handgonne shooting.

[tenngun]

Last thread here talking about hunting with a handgonne got me wondering.... I would think a handgonne would shoot as well as any other smoothy in that barrel length. I have never shot one or seen one alive. You boys that shoot them how do they do for you?I would think it would be a learning curve to co-ordinte aiming and fireing.

 

[Alden]

Tenn;
Firing an early hand gonne has you aiming at the touchole with the linstock more than (almost to the exclusion of) the target which you are more pointing at. Ok, TOWARDS! There were assorted shooting positions, some inherently more accurate than others. Occasionally one man would aim (still no sights in any case) and another'd touch the gonne off... The pan and the serpentine were great technological advancements and probably took a century to develop all told.

Note many people basically do stuff from a shooting bench strictly under range conditions and really have no practical experience with historically correct period guns and certainly not in shooting them when you get down to it. Hunting with an early hand gonne would prove fairly challenging if not frustrating which is why even I have never done it...

 

[Treestalker]

Tenngun, a few years ago I made an hackbut and fired it at paper about 50 feet away offhand with birdshot. The load was 45 gr 2F w/equal volume of shot IIRC. I did hit the target, but the pattern was very sparse. You may be able to find my article in Backwoodsman magazine (I believe Aug-Sep 2010). I wanted to try it on squirrels, but Arkansas requires a flintlock or percussion ignition. Evidently a larger bore with a shot heavy load would fill the pattern better, but we're still talking very close shots.Also my bore was only about 8 inches long. Perhaps a longer 12" or even 18" bore would help.If I made a handgonne now,I'd use a serpentine for sure, side mounted so it wouldn't interfere with sighting until ignition. I have ordered a barrel from a maker here on the forum to do that very thing. Thank you all for your comments, I have learned so much. Treestalker.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Perhaps a longer 12" or even 18" bore would help ...

It most likely would ... but I doubt I could even lift an 18" bore gonne :grin: !

 

[Alden]

Yeah, the good news is he wouldn't MISS. The bad news is these 18" guns all had to be carried on Imperial Japanese Navy Yamato-class Battleships and the barrels might be, um, a little rusty by now -- they used transmission fluid to oil them 'cause TVM said it was cheap protection.

LOL

 

[tenngun]

yeah but I bet a ton of shot over 3/4 ton 1f would flat take out turkey,duck geese swans the hunter next door all with one shot 20 miles away :haha:

 

[Musketeer]

Guy preparing to touch off an 18" gonne:

:haha:

 

[Julian Reynolds]

Well, not wishing to be a pedant, but treestalker is being grammatically correct, the bore of a gun refers to the entirety of the inside of the barrel, and what we nowadays call 'bore' we really mean 'bore diameter' (or gauge, or calibre) although here it is being used to describe bore length. Both my local gunmakers (here in the UK) use 'bore' to describe the length of the inside of the barrel (from touch-hole to muzzle, which is the legal way of measuring it in this country) unless they are specifically referring to bore diameter (as in 8 bore etc.). It's a quirk of the old-school gunmakers that initially confused me when I first got into muzzle-loaders 25 years ago.

 

[Alden]

"Bore" can also be, what was it, the length of the bore divided by the diamter I believe... But I think that's more art'y related.

 

[Treestalker]

Sorry guys, I failed to mention my test handgonne was about .55 caliber, Freek had mentioned trying a. 62 or .75 cal. on squirrels. I failed to specify the length of bore not diameter in my reply. I did appreciate the photo by Musketeer,having served as #1 position on an 18 pdr (pdr, not bore!) ML cannon, ha! I'll try to be more articulate in the future. Thank you all for your corrections, Treestalker.

 

[Musketeer]

No worries. Your meaning was clear. I (and I think I can speak for the other guys) was just having a bit of good-natured fun. With you being a new guy, I hope you don't feel like we're making fun of you or trying to make you feel unwelcome. :redface: Hang out here long enough and you'll realize we're really just a lot of harmless nuts with questionable senses of humor. :haha: :hatsoff:

 

[Jumpshot]

Here are a couple of my targets from about a year ago. Not real accuracy testing, just having fun making smoke. Both shot standing, tiller resting on the shoulder, off hand used for ignition, barrel pointed in the general vicinity of the target. (Barrels made by freekforge.)

This first one has a typo (or write-o?) on it. That should say 30 grains, not 60.

 

[Musketeer]

Nice shootin', jump. :hatsoff:

 

[tenngun]

hum that would stop an evil (fill in the blank)knight. Just thinking about what you have to do to line up your shot and mind your touch hole :thumbsup:

 

[Wes/Tex]

hum that would stop an evil (fill in the blank)knight. Just thinking about what you have to do to line up your shot and mind your touch hole :thumbsup:

If you've got a buddy to help out...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd...609_573107686138852_5435491104045935435_n.jpg

 

[Wes/Tex]

Not sure how I got a repost 25 minutes later..ain't science great? :wink:

 

[Jumpshot]

If you've got a buddy to help out...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd...609_573107686138852_5435491104045935435_n.jpg

Well, mine aren't quite that big.

But that would be great mounted in the bed of my truck. :hmm:

 

[Musketeer]

But that would be great mounted in the bed of my truck. :hmm:

There's an original in the Royal Museum of Cornwall. I'm sure these gents would let you borrow it for a while. :haha:

 

[tenngun]

um that colud be a bunny buster

 

[Alden]

Why'd they stick a beer mug in the back of it?

(No, I don't really want anyone to answer that or I'm moving to Brussels, France -- LOL)