Revolutionary France faced a problem: How could it mass produce cheap firearms with a shortage of heavy machinery and skilled gunsmiths? The answer: this thing.

Please support us at: https://www.patreon.com/capandball Here are some of my reenactor friends with Bálint Morlin in command. They are demonstrating the standard procedure for firing matchlock and wheelock firearms during the first part of the 30 years war. These guys are just starting the target...

Please support us at: https://www.patreon.com/capandball Here is a short clip about firing a wheelock carbine repro. It is fired in the 'shooters' way, not as they were loaded back in the old times.

Please support us at https://www.patreon.com/capandball For buying Capandball Civil War cartridge boxes: http://stores.ebay.com/Capandball?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 It started as a short shooting test, and ended as an experimental archaeology project. The wheel lock pistol and cavalry tactics of the...

Wheel locks are one of the less common types of early firearm ignition systems, as the were much more expensive as the contemporary flintlocks. The wheel lock had a major advantage in reliability, though. Many surviving wheel locks are quite ornate guns, as they were valuable enough to be kept aw...

Breechloading firearms did not become commonplace until the 1800s, but talented gunsmiths were experimenting with the concept and building custom breechloaders since virtually the very invention of firearms in the West. This is a magnificent example of an advanced German gun commissioned by a buy...

When someone makes a "fake" historical gun, they can do so with the intent to deceive or be up-front with the gun's new manufacture. Those acknowledged reproductions are a great option to have - guns like Uberti reproduction revolvers give us an excellent opportunity to shoot antique designs with...

Today, for your consideration and appreciation, a pair of late 16th century Saxon wheel lock pistols.

The wheel lock was one of the first types of early gun or firearm, developed as an alternative to the simple but problematic matchlock musket. The wheellock uses an iron pyrite set against a spinning serrated wheel to produce sparks to fire a charge of black powder. The wheel lock was complex and...

These wheellock hand mortars, or katzenkopf, are an example of a weapon made and used for everything from front line military application to civilian parades to simple decoration. The pair we are looking at today are of the middle sort - they are signaling arms or firework launchers in the German...