Wheellock 101: History and Shooting 

thanks so much for making sure the descriptions are being taken care of, it always makes me a bit sad to see something interesting at a museum, just to find out all they have written about it is a name and maybe a date.

@@sliceofbread2611 The Horten 229 at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is just tucked away in a corner with the wings folded and taken off of it, but at least it's on display.

Which museum was this!?

That's really cool

Myrth, I was expecting an history about how you had yo use a wheel lock yo stop stop some terrorists attacking the museum. :-(

D&D has a lot of inspiration from these too

What is it called

That's interesting! I'm writing a fantasy book as well that has American Civil War-era black powder rifles(and other weaponry).

😂 I'm here from the OSE carcass crawler issue #1! Glad I'm not the only fantasy nerd doing my homework! 🙌🤣

Make a gay sex scene with thug shakers and BWC

Gen Z: "I don't see any problem with that."

@@T33K3SS3LCH3N "My main goal is to blow up."

I was wondering about that, else youd be at greater risk for your powder flying away...

that makes me like this design waaay better now, it seemed kind of wonky before that since the loose powder on the pan could have easily slid off by tilting the gun slightly

Even some matchlocks had pan covers that were linked to the trigger. I don't think such a link was universal for wheel-locks, as this example doesn't include it.

@@johncoffin9354 I was thinking exactly the same.

Some did, on others you had to manually uncover the pan before firing.

imagine hunting with one of those..

If you want to get into black powder easily but don’t want some giant rifle or ineffective single shot pistol with lots of supplies get into black powder revolvers, you still get magic of loading but you also get to use something that is still somewhat modern and effective.

@@someguy5444 Having started shooting cap and ball revolvers recently, I'll second this. There's something deeply meditative about it.

Absolutely!!!

And the way Ian said “pheh” made it sound like the weapon was just laughing at the operator

If it leaves gun jesus' lips it is GOSPEL so sayeth us all.

I doubt I can find it but I saw a video by a hema group who makes mostly historically accurate shorts about duels and one had a guy with a pistol. It was awesome to see. I totally agree though. Wish Hollywood would make an actually good medieval movie.

It’s a bit missleading, as „ritter” (medieval knight) and reiter german cavalry are totally different things. Whell-lock armed reiters were more akin to popular in popculture french musketeers, only mounted, armed with a rapier or longer blade and iconic pair of wheel-locks. Usefulness of those guns was so high they were often used by other cavalry formations like winged hussars or other medium „pancerni” (or even cossacs, if they had money for it - or got the weapon as a trophy) as backup weapon.

Winged Hussars come to mind.

Thirty Years War and English Civil Wars were pretty much that.

Italian wars, holy league war, 1500s in general the term cuirassieur is applied to “knights with guns” for 15-1600s cavalry the last of them in England fighting in the civil war but by then the armor was quite ugly and utilitarian compared to the full plate of the 1500s

BeoZard A similar concern has been had with the crossbow before, because you could carry it around loaded and didn't need to be as skilled as an archer.

I have not hear of wheel locks being carried under cloths (remember they are rather heavy and clothing at this time was rather tight) but I might be wrong. One fun fact about these guns is that some nobles really did not like the idea of these weapons used in war because they were too effective! They didn't like the idea that a commoner could kill a noble in full armor! Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) this was a small minority.

While you didn't need as much practice (although you still needed a lot of that to be truly effective) the reason why crossbowmen were so expensive (and they were) was because they had to maintain their weapon on campaign. You needed good technical skill to do that. Plus most crossbowmen operated in teams, with not only the operator, but also a shield bearer who carried a large Pavis shield. The weapon themselves were also far more complex and difficult to make than a bow. You also have to remember that peasants were very fit from working in fields all day so the higher draw strength required for a bow wasn't really a issue. Finally, most archers fired in large volleys in the general direction of the enemy, they didn't have to be very accurate. Just some fun facts! Have a good day!

Plus the operating mechanisms on the high powered crossbows, like windlasses and crannequins, can kill you if they are attached wrong and fly off whilst holding a 1000Ib of draw weight. There was a lot of skill required to use crossbows well too.

This only really applies to pistol bows, which could be concealed like wheellock pistols. Standard crossbows were old hat by this point. They wer briefly banned by a papal bull quite early, but everyone ignored this and carried on using them anyway.

Could without doubt be a statement from David Fletcher from the "Tank Chats"... Was my first thought when he said that....

It was. Hence no shoulder stock as crossbows have practically no recoil.

@@ingridchristiansen4367 thats a lie a military style crossbow 700lbs+ has decent but of recoil watch some of tod's workshop videos(he's makes high quality repro cross bow

@@paullytle1904, "that's a lie" How do you know it was a lie? A lie is an intentional untruth. Do you have evidence that they knew what they were saying was untrue, or are you just a dick?

@@paullytle1904 it's not rearward recoil that goes into your shoulder though, it's frontward recoil from the string releasing and whipping forward which still explains why crossbows had little to no shoulder stock, similar to an open bolt submachine guns' bolt chugging forward when you pull the trigger on an empty mag

@@paullytle1904 no recoil AT ALL

John O ́neil the spring was brittle and irreplaceable in field conditions so it was used only by cavalry.

I imagine that would work fine for a while, but you'd quickly wear down the serrations on the wheel and have to replace it, which in those days would require custom fitting by a gunsmith.

@@brucetucker4847 wouldn't it just kind of chip off rather than create sparks, as the angle of the flint on the wheel is almost 90 degrees, compared to the much steeper angle at which the flint strikes the "thing" on a flintlock? i have no idea here because i have little knowledge in this field.

If the wheel was smooth but hardened, that would give hotter sparks. That would make it as reliable as a snaphaunce. Probably is it's precursor. Would have to see the wheel to know if the museum screwed up.

@@sliceofbread2611 the flint doesn't make sparks, the iron or steel partially igniting or getting red-hot is what ignites the pan. Flint is harder than steel and thus shaves off a very tiny portion of it--the spark. The angles/setup would not allow the 'hammer' to cut the steel wheel, really.

@@cheyannei5983 thank you for educating me :)

Specifically, I would love to see him get into the differences between stuff like snaplock, doglock, snaphaunce and miquelet locks.

That was the first thing I thought when I saw the title of this video.

That’s litterally the shit he normally does

@@TheRealColBosch considering wheellock is the most expensive and short lived mechanism out there, i'm pretty sure he will get beaten to death lol

@@muhamadsayyidabidin3906 well, it is a replica to be fair. Still not gonna be a cheap one though.

So much tech, Is really simplifying a system. A neat one to see that with, Is brake systems on heavy trucks.....

They need to be cleaned after each tenth shot or so. Crumbs from the pyrite and slimy powder residues can block the wheel. The pancover will not slide anymore or at least slower than necessary. Otherwise: great fun

I was just thinking that, how strange it is that flintlock replaced matchlock when it seems so much simpler. Benefit of hindsight, I suppose.

@@ingridchristiansen4367 Whellocks were not really intended to be reloaded in the heat of battle, especially with cavalry: they often carried a bunch of pistols, and fired them individually at the enemy before charging in. Exception being if they just fired them at the enemy and then retreated to reload.

Where I live guns are just normal part of life. Hunting for sustenance is widely available. We have the most BLM land(Bureau of Land Management/AKA: Public owned land) than any other lower 48 states as well as the largest continuous prehistoric wilderness in the U.S. excluding Alaska. If you add the one other connecting wilderness and seven National Forests that surround it, it's a contiguous 3.3million acres of roadless wilderness in the Rocky Mountains. Also, if the states mountains were laid flat the state would be bigger than Texas. Taking personal responsibility for safety as well as militia purposes is widely acceptable and encouraged. Naturally, hobby and sport shooting go hand in hand with those as well. So I've had a lifetime of experience with everything old and modern including military and defense, hunting and sport, rifles, shotguns, pistol. Even cannons, compressed air rifles and guns. Potato guns and cannons that use liquid fuel propellant and pumpkin cannons.... MY POINT: Muzzleloader rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers are probably my favorite to shoot! They are just so much fun for some reason. You owe it yourself, even if you gotta pay someone to take you out and make sure you're loading it right and being safe. Go out and shoot at some stuff. If they ever banned firearms or handguns I would do like Black Beard Pirate and walk around with 8 or 10 big bore black powder pistols strapped to the outside of chest! See if they like that better. That's not to say that I would actually give up my handguns.

It basically is a lighter!

Black Roberts wheel locks, Flint locks and snauphaunces where all designed of a modification of Flint and steel, which where the lighters of the period!

It is one

Thanks for the reply, but I already know it. I just got so facsinated with it. Sorry for the misunderstanding :) .

Ye olde Bic.

with matchlocks and cavalry to replace the scorestreaks :D

And them imagine them adding an axehead or warpick to the muzzle.