A lot of us country people
use guns often. Whether it is hunting, practicing for self defense, or just
shooting for the fun of it, we use guns. But I don’t know how many of us know
much of our gun history.
It all started with the
invention of gunpowder. There are notations of gunpowder as early as 142 ad.
After that, cannons and hand-cannones were slow to follow, probably around
1346. The hand-cannones were a two-man operation; one person would steady the
weapon, while the other touched a slow match to the touch hole.
Next up was the matchlock
gun, invented in 1425. This was just an improvement from the hand cannon. There
was a rather unusual looking stock on most, with the barrel attached as is
usual now. You would load powder, then wad and shot or patched round ball down
the barrel. There was a hole at the very back of the barrel on one side that
connected to a touch pan. To fire, you would have to load it, blow up a bright
coal on the slow match, then pull the trigger. Sometimes it even fired!
In 1612 the flintlock musket
was introduced. At this point, it was smoothbore, mostly for versatility and
cost, I assume. Soon after the Brown Bess was invented and widely used. In America
The first real center fire
cartridge was made in 1852. In this, the primer, powder and bullet were a
contained unit, making reloading much easier.
The first repeaters were the
Spenser and the Henry in 1860.
And from that, we now have a
few different modern types of guns, which are separated by what action they
are. The action is how the gun is fired. We have:
·
Single action revolvers (you have to cock the hammer to fire)
·
Double action revolvers (you don’t have to cock the hammer)
·
Semi auto pistols
(you just pull the trigger as fast as you can)
·
Single shot guns
·
Pump shotguns
·
Lever action guns
·
Bolt action
rifles
·
Semi auto rifles
So there is your gun history
lesson, now let’s discuss some interesting bullets.
1. The multiple
22’s
There
is, in 22 caliber, the 22 short, 22 long rifle, 22 magnum, 22 TCM (which is a
223 shell shortened and necked), 22 jet (the 357 mag necked down to a 22), 22
hornet, 220 swift, and 22-250. Yes, most of these started out as wildcat cartridges.
2. 25-06
This
interesting varmint rifle is a 30-06 necked down to .257”. It was invented in
1959. It will get 3, 200 feet per second with a 100 grain bullet.
3. 4 Bore
If
this sounds like a big gun, it’s not. It is a HUGE gun! There are not many out
there, and they are heavy brutes. With a heavy load they will shoot a quarter
pound projectile pushed by 440 grains of black-powder. That heavy load is
almost too big for a shooter of any size to shoot safely. It is said to have
over 8,000 foot pounds of energy. This gun was for elephants and the like in Africa .
4. Smith and
Wesson .500
I am
pretty sure this is currently the biggest cartridge handgun made. At 69 ounces,
it is pretty heavy. With its 8” barrel, it can deliver 2,600 foot pounds of
energy. A 44 magnum delivers 993 ft Ibs. It is running for $1,369.
Until next time, see ya!
-Caleb
