A Little Gun History and Some Interesting Cartridges

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 most guns were rifled flintlocks, and were until the invention of the percussion cap in 1805, then the copper version in 1814. By 1826 most of the muzzle loading rifles of the day were either converted to percussion, or just made that way. In 1836 Samuel Colt patented his cap-and-ball revolver, which had six cylinders available to shoot as fast as you could cock the hammer.

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