid I had a hard time really understanding how the thing worked, despite a well written explanation. Even so, I remembered the book and the article. So almost 70 years had to pass before I saw this video and all became clear. Thanks, Ian!
Thank you ‼️ My wife is a Kalthoff & I've been hearing this fantastic bit of family history for 40+ years.
This is a 1650s G11. Amazing and amazingly complex. Maybe not ready for prime time. I am so glad you found this, and were able to make the video.
Another saw the complex clockwork mechanism ant thought G11 too.
Heck, it even fires caseless ammunition from an unusually large magazine parallel to the barrel.
@@DeltaEcho17The G11 is eternal and has always and will forever exist. It was created out of this earth, and time and again man will peek beyond the veil only to glimpse it, and ruin their lives in a futile attempt to recreate it in our world. It is a kind of eldritch abomination made manifest by man himself trying to achieve perfection. The fools are unaware that the only perfection is the G11, and that is unattainable by man.
Danish space magic
The makers even came from what would later become part of Germany. Time is a flat circle.
Girls: "He's probably thinking about other girls"
Guys: "How did Kalthoff brothers think of something so genius?"
Girl- what does he do with his time instead of calling me? Another girl?
Guy-must clean guns,load ammo,prep for range,dry fire practice
@@ronv6637 exactly what happens when the wife leaves and the kids go to bed 😂
And did they have a hot sister?
My wife doesn't even question why I'm grabbing another gun from the safe 20 minutes after the kids are asleep. All she hears is *click..*rack..*click..
A repeating rifle from almost 150 years before the US became a country. Simply amazing engineering and workmanship.
Exactly what I was thinking. I wondered why, If this technology around, was the U.S. war of independence fought with essential pointy sticks? When Franklin went to Paris, why didn’t he buy a bunch of these? Ian explains why at the end, of course.
@@Tesserae You don't win any war with 'wonderweapons.' Only a hundred made for the Danish Royal Guard.
I bet these guns were extremely expensive.
@@Tesserae The US Revolution was NOT fought with pointy sticks! Muskets with bayonets are NOT "just pointy sticks" (even spears are VERY different from just pointy sticks). In addition to the muskets, there were also rifles, capable of accuracy out to about 300 yards.
Cannon fire/artillery was VERY important in the Revolution as well.
As other comments pointed out: Repeating arms using black powder is difficult at best. Black powder fouling is a HUGE problem. To be honest, I don't know if the rifle of this video could've actually shot all 30 rounds without stopping.
@@alexsawicki I understand. I only meant that the guns used were metaphorical pointy sticks compared to this advanced technology invented a century earlier.
You mean 167 years after Columbus "discovered" America 😂
Honestly, the idea that it saw service for almost 40 years is impressive in of itself. I don't think it being dropped by 1696 is a huge deal- it would have been worn out by then for sure, but that's still a very impressive service record length-wise, especially in that period of firearms development.
I didn’t catch that he said 1696 I thought he said 1669. But yeah it being 1696 that makes a big difference especially with how rapid new arms were probably being made and vying to be adopted into militaries.
the expression is "In and of itself"
This is absolutely mind-blowing 😮
yes, in every sense of the word, it blows minds.
I agree. I had no idea weapons of this sufistication existed in the 17th century.
@@runetoudahl6it makes sense they had complicated clocks, calculators and automatons back then.
@@greathornedowl1783 Yes, you're right ofcourse, but considering the danish army deployed "simple" muzzle loaded muskets a 100 years later in 1864 this weapon is amazing.
For years we waited for this!!FOR YEARS!!! Never doubted Ian would find one
The level of machining precision is insane for something mass produced in 1659
Not really mass produced.
How many clocks were produced back then? "mass produced" in that time meant anything more than a dozen or so units.
Can you really even apply that term to anything from that time period tho?
100 it´s not mass produced. 50.000 normal flintlocks, that´s mass produced
@@Mis73rRand0m mass produced isnt tied to the amount of units made, its tied to the way of producting, meaning not artisan. these guns were very much artisan work, so not mass produced
If the folks at C&Rsenal could make one of their 3D animations for this, people would go NUTS for it. I know its outside their typical stuff but the guy they use for animations is so good.
The genius and talent that was behind the designing and then producing of this artifact is mind blowing.
That was an unexpected treat to see Ian in the middle of Copenhagen talking about Danish history. Loved it. Thanks from Denmark.
This is utterly incredible. Yes, it’s fragile and not at all suitable for field use, but as an “oh shit, we’re defending this fixed position against a tide of oncoming soldiers/rioters,” it’s incredibly well-suited. It’s an incredible force multiplier and even beyond that, it’s an absolute marvel of engineering.
It seems like you wouldn’t get something that fast and applicable for military use for another, what, two hundred years? Just absolutely outstanding.
guess the swede that found their ladders sinking in the ice of the channel while a little garrison on the walls have a piece of witchcraft unleashing rapid fire bullets were thrilled to be in history, albeit on the receveing end of it
Most of the fragility is it age and rarity being over 350 years old. In general metal doesn't become fragile with time when cared for, but the wood definitely will still. Now factor in 350 years of being cycled that does wear it out to point of fragile.
There were a lot of gears involved. And with the decidedly lower precision and quality I'm amazed they managed to make them work. It also makes you wonder how many times one of those guards got a bit over ambitious and either forced the crank to hard or failed to tilt the rifle the right ways. When in stressful situations we tend to get a bit less dexterous. Someone said we developed meat clubs instead of hands when the bullets started flying. With a modern rifle this is not all that bad. You still only have to pull the trigger until the magazine is empty. But with these you would have to remember to tilt the rifle forward to fill the powder transfer. Start to twist the lever forward until the hammer has been cocked and then tilt the rifle upwards so the ball would roll into the sliding block as you full fill the movement of the lever. Give it a shake before turning the lever back again so powder and a ball are certain ti have moved where needed before closing the lock again. Sure it's a lot faster than loading a muzzle loader, but it's just enough that I can see some people getting things slightly wrong now and then. I also think it would be possible to load two balls if you do all this and get a dud. The powder wouldn't overfill but you might be able to ram another ball into the barrel. It would be interesting to know if any reports about these kinds of problems has been retained.
@@blahorgaslisk7763 Keep in mind that the royal guards of the day were literally the same type of guys that now make up the special forces, with the same relative levels of experience and training intensity compared to what regular infantry got.
@@DB-yj3qc Mechanisms can break even if none of their components do, and _that's_ primarily what people are talking about when they say this mechanism is fragile. Jamming, misalignment, desyncing .... there are myriad ways for mechanical systems to fail hard enough that dis/reassembly is required (ie, they become broken) but replacement parts aren't, and the frequency of those failure modes is determined by the design and manufacturing, _not_ the durability of the materials/parts.
I think You are the ONLY person in a world, who is well known, well trusted and bold enough to disassemble an almost 400 years old gun. Thankfully you also record and document this process, so it'll be available for future generations and for reference for future historians.
He didn't, the owner did.
Ian knows better
Slight correction, the Swedes, did a feint attack at another section of Copenhagens walls, during that attack, one of the storm ladders was captured, and measured to 36feet in length, and with that info, 600 Dutch sailors from the fleet that had brought supplies to Copenhagen were sent out, and from 4am to 10am, in the middle of a blizzard to widen the gash in the ice to 44feet, making the Swedish ladders useless. After the battle about 700 dead soldiers had to be fished out of the moat, at Storm ridge to restore the 44feet wide water flow. I all the Swedes lost about 1700 troops out of 10.000 all along the walls
I am utterly in sheer amazement when you opened this up and showed how sophisticated, and unbelievably modern it all seems. I mean 30 rounds? Rifled barrel, semi-lever action?
I mean this is technology we wouldnt see for more than 200 years, until like the 1860's or so!
The thought they had this in 1659?! Is absolutely unbelievable!
I am also genuinely astonished at the quality of craftsmanship and metalworking here. I mean how did they even manufacture all these intricate parts like the gears, springs, breach blocks and all that...its like something you'd expect to see in a the late 19th century industrial society...the fact that they managed to do this way back then is incredible.
How does it seem modern?
Like this dude is as significant as Browning. the creativity to envisage this as a mechanical system is in the context of its time absolutely remarkable.
No CAD, no 3D rendering, no CNC machining, no printed test components. Certain items from antiquity are nothing less than astonishing and represent a different type of mental acuity. I solute not only the engineering but the craftsmen involved. (retired machinist here)
Problem is it seems to be an idea that gets produced and then forgotten/abandoned and probably independently "reinvented" 200 years later. Kaltoff solves a problem (more firepower, please). And 200 years later Gatling and Maxim solves the same problem.
Main difference is that industrialization happened in between. If someone had been maintaining a production of Kalthoff guns for a centry or so, how much more modern weapons would have been - in a different timeline.
Engineering and history lesson all in one. Keep it up Ian. 😊
Just wow. That is just a beautiful piece of machinery.
It's so different to the other repeating designs from that period. Someone clearly put a lot of thought into every element, despite its flaws.
And here I thought I would never see a repeating flintlock as amazing as the Belton, but this is almost arguably better. Which is all the more impressive for as early as this is.
Possibly the most interesting gun video on UA-cam. I’d never heard of this and to see it broken down and expertly explained was a real treat. Thank you Ian, your content keeps getting better and better.
I am absolutely floored to see this weapon and ponder the thought, design, and absolute top tier craftsmanship we see here. Just the IDEA of a 30 round repeating firearm from this point in history is mind boggling, but the implementation and production?.... Just, WOW!
No book could explain this. Excellent. Thank you.
The only real negative would be impossible to fix at the time, which is it is black powder. Essentially, you will have those 30 rounds to fire, and the fouling will already be affecting performance. Since there was no substitute for black powder at the time, this was unfixable, but the engineering it took to create this is outstanding. For about two minutes, this would have been devastating firepower.
Yeah, cleaning and reloading this thing would have been a nightmare. It’s clearly not a gun for open field battles and long campaigns, but for its purpose-defending a fixed defensive position against a sudden assault when outnumbered-it’s absolutely perfect. Two minutes of brutal, withering rifle fire could be enough to drive off an attack, and the enemy wouldn’t necessarily know how much time it takes for you to reload.
And there’s always the option of having spare guns loaded and ready to go. Swap guns once you expend your rifle, then have your assistant clean and reload.
@@jonathanrich9281 There's also the fear aspect - in that era you expect to be shot at once, survive it and then you can move to swords and knives, then suddenly the guard you're assaulting cranks off 30 shots in the span of a couple minutes and you're not gonna want to risk going into swords at that point if you're alive.
The breech block would also get quite hot from repeated firing. Maybe not hot enough to ignite powder or jam from expansion, but hot nevertheless.
@@Kr-nv5fo Now that you mentioned it, that would have also been a factor to consider for the Kalthoff brothers when designing this. Perhaps the block was made with looser tolerances than what they could have made it with, just to prevent a jam. The two tension springs handled keeping it still in place, regardless of the amount of heat expansion.
@@jonathanrich9281 You could have spare rifles if you could afford them. Cost was a significant factor as well. But yeah, imagine coming in en masse with your standard flintlock, having trust in your numbers, and all of a sudden what was supposed to be a few defenders are laying this devastating barrage of fire in your direction. The horror and confusion would be massive. And like you said, once they rebut you, you might have no idea if they can't just do the same thing if you attack again. And they might if they had enough rifles. ;D
My ancestors! Kalthoff's sound off. Sliding fit surfaces and blackpowder seems dangerous. Thanks for making the best explainer for the Kalthoff design yet seen, Ian.
Nathan Kalthoff here. Also check out the 1991 Gun Digest.
Why are all of these priceless artifacts being held in what looks like a 60s era hunting cabin
I am genuinely astonished at the quality of craftsmanship and metalworking here. I mean how did they even manufacture all these intricate parts like the gears, springs, breach blocks and all that...its like something you'd expect to see in a late 19th century industrial society...the fact that they managed to do this way back then is incredible.
HE DID IT
HE FOUND ONE
I remember Ian wanting to get his hands on one of these years back in Q and As
Incredible engineering NOW, much less back in the 1600's. Thanks Ian!
Thank you Jan for letting Ian show us this remarkable collection piece.
Man this has to be the most impressive example of gunsmithing I have seen, this thing is a lightsaber of flintlocks
Awesome!!! I am so happy to see a real, working Kalthof in actio... they are so rare. Thank you Ian :D
May be one of the most interesting designs you've ever covered
That is a remarkable piece of engineering
I would absolutely love to have a reproduction of this gun. This is way ahead of it's time. I think this might have been more commercially successful if the manufacturing quality were "higher" for lack of a better term. Either way this is truly awesome.
Technically speaking, it was made with hammers and files: a CNC could handle the design, if anyone want to.
This is an incredible piece of history. Thanks for sharing it with us
Not only ingenious, but beautiful. A true work of the gunsmith’s art.
Now I've seen the parts, I want to see the tools used to make this wonder 350 years ago!
Old but very beautiful handwork 👍🏻
Files, files, and more files!
this is exactly why i watch this channel for years now.
to have gunjesus blow my mind with gun mechanics.
Its incredible what they have done to avoid cased shells :)
They basicly build a cartridge without casing with every shot.
Henry VIII had a hunting gun that used metallic cartridges in the 1500s. The problem is that the interfaces for a metallic cartridge have to be manufactured to within a couple thousandths of an inch. They could do that, but it was expensive. And each set of cartridges would only work correctly with a particular gun. So the Kalthoff design makes it all one mechanism that can then be hand-tuned until it works correctly and then you don't have to mess with it again for a while.
I am just stunned.
This gun is an absolute marvel to behold! Crazy to think how ingenious these people were with part that are in essence just a bunch of chambers and gears. The precision in manufacture, the attention to small details of its inner workings. Its jawdropping! I cant imagine how the Kalthoff brothers must have felt when their minds exploded when one of them suggested putting a podwer container into the lever and then seeing it actually work exactly like it was intended. I bet they emptied a good couple of bottles in celebration of that success. I consider it an honor to be able to see its inner workings.
Thank you, Ian and team! what a lovely day to be your subscriber!
Probably one of the best episodes of FW.
Thank you Ian for telling this amazing tale of mechanical engineering.
Definitely a machinist's gun. I love the engineering that went into it.
Royal Guards armed with Legendary weapons... we need this energy back. With battlesuits, preferably.
That is SO cool! The engineering that went into this is absolutely insane, especially since it's nearly 400 years old! Normally I don't care much about flintlocks, but this had me totally drawn in for the entire video.
That is absolutely incredible. The Kalthoffs were geniuses.
I am dumbfounded at how sophisticated this gun is. I am surprised not to have heard of it before and amazed that it didnt play a bigger part in world arms development. This is a masterpiece. Why isnt more known of this. Fantastic video, Ian.
Gotta give it to the designer on this one. This is sheer engineering extravaganza! Classic forgotten weapons .....so cool!
It blows my mind that someone made that gear system, the matching rack, the rifling, the tubes and chutes and cavities ALL BY HAND as a blacksmith would because there was no other way!
Definitely not a blacksmith. They had highly specialised gunmakers at the time and the skillset they came from was lockmakers and that also had ties to things like clockmaking. They really did know how to make precision gears and things already.
Your blacksmiths would be limited to making barrels, if that.
@@Theduckwebcomics Right. And didn't gunsmithing, clock making, locksmithing and all these other very specialized fields come from blacksmithing? I was just saying they made everything without modern day power tools, cnc machines and precision measuring equipment.
I never realized how integrated the cycle of operations were (I thought you'd at least have to recock the lock), and never realized how separated the powder magazine was from the breech. What, one steel door, an extensive air gap, and then two more steel doors separating two individual steel transfer chambers? That's on par with modern Western autoloading naval cannons with bagged charges, which are explicitly designed to not blow the magazines up even if the gun is hit with a penetrating explosive round while loading.
Thank you, Jan! This was a treat to witness.
That is absolutely the coolest flintlock I have ever seen. Thanks for making this video.
This is the coolest gun I think the channel has ever showcased.
the faux ram rod ball tube plug is a neat aesthetic design choice
Huge thanks to the owner! That thing is so cool!
That is the coolest thing I've ever seen on your channel ... not only is it steampunk as f*, but it works, and it's near-400 years old.
over 100 year to early to be steam punk.
@@magnemoe1 "Actually, Jingles..." there's always at least one.
I was reminded of the Cross-Time Engineer ... just go with it.
@@magnemoe1 There is a subgenre called "Clockpunk." This proves it is not fiction! : )
Amazing video, Ian. Thank you. I especially appreciate the owner allowing such a detailed look at its' internals, too. I'm sure the Founding Fathers "never imagined" such an arm, having only been invented 150 years prior to their decision to rebel against English rule.
I've been waiting for you to cover this gun for ages!
What it would be to see a fully working, fully firing reproduction of this ö
The Swedes: "What the hell do you need a 30 round magazine for?"
Swedes 1659: "We need to limit it to 10 round! Like California!"
"What the hell is California?"
Ironically, the answer is the ones asking the question.
The Kings Men: "shooting peasants in droves".
The King ( we tell them pheasants, I told you that, pheasants, with an H )
......hey.....what are you painting it scary black for....
Danish: Good question, loads Kalthoff rifle with malicious intent ×30
As a self-described 'gun nerd'....I'm embarrassed I didn't know about this amazing piece of history and engineering.
I am shockingly jealous that you have gotten to see this in person. Well done!!
Kalthoff Brothers: Guess you guys aren't ready for that yet.. but your kids are gonna love it.
Thank you for unveiling this history of my country! This was awesome to see.
Amazing that they had repeating firearms in 1660! What is also amazing is that you were allowed to disassemble it.
Wow! I think this is the pinnacle of "Forgotten Weapons" engineering. What a complicated but ingenious firearm!!
That thing is incredible. I am so glad that you did a video on it. And thank you to the owner for letting us all see this amazing piece of history.
That must be the most incredible rifle I have seen on Forgotten Weapons (or anywhere else actually) this far. And the action still works after more than 350 years? Unbelievable!
This may well be the coolest firearm ever covered on this channel.
There are so many things that could and probably would/did go wrong with these.
And yet... Somebody really designed a functional magazine fed black powder flintlock rifle.
That's so cool.
I also thank Jan for letting Ian to show us thos amazing rifle :). Wow! And, of course, thank you Ian for your work.
That is one incredible rifle! To think that it was built almost 400 years ago is mind boggling! A superb example of master gun making.
Thank you so much to Jan for allowing us to see how this piece works, that was incredibly kind of you sir.
Someone like Pedersoli HAS to make these again, what a wonderful thing it would be to own and use.
I already have a reproduction .451 Whitworth rifle. Next I need the Hi-Lux brass scope on it. But if they made a reproduction of this Kalthoff I’m sure lots of people would buy one. I know I would!
@@patrickpendergast898 Yup, it won't be cheap, obviously but it would be worth it.
That is some amazing engineering for the era!
That's one of the most sophisticated pieces of technology I've ever seen from that era. I would give somebody's eye and kidney to see the workshop it was made in.
Huge thank you to the collector who allowed you to take that apart. The gun is an incredible feat of engineering and craftsmanship and I am so happy to know about it now.
It's so wholesome how you can see his pure excitement to see the mechanism at 5:42
Most interesting gun reviewed in ages! Feels like the old days.
I read about this when I was a child and the information about it was so sketchy that the author said the reason it was discontinued was because it would blow up. Ian destroyed that notion. Thank you so much. History was just re-written.
When I saw black powder for 30 shots stored in a 300 plus year old flintlock my first thought was what happens when it gets cooked off from stray sparks or loose powder but seeing how it was integral in the design to have the mechanism isolate the powder compartment completely from the chamber and flint sections and literally load the power externally is amazing for the time period…
I LOVE pre-industrial early modern engineering! Something really interesting about water/wind powered factories etc. This gun is a perfect example of that era.
Fun fact danish people love getting our history out in the world 🇩🇰👍🏻
I love seeing part of my family's history from across the pond, so cool! 👍🇺🇸
👍🏻@@ericsfishingadventures4433
@@ericsfishingadventures4433fuck dig du er ikke dansker du er amerikaner
That gun is hella cool history!
Applied science from Denmark is world famous, :), . B&K test equipment comes to mind.
My goodness, I served in the regiment (albeit a few centuries later) and did not know about this rifle.
never hurts to check the inventory room!
Wow.... just incredible, 1659. Absolutely Ludacris and genius design also immensely beautiful, my jaw was on the floor the entire video!!! Thank you for this historical video Ian, amazing how we got to see the internals too What a Huge privilege Dont suppose she'll ever shoot again but alas a real marvel in engineering!
What a treat this wasthe Kalthoff is such an amazing firearm, glad I finally got to see one disassembled. It's awsome to see how ahead of It's time it was while also being surprisingly simple.
This is one remarkable piece of history. To think that the first iteration of repeating firearms was so advanced already is crazy. And the fact it is still functional is a testament to how well it was built and how well its owners preserved it.
Of course making a gun that can repeat began as soon as muskets were first being introduced. It just took a while before these guys figured it out.
I can't even imagine why the gun became the standard weapon in the first place, like for the generations before repeating weapons, everyone must've hated them, and the retarded tactics used. Europe was lucky that another attila the hun didn't arrive with another horde of Calvary archers who could fire 20 arrows (accurately with a 8/10 kill shot rate)before a musketeer could reload after missing the first shot 😅
@@RedDeckRedemption The problem is horse archers, any archers, took many many years to train. You could field an army of guys with guns in a day. Little to no training required and they would be just as deadly, if not more at close range against armour. That's why guns actually took over but they didn't take over immediately. It took about 300 years for them to really get the technology to a point where it was the smart choice. During a lot of that time they were both on the field of battle at the same time often enough.
@@MrBottlecapBill how where they layered in standing armys? pre rifled barrel guns where not the most accurate things, but i dont have enough archery experience to say an arrow would be better, so what rolls where typically asigned to which weapon?
that mechanism is just awesome
Great video for anybody who believes people today are somehow smarter than people were 300+ years ago. This is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.
Holy shit! My jaw was on the floor the whole time once you started explaining how that mechanism works... That's just insane! Thanks for showing us!
Lately each of your videos I've thought "This is the coolest friggin thing I've ever seen" and each one is just getting cooler. I don't know how you're gonna top this