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Castlerock Museum Firearms

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I have never posted in this forum before, but visited the Castlerock Museum in Alma, WI this last Saturday and took a few pictures I thought would be of interest to those of pre-flinklock leanings.
http://www.castlerockmuseum.com/main/

For a small, private collection, this is pretty amazing museum with artifacts up to 3,000 years old. It's mostly armor, edged weapons, or various other types of pre-firearms weaponry. But they also had displays of some "torture" equipment, art, etc. And a few guns, which I took some pictures of that I hope you'll find of interest, though for most of you, you've probably seen this stuff before.

Not a gun, but I found this suit of armor kind of interesting...never saw one made to be more comfortable for guys. I figured this must have been one of Duluth Trading companies first products (if you haven't heard of Duluth Trading, they have a lot of men's underwear products where their funny commercials compare the other guys uncomfortable product to theirs). I think in a sword fight, I'll use THE OTHER GUY's armor product with more protection!!! :rotf:

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This matchlock pistol built into a shield was interesting and apparently very rare.

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I thought this variety of wheel locks that double with other weapons built on was interesting:

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Here's an over/under wheel lock. With one trigger, I assume it releases both locks at the same time!

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The bottom item is a hand cannon. The user just hooked the piece of metal that drops down over the wall to hold the recoil. Stick a burning whatever into the touch hole on top to fire. The top gun could be mounted to a swivel.

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The gun below the crossbow was a hunting gun. I don't recall how much it weighed, but it was not that big of a caliber...very, very thick barrel. Clearly the King or other nobility weren't the ones lugging THAT around in the field! Strong servants!

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A couple other miscellaneous:

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There was a LOT more to see there, but these were pretty much the firearms there. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Mike
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Great post. I love the helmet with the moustache molded in. And the breech loading cannon.
 
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