InRange is entirely viewer supported: / inrangetv In this video, Sinistral Rifleman and I see how far away we can go and still hit with a smoothbore flintlock pistol.
@@Gatlinggunman shh.. you said the words that shall not be said. mind your fingers lest they be gobbled up by the ... whatever demon lives inside of keyboards. ;)
@@christopherfuss2348 a load of crap from a has-been (really never-was) gunmaker taking oodles of dark money to pretend monolithic polymer receivers are their idea.
Got my dad a flintlock for Christmas last year and they are so fun. The loading is relaxing, the smoke is satisfying, and the flash is exciting. It's the kind of activity you could do all day off the back porch when hanging out with your friend/relative/etc.
@@george2113 "I don't know why you're so annoyed, it's not like I shot your kids. Ok, yeah, I may have grazed the little one a little bit but she's fine and will be walking again in no time." 🤣
The handle isn't shaped like that because they thought it was ergonomic, it's shaped like that to double as a blunt weapon when you fired your only shot and missed.
I think the grip angle had something to do with bludgeoning litterbugs to death after you've missed your shot. The angle makes some sense in that context.
4:12 As someone who playes Empire, and has gone to the trouble of giving (almost) ALL their flagbearers pistols...I wholeheartedly suppot this statement.
I wonder how you and Russel would fare if you had a brace of 1851's and he had a brace of 1860's. The difference between the .36 vs the .44 should make for interesting results. Maybe another spinner challenge?
3:00: 😁 arguably if they only left their actual "shit" in the desert it would be less of an issue than their garbage. The organic matter would dissolve over short time.
I believe the reason, if I remember something I read long ago correctly, was they wanted the pistol at sort of a downward angle. Most pistols were fired from horseback, usually into infantry, so with the grip shaped the way it was holding it out leant into a downward angle naturally, aiming instinctively toward the infantry or artillerymen the cavalry were charging
You'd be amazed at the groups some of the real nut balls in my old organization could put together at 100 yards with smoothbore muskets. And that was shooting offhand, in period garb, with the period equipment. About the only thing modern anyone was allowed to use was the old capplugs or various other plastic containers for holding individual loads of powder as opposed to a powder thrower or assembled charges as they were done at the time. Though there were a few who would go so far as to roll those up. They obviously weren't as tight as what the rifled muskets would group, but there were some guys that could get surprisingly close.
most fights on ships took place point blank. but some shots would be fired between two ships before boarding, during boarding maybe 50 yards at the most. it was too much commotion on ships during piracy to make "long shots" large crews with point blank shots happened more than long range
A very sweet recommendation for a video (I plan to do it on my channel, but you're much bigger than me) Talk about just how good a flintlock would be in an SHTF situation. Have your primary defensive platform, and a flintlock. Black powder being easy to make, not needing to source caps and just find something to make a spark. Can load with anything if it is smoothbore. Great for long term sustainability in a situation where resupply isn't an option
I wonder if the grip angle is due more to structural reasons than ergonomics, especially because the guys making them likely weren't exactly pistoleros. I imagine it also wasn't that big of a concern back then, whereas today we examine and critique every miniscule detail of a gun on the internets.
I think the one handed grip is likely better with those guns. Especially standing sideways, like depicted in those old manual sketches. Just keep steady, point, and shoot.
I think it would be a good idea to carry a spare ramrod (simple wooden dowel?) and leave the original on the gun. Losing that in the desert would *suck*
So many things, so short a video. I will go by numbers: 1. "It's really sad when you lose your balls" - too soon Karl, too soon 2. Sinister Rifleman is DEFINITELY boarding axe/brace of pistols guy 3. Sinister - if you force to do those blackpowder videos, blink twice. 4. If you’re finding a lot of cans of the same beer it means this beer is cheap. It might be cheap and good beer, but cheap is the defining characteristics of that beer. 5. Midshipman? At his age? Definitely marine sergeant That's all, waiting for next video.
Wondering if the design of the grip is to save the web of your hand if you loaded so much powder that it kicks like a mule. Makes a difference with stockless shotguns anyway.
Maybe a dumb question, but… what benefit did early muskets give over bow and arrow? Because it seems to me that loading a musket is so slow that in the same time you could fire several arrows.
Karl gives me DnD DM vibes. "You hit him right in the throat, you hear him gargle away GRLRLRL!- is that your turn? do you want to move or stay where you are? bonus action?"
We definitely need an InRange (20, 50 with Disadvantage) D&D session, where they all medieval-fantasify themselves (Ian, being so damned nimble, would have to be Wood Elf or Tabaxi).
Equipment: one flintlock pistol, one sword {preferably a cutlass or other 18th-century style sword), scabbard or sash, power flask, shot bag, ammunition, eyepatch, tricorne hat or headscarf, parrot (optional). No croc-o-diles containing loose women, please. Targets: one cardboard silhouette, three watermelons representing heads, one 10-kg wooden box (treasure chest), and one lime. Each contestant will charge through the line of targets, scoring one killing sword blow on each watermelon and one pistol shot on the silhouette, to reach the treasure located fifty meters from the start box, Upon reaching the treasure, the contestant will reload his pistol and eat the lime to guard against scurvy. Having completed the reload and the lime, the contestant will carry the treasure under one arm and charge back through the targets to the start box, making sword and pistol hits as before. Scoring will be on accuracy and time as is customary in Brutality matches. Any contestant whose optional parrot remains loyally perched on his or her shoulder during the run wins by default. Ties will be resolved by a spelling contest.
I used to love Karl, but after this video I literally have lost all respect for him. I thought he was a kind and couth person, but after seeing him MOLEST that firearm with BOTH hands in such an UNGENTLEMANLY way I now believe he lives his life as some sort of fraudulent braggart!
5:10 There's actually a story about a military surgeon who was fighting a duel but insisted on being naked for it as he knew from experience that clothing pushed into the wound by the large slow bullets of the time would cause the wound to fester.
this was a common belief and we see the same situation happening with sword duels of the same period. This lead to the "famous" topless duel between two Austrian noble women.
Love the videos with these old weapons. During the Napoleonic wars, an experienced British cavalry officer said. 'We never saw a pistol made use of except to shoot a glandered horse'. I suppose at sea it might have been a bit different. In Royal Navy boarding parties, they were often carried in chest rigs which held up to four pistols.
56 caliber! There are some elected lawmakers who have stated that's just way too big for civilians to use and should be banned. Add to that these things didn't get serial numbers so they're the OG ghost guns.
If i remember correctly "pistol range" in the Navy as range name in XVII / XVIII century was range between hull with and two hull with, so between 15 and 30 yards (closer then 15 was "half range"). Of course it was only a term, but it suggests that this was the maximum range of a successful pistol shot. In the Royal Navy, this was the range considered optimal for heavier warships, and the half-range for lighter ships.
Russells secret is mumbling blessings to the omnissiah under his breath and loading the correct firing solutions into his memory coils because tha'ts what Skitarii do 😁
One of my favorite lines from period naval novels is "Mr. So-and-so, lay us alongside at pistol shot and give them the full broadside!" This in particular gives us a hell of a lot of perspective on just how close that means.
Karl, it looks like you must have accidentally picked up one of those sinister pistols on accident. Hope you kept the receipt and can trade it in for the dextrous version.
@@cymond We are dealing here with 3D chess shitposting. It is pretend Spoonerism, acted out with the outmost seriousness. So it is, like the Schrodinger's cat, simultaneously a Spoonerism and also not a Spoonerism. And also uncontroversially true: to lose one's own balls would be indeed sad .
@@erikawhelan4673 I never argue with a lady, and indeed i was wrong to call it a spoonerism: but a double entendre is delivered with an implicit wink. But it was delivered without it, But we know it was intentional. So what was it?
Just spent a week prospecting in the black hills and we got jackwagons leaving all sort of shit out in the woods. I packed 4 garbage bags of trash that wasnt mine out while I was out there. People are suck
So, I have a little knowledge in the area of what was typical armament for a naval servicemen of the period (particularly in the Royal Navy): a brace of pistols would typically be between 2 and 6, as Karl correctly points out, some people, such as pirates, carried more than that sometimes many more. It wasn't uncommon for officers especially captains or quartermasters, aboard British naval vessels of the period to carry a brace during boarding action. Marines, who's main job was to provide fire from the fighting tops and lead boarding parties were commonly armed with musket and bayonette but again officers would likely have carried a small brace in addition. Seamen or mates would be unlikely to be armed with guns at all with pikes, cutlass and boarding axe being the more likely weapons for them. However what is "typical" varied wildly from navy to navy and even from ship to ship. A ship captained by a captain with a particular predilection for boarding action might make sure his ship's armoury was stocked with many pistols so as to arm as many of his men in that way as he could. But conversely a captain who preferred to keep range and get the enemy to strike their colours through force of their main battery cannons might stock the ship with fewer small arms and more cannon ball and powder. Captains of the period had much more leeway to make decision about the composition of their ship's supplies and armament than they do today and when on campaign or on station far from home they would commonly take on new weapons and supplies such as they saw fit. It was not uncommon for them to relieve a defeated ship of it's weapons if it was not possible to take it as a prize, particularly if raiding or sailing as buccaneers. Pirates were of course had a less strictly hierarchical structure in many cases and were therefore prone to taking anything they could get their hands on for personal use meaning that even a gunners mate or topman might have a brace of pistols at their disposal. But it should be noted that such weapons were also reasonably valuable and so might be considered loot to be divided among the crew as such.
i honestly love InRange approach to early guns. Many channels treat those things (black powder guns i mean, from flintlock to cap and ball) with lab levels of care. I am not saying keeping your gun in amazing condition is a bad thing, however, as for example with using the same powder for pan and into barrel, many things are unnecesarry.
The grip angle and the brass chunky pummel seem to imply (to me anyway) this was intended as a pummeling implement as much as a shooter. You could even grab it by the barrel and use it as a hammer..
"That guy's gagging on that beer right now." I mean... it was Tecate, so I'm pretty sure that's how it goes down normally. And shooting a pistol with two hands like a scallywag! Karl, it looks like you're pushing it low. You've got that push well after trigger pull that would be fine with a modern pistol, because it's after the bullet would leave the barrel, but during recoil, and would actually help with recoil control. It's just the lock time on that thing is measured with a calendar that it's messing you up.
Something about Karl calling people fucking cretins while loading a flintlock pistol is oddly menacing, gave me a really good chuckle. Thank you for the great content, folks!
I think the comment about patched roundball is dependent on the time, nationality and weapon in question. As I'm fairly certain that there is written evidence to suggest that british riflemen during the napolionic wars were encoraged to use patches when shooting for accuracy. I am however, by no means an expert (just intereseted) so I could be completely wrong.
I want a new style 21st century gun with black polymer that's actually a muzzleloader and an old school muzzleloader looking gun that actually shoots modern ammo. Imagine this gun but it shoots 12 gauge and would definitely be light loaded.
I mean that's not really anything that wild, a hammered coach gun looks an awful lot like a flintlock/caplock to someone who doesn't know the difference, and there are plenty of modern inline muzzleloaders that look very modern with synthetic stocks and have modern optics.
So, in terms of practical range, consider the classic pistol duel. 10 paces between the opponents (with the standard American pace being about 2.5 feet, a long stride with one foot) would mean about 50 feet between the parties, so less than 20 yards. And it was not considered unusual if both parties missed.
Limited shot capacity, crappy reload capability, incredibly short affective range. It can shoot a variety of ammunition but nun of them are really great. This piston must of been the inspiration for the Taurus judge lol
