A History of Muzzleloaders

The muzzle-loading gun across five centuries and every continent — hand cannon to rifle-musket, the wars it fought, and the designs that worked.

Firearms

Search every volume:

?

How to search

sten gun
pages with both words
"sten gun"
the words together, as a phrase
sten OR sterling
either one (| works too)
sten -replica
leave out pages that mention “replica”

Without quotes, the last word also matches longer words that start with it (sten finds Stenophylla), and close word forms count (rifle finds rifles). Tick Exact words to match whole words only.

Whole deep dives are listed first, then the pages inside them.

    Volumes

    1. Vol 1 Overview: What a Muzzleloader Is, and the 500-Year Arc
    2. Vol 2 Before the Lock: Gunpowder, Fire Lances & the Hand Cannon (1300s–1400s)
    3. Vol 3 The Matchlock: The First Firearm Lock, and the Age of the Musketeer
    4. Vol 4 The Wheellock: Clockwork Ignition and the First Pistols
    5. Vol 5 Flint's False Starts: Snaphance, Miquelet & Doglock
    6. Vol 6 The Flintlock: The Lock That Ruled a Century and a Half
    7. Vol 7 The Great Muskets: Brown Bess, Charleville & the Age of Linear Warfare
    8. Vol 8 Rifling and the American Long Rifle: Accuracy on the Frontier
    9. Vol 9 Muzzleloaders at Sea: Naval Arms, the Blunderbuss & the Pirates
    10. Vol 10 Around the World: Tanegashima, Toradar, Jezail & the Trade Gun
    11. Vol 11 The Percussion Cap: The Last Great Leap
    12. Vol 12 The Minié Ball & the Rifle-Musket: Muzzleloading's Deadly Peak
    13. Vol 13 The Great, the Good, and the Worthless: A Verdict on the Designs
    14. Vol 14 The End and the Afterlife: Cartridges, Obsolescence & the Revival