Waterloo Weapons In Slow Motion, By Royal Armouries
This past weekend was the bicentennial anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon was defeated by the combined armies of the British and Prussians, and which marked the transition of Europe into a four-decade-long peace that would only be interrupted by the Crimean War in 1853.
Waterloo occurred in an era of flintlock primed blackpowder weapons, two examples being the India Pattern Musket (a variant of the famous Brown Bess) and the Model 1805 Baker Rifle. Royal Armouries released slow-motion footage of both weapons being fired in time for the anniversary:
Either video clearly shows how the flintlock priming mechanism works, and how dramatic the delay between pulling the trigger and ignition is. The priming mechanism obscures the sight picture and irritates the shooter – a good reason for many of these early weapons to not have particularly good sights, and the ball meanders lazily out the bore, followed by ejecta that resembles a rocket or jet engine’s exhaust.
However, all this pain and anguish had a major payoff: The terminal effectiveness of the unjacketed lead ball when it hit the target is undeniable, with the embedded bone being shattered into tiny pieces and a major temporary wound cavity being made in the path of the projectile.
Nathaniel is a history enthusiast and firearms hobbyist whose primary interest lies in military small arms technological developments beginning with the smokeless powder era. He can be reached via email at nathaniel.f@staff.thefirearmblog.com.
More by Nathaniel F
Comments
Join the conversation
Not to mention that the slow moving lead ball also did a good job of dragging pieces of dirt cover clothing deep into the body. If the bullet didn't kill the target, the infection certainly did.
It's actually not that bad to shoot a flintlock. The flash hole is on the right, so it vents away from a right handed shooter. You really just notice a puff of warm gas on your forehead. The trick is also to not put too much powder in the pan and to have the pile of powder on the far side of the pan. You want the flash to jump into the barrel, not for a trail of powder to burn in like a fuse. Of course, soldiers primed by spilling a little bit of powder from a paper cartridge, so they often put more than was necessary while under stress.
Fantastic videos. As a black powder, flintlock shooter and I have always been fascinated by all of this.