|
Rifled Musket
A rifled musket, rifle musket, or rifle-musket is a type of firearm made in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred only to muskets that had been produced as a smoothbore weapon and later had their barrels replaced with rifled barrels. The term later included rifles that directly replaced, and were of the same design overall as, a particular model of smoothbore musket. History and development In the early 19th century, there were rifles, and there were muskets. Muskets were smoothbore muzzle-loading weapons, firing round lead balls or buck and ball ammunition, that were also designed to accept a bayonet. Rifles were similar in that they used the same kind of flintlock or caplock firing mechanism, but the main difference was that their barrels were rifled – that is, their barrels had grooves cut into the interior surface which would cause the bullet to spin as it left the barrel. Rifles have the advantage of long range accuracy, because spinning bullets hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Springfield 1861
The Springfield Model 1861 was a Minié-type rifled musket used by the United States Army and Marine Corps during the American Civil War. Commonly referred to as the "Springfield" (after its original place of production, Springfield, Massachusetts). It was the most widely used Union Army shoulder weapon during the Civil War, favored for its range, accuracy, and reliability. Overview The barrel was long, firing a .58 caliber Minié ball, and the total weight was approximately . The Model 1861 had a general effective range of but could reliably hit man-sized targets out to when used by marksmen, and used percussion caps which were much more reliable and weather resistant to fire (rather than the flintlocks of the 18th century; the last U.S. flintlock musket was the Springfield Model 1840). Well-trained troops were able to fire at a rate of three aimed shots per minute while maintaining accuracy up to , though firing distances in the war were often much shorter. The most no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sharpshooter
A sharpshooter is one who is highly proficient at firing firearms or other projectile weapons accurately. Military units composed of sharpshooters were important factors in 19th-century combat. Along with " marksman" and "expert", "sharpshooter" is one of the three marksmanship badges awarded by the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps. The United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard use a ribbon with an attached "S" device to note a sharpshooter qualification. History Post-American Revolution (1794–1815) Some of the earliest mentions of rifling and sharpshooting units in the United States originate in the time following the American Revolutionary War and during the War of 1812. The US army abolished rifle units following the war in 1783, but they were later revived under General Anthony Wayne and used in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.Shock Troops of the Confederacy, Fred L. Ray The unit was again disbanded in 1796 following the conclusion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Repeating Rifle
A repeating rifle is a single-barreled rifle capable of repeated discharges between each ammunition reloads. This is typically achieved by having multiple cartridges stored in a magazine (within or attached to the gun) and then fed individually into the chamber by a reciprocating bolt, via either a manual or automatic action mechanism, while the act of chambering the round typically also recocks the hammer/ striker for the following shot. In common usage, the term "repeating rifle" most often refers specifically to manual repeating rifles (e.g. lever-action, pump-action, bolt-action, etc.), as opposed to self-loading rifles, which use the recoil and/or blowback of the previous shot to cycle the action and load the next round, even though all self-loading firearms are technically a subcategory of repeating firearms. Repeating rifles were a significant advance over the preceding single-shot breechloading rifles when used for military combat, as they allowed a much greater ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breech-loading Weapon
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition ( cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle). Modern firearms are generally breech-loading – except for replicas of vintage weapons. Early firearms before the mid-19th century were almost entirely muzzle-loading. Mortars and the Russian GP-25 grenade launcher are the only muzzleloaders remaining in frequent modern usage. However, referring to a weapon specifically as breech loading is mostly limited to single-shot or otherwise non-repeating firearms, such as double-barreled shotguns. Breech-loading provides the advantage of reduced reloading time, because it is far quicker to load the projectile and propellant into the chamber of a gun/cannon than to reach all the way over to the front end to load ammunition and then push them back down a long tube – especially when the projectile fits tightly and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Single-shot
Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many centuries passed before multi-shot repeater designs became commonplace. Compared to repeating firearms, single-shot designs have no moving parts (other than the trigger and hammer/ firing pin or frizzen) and thus do not need a sizable receiver behind the barrel, and are much less complex than revolvers or magazine/belt-fed firearms. Although largely disappeared from military usage due to the slow rates of fire, single-shot designs are still produced by many manufacturers in both cartridge- and non-cartridge varieties, from zip guns to the highest-quality hunting and match guns. History Pre-cartridge era The vast majority of firearms before the introduction of metallic cartridges from the 1860s onwards, were single-shot muzzleloaders. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Repeating Rifle
The Spencer repeating rifles and carbines were 19th-century American lever-action firearms invented by Christopher Spencer. The Spencer was the world's first military metallic-cartridge repeating rifle, and over 200,000 examples were manufactured in the United States by the Spencer Repeating Rifle Co. and Burnside Rifle Co. between 1860 and 1869. The Spencer repeating rifle was adopted by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil War but did not replace the standard issue muzzle-loading rifled muskets in use at the time. Among the early users was George Armstrong Custer. The Spencer carbine was a shorter and lighter version designed for the cavalry. Design The Spencer is a lever-action repeating rifle designed by Christopher Spencer in 1860. It uses a falling breechblock mounted in a carrier. Firing forces are contained by the receiver at the rear of the breechblock. Actuating the loading lever causes the breechblock to fall. Once the breechb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Springfield Model 1861
The Springfield Model 1861 was a Minié-type rifled musket used by the United States Army and Marine Corps during the American Civil War. Commonly referred to as the "Springfield" (after its original place of production, Springfield, Massachusetts). It was the most widely used Union Army shoulder weapon during the Civil War, favored for its range, accuracy, and reliability. Overview The barrel was long, firing a .58 caliber Minié ball, and the total weight was approximately . The Model 1861 had a general effective range of but could reliably hit man-sized targets out to when used by marksmen, and used percussion caps which were much more reliable and weather resistant to fire (rather than the flintlocks of the 18th century; the last U.S. flintlock musket was the Springfield Model 1840). Well-trained troops were able to fire at a rate of three aimed shots per minute while maintaining accuracy up to , though firing distances in the war were often much shorter. The most not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minié Rifle
The Minié rifle was an important infantry rifle of the mid-19th century. A version was adopted in 1849 following the invention of the Minié ball in 1847 by the French Army captain Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d'Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne. The bullet was designed to allow rapid muzzle loading of rifles, and was an innovation that brought about the widespread use of the rifle as the main battlefield weapon for individual soldiers. The French adopted it following difficulties encountered by the French army in North Africa, where their muskets were outranged by long-barreled weapons which were handcrafted by their Algerian opponents. The Minié rifle belonged to the category of rifled muskets. Mechanism The rifle used a conical-cylindrical shaped soft lead bullet, slightly smaller than the barrel bore, with three exterior grease-filled peripheral grooves and a conical hollow in its base. When fired, the expanding gas forcibly pushed on the skirted base o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean, and the city has been dubbed "The American Riviera". According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the city's population was 88,665. In addition to being a popular tourist and resort destination, the city has a diverse economy that includes a large service sector, education, technology, health care, finance, agriculture, manufacturing, and local government. In 2004, the service sector accounted for 35% of local employment. Education in particular is well represented, with four institutions of higher learning nearby: the University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara City C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
