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Early German musket with serpentine lock. A matchlock or firelock [1] is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of flammable cord or twine that is in contact with the gunpowder through a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with their finger.
Japanese ashigaru firing hinawajū.Night-shooting practice, using ropes to maintain proper firing elevation. Tanegashima (), most often called in Japanese and sometimes in English hinawajū (火縄銃, "matchlock gun"), was a type of matchlock-configured [1] arquebus [2] firearm introduced to Japan through the Portuguese Empire in 1543. [3]
The Swedish infantry musket, or the Swedish Land Pattern Musket, was a muzzle-loaded 0.63 (16.002 mm) to 0.81 (20.7mm) [7]-inch calibre smoothbored long gun.These weapons were in service within the Royal Swedish Army from the mid-16th century until the mid-19th century.
Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately 120 m/s (390 ft/s) to 370 m/s (1,200 ft/s) in black powder muskets, [3] to more than 1,200 m/s (3,900 ft/s) [4] in modern rifles with high-velocity cartridges such as the .220 Swift and .204 Ruger, all the way to 1,700 m/s (5,600 ft/s) [5] for tank guns firing kinetic energy penetrator ammunition.
This gave the rifled musket an effective range of several hundred yards, which was a significant improvement over the smooth bore musket. For example, combat ranges of 300 yd (270 m) were achievable using the rifled muskets during the American Civil War. [18]
The Union Irish Brigade retained their smoothbore muskets until late so they could fire buck and ball during the relatively close range battles. [2] The 12th New Jersey Infantry Regiment also preferred to use buck and ball, which they did to deadly effect at Gettysburg, and so continued carrying smoothbore muskets.
This was Japan's first locally made service rifle, and was used from 1880 to 1898. An industrial infrastructure, such as the Koishikawa Arsenal had to be established to produce such new weapons. Later, Japan developed the very successful bolt action Arisaka series rifles, which was the Japanese service rifle until the end of World War II. [28]
Musket "Fitiljača" (named after the slow match used to ignite the gunpowder) used by the Serbian Army in the 15th century. Slow match, also called match cord, is the slow-burning cord or twine fuse used by early gunpowder musketeers, artillerymen, and soldiers to ignite matchlock muskets, cannons, shells, and petards.