Shooting a replica Japanese ‘Tanegashima’ snap matchlock

[Flint62Smoothie]

This young man is enamored with these fire locks!

 

[Meriwether]

Wow. That's quite a flame when it shoots. I'm glad you don't have rain there.

 

[earlwb]

Well one of the earliest battles in Japan happened on a drizzly day with some fog even. The matchlock gunners actually carried the day and decisively helped their leader to win. So maybe there is a way for these guns to work in the rain. The Japanese had perfected their matchlocks to work in the rain.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tan...Numajiri,country in absolute numbers produced.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

The Japanese had perfected their matchlocks to work in the rain.

Yes, they used a lacquered cover over the locks and matchcord to fire them in the rain. Off there battlements, they'd also hang strings at certain positions, with some form of markings at pre-set levels (both for distance and direction), so they could send off a volley of fire even in the middle of a dark night!

 

[Sam squanch]

The musketeers were probably threatened with death if their guns didn’t go off….. those old samurai were not men to mess with.

 

[Sam squanch]

Amazing how fast that goes off!

 

[Old Painless]

I always think safety glasses. But, back in the day staying alive was the #1 safety tip.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

I always think safety glasses. But, back in the day staying alive was the #1 safety tip.

Yes, his Mother chewed his arse out when she saw he had none on ... as she was working the registration desk at the woodswalk and asked me to send her the video!

 

[BillinOregon]

That Tanegashima has some recoil -- not fierce, but it must take practice to get used to recoil directly into the head and face.

 

[bpd303]

Ya and we wine about cheek slappers nowadays.

 

[Rudyard]

The ' Tanagashima' isn't the gun its the place or port they first got guns . Its the name of the' MLAIC International' match but not the gun its self .Not that it much matters .As an aside I recall at Bisley's Short Siberia range that despite rain the match cord left burning on the firing point in rain still kept in .That's stuff I particularly noted during the prize giving . Over the years I won bronze silver & once gold in that event The gun was gun number 88 in 1988 .Ide make a lock in NZ ,breached a 40 cal smooth barrel in the US & stocked it in Sheffield. And then sell the guns to the Channel Island lads & make another for next year . I think the burning in rain occasion was dureing an International match held at Bisley I was just on Scrutiny of the fitness of the guns early 80s I think . Lived in UK then mostly. Anyway could pin it if it mattered was before Quantico Internationals & they where the same week as the NMLRA' Eastern 'R vous at Shawnee State forest ' Crab' was Booshway though I only caught the last days I was a member but a complete 'Porky' but Phil Cravener lent me a capote so I got in for the feast & Curly Gostomski gave me a ride to Ohio I was checking out suppliers Did buy some great Shonsney? locks off a blanket used them all up over the years That event saw me annually doing summers of gun shows & Events all over, roadied with a publisher & a gun dealer had 17 or years" wintering" in the US & Canada The geese are Not as silly as there made out to be & I never did like winters & cold short days Come Halloween Ide be heading back to NZ for another summer .Nope the geese are not silly (Only the ones that reached NZ seem to figure this was just fine & didn't bother taking the trip home! . )
Long winded Rudyard

 

[BillinOregon]

Rudyard: Hate to be a nag, but you really must apply yourself to your memoirs -- or find a biographer.