Wheellocks, rifled or smoothbore

[tom in nc]

Were most wheellocks rifled or smoothbore? What was the common calibers?

 

[TobJohn]

Were most wheellocks rifled or smoothbore? What was the common calibers?

For civilian or military use? For military use, the vast majority were smooth bore, but wheellocks military rifles do exist. Also for military use, .50-.62 seemed to be the most common, but .80 muskets and larger wall guns exist.

In the 30 years war, several of the Catholic German states (possibly Protestant too, but the specific examples I know are Austria and Bavaria) raised militia/skirmishing units from local hunters and games men, armed with their civilian rifles. A 150 year earlier parallel to the American riflemen.

 

[tenngun]

A wheellock was very expensive and difficult to make. And although there were plenty of military wheelocks made most went on high dollar civilian arms for civilian hunters. A gamesman might well have a plain gun but most were in the hands of the wealthy
And these guys, mostly Central Europeans often went for rifles

 

[TobJohn]

A wheellock was very expensive and difficult to make. And although there were plenty of military wheelocks made most went on high dollar civilian arms for civilian hunters. A gamesman might well have a plain gun but most were in the hands of the wealthy
And these guys, mostly Central Europeans often went for rifles

Survivorship bias favoring fancy rifles makes it hard to definitively claim what was most popular. When Bavaria tried to forms it’s militia into rifle units during the 30 years war, there weren’t enough riflemen to make homogenous units, so they had to mix the rifles with fowlers and other sporting guns. That’s the only specific claim I’ve seen on the popularity of one type over the other for civilians.

Northern Italy had a wide variety of wheellocks for civilian and other sporting purposes, and rifling was much rarer there (though it did exist)

An additional fun fact is that in the first quarter of the 16th century, the invention of the wheellock pistol brought about some of the first documented gun control laws, specifically in the Holy Roman Empire. Italian cities maintained laws against carrying guns, which is one reason for the popularity of folding stock carbines in northern Italy, due to their ease of concealment.

 

[rickystl]

"Northern Italy had a wide variety of wheellocks for civilian and other sporting purposes, and rifling was much rarer there (though it did exist)"

The use of non-rifled barrels for sporting guns in Italy (and Spain) continued through the early 19th Century. Today, it is quite rare to find a surviving sporting arm from the period with a rifled barrel. I've seen only one example. It was an Italian sporting gun from about 1800 - with a Turkish made rifled barrel. For whatever reason, the Italians and Spanish didn't find any use for rifled barrels with their sporting guns.
I believe "wing shooting" was invented in Southern Italy.

Rick

 

[TobJohn]

The cost of wheellocks is also a complicated issue. Bert S Hall, in Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe, compares the cost of a ~1560 British report purchasing pistols for the navy, with a Spanish report buying muskets for the tercios, and the prices are roughly the same. Wheellocks are undeniably ridiculously complicated compared to other gun locks (particularly matchlocks), so there is probably something else going on with the costs. The economics of the 16th century, with feudalism, capitalism, absolute monarchies controlling the banks, and extremely volatile currency all coexisting makes comparisons hard.

However, one important factor for the scarcity of wheellocks among infantry is that they are not really soldier proof weapons. In the late 16th century, the Graz Armory maintained an arsenal of wheellock arquebuses for the permanent professional soldiers garrisoned to fight ottoman raids. They were considered competent enough to maintain their complex guns and experienced enough to get the most out of the combat flexibility of a firelock. One specific point is that the wheellock provided better utility in snap shooting and skirmishing against Ottoman raiders. For big incursions, the local levies would be called up and armed with the matchlocks stored at the armory.

Cavalry were the primary users of wheellock weapons because there was not a practical alternative to the wheellock pistol/arquebus and they were much more frequently professional soldiers of higher social class. When the German Reiters first came to prominence, they had an advantage against French heavy cavalry, even when the French used pistols, because the Germans, being lower social class, were used to maintaining their own equipment, while the French passed off their pistols to be maintained by their servants.

 

[ChrisPer]

The Landeszeughaus armory at Graz has many military quality wheellocks, and some more ornate ones possibly seized from lords on the wrong side of the wars of religion.
I peered into a LOT of muzzles there, and did not find one with rifling.
Of course if it were coned for loading on horseback, the rifling may not be visible at the muzzle.
According to Brooker's big book about the wheellocks at Graz, one of the later bulk purchases included about 10% rifled.
Since a great many of the wheellocks in castles and museums only survived because they are prestige arms, and later hunting rifles, there is a huge survivorship bias to rifled arms.