RE: (TFT) Re: Stuff

["grabowski" <grabowski@erols.com>]

Jim stated,


The slower times I suspect represent the earliest of weapons before they
started prepackaging shot and powder together along with some form of
firing drill. My players did run around with a 3 pounder saker gun for a
while, the ultimate door knocker! During the 30 years war, the artillery
crews of these light battalion guns fired faster than the arquebusers in
some cases! They could be handled by three people or one horse and the
earliest ones were made by wrapping a thin copper tube with leather!>>>>

Jim,

I have fired a lot of different types of blackpowder fire arms both
hand-held and artillery and the reloading time that Jackson gives for any of
these arms is way TOO MUCH!  I have even fired the hand-held "pipe" (hand
cannon) with a match without prepared rounds (horn only) and could fire it
almost twice a minute (TFT about 8-9 turns) from the start without training
(only watched it done once or twice.)

The arquebus BTW was developed about 1410 weighed about 10 pounds and was
approx. .72 caliber (big time stopping power).  Compared to the English
longbow it was slow to operate and inaccurate but this was made up for in
ease of training (days for the musket compared to years for the longbow) and
the fear the weapon itself cause (a BIG bang and lots of smoke).
Personally, I would say it should take no longer than 6 TFT turns to load
and one to fire.  BTW, the term arquebus or harquebus comes from German
meaning hook-gun (because of the use of a hook to steady it but it is easier
and faster to not use the hook).

I believe a "saker" is a six-pound gun, a three pound gun is a "falconette",
a four pound gun a "falcon", and the BIG guns are demi-culverins and
culverins.  The French named their guns after birds-of-prey or snakes.

Yours in Cidri,
Justin



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