Rifles and Muskets

During field exercises, an infantryman sights a target with his assault rifle, a descendant of the first firearms that date back six centuries in human history.

Introduction

The development, refinement and proliferation of the long arm stretches back more than 600 years. Simply defined as a long barrel, smooth or rifled bore, mounted on a wooden or synthetic stock that fires a projectile, ball, bullet, cartridge or slug, the rifle and shotgun have shaped the course of human history.

Since the invention of gunpowder in ninth-century China, innovative minds have contrived means to propel a lethal missile toward a target - man, beast or otherwise. The purpose has been varied, and the long arm has become an indispensible element of civilization as we know it. Early rifles and shotguns were the tools of empire-building and defence, deciding the outcomes of major battles and conflicts between armies East and West.

The long arm has also facilitated the colonization, settlement and economic development of hitherto unexplored, uncharted and little-known areas of the globe. It has been a means of survival, allowing the explorer and the settler to defend, feed and clothe their families. It has allowed generals to conquer. It has been an essential tool, weapon and environmental equalizer throughout modern human history.

As an instrument of warfare the rifle knows no peer in its personal prowess, transforming a man into a soldier. For decades, United States Marine Corps recruits have been required to commit the Rifleman's Creed to memory: 'This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless.'

The evolution of the rifle from the matchlock arquebus, a smoothbore musket widely in use from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, to the development of the modern assault rifle, automatic rifle and submachine gun, the long arm in its military application has been intended to maximize the combat effectiveness of the soldier. In the civilian world, the rifle has taken its place among hunters and sportsmen, and for many the ownership and proper use of the rifle is considered a right of passage for young people. The modern shotgun shares a similar lineage from the seventeenth-century smoothbore blunderbuss that also found applications with the military and in civilian life.

In this woodcut, an arquebusier stands with his weapon across his shoulder. The arquebus was a muzzleloading firearm that was used from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

Improving Accuracy and Range

As the name implies, the difference between the rifle and the smoothbore musket is the 'rifling' of the long arm barrel. Rifling is most often defined as the machining of spiral grooves into the barrel of the weapon in order to cause the projectile to spin inside the barrel and during flight as it exits the weapon, resulting in greater accuracy and, in many cases, better range. Although the benefits of rifling had been known for some time, the rifle itself did not come into widespread use until the mid-eighteenth century.

Operational issues with early rifles and the need for a mass-produced long arm, capably filled by existing musket designs, delayed the rifle's introduction and, therefore, its ascendance to primacy among the world's armies and civilian firearm users. The musket, for a time, was sufficient for the battlefield. The musket's ball-shaped projectile was loosely accommodated inside the barrel and tended to bounce off the sides of the barrel when fired. The relatively low muzzle velocity of the projectile resulted in a shorter effective range and a shot that would usually begin to drop precipitously as it neared its target. However, the accuracy of the individual weapon was not as critical when ranks of soldiers were massed together to deliver a powerful volley - literally at times a wall of lead - against an enemy some distance away that was attempting to do the same thing.

Use of the long arm was limited at first due to rapid fouling of the barrel by black powder residue and the heavy smoke the weapon produced when fired, which often obscured targets and diminished any advantage gained by the greater range of the rifle. The time-consuming task of muzzle loading was also a problem. In the military, the early employment of the rifle was almost exclusively by sharpshooters, who most often operated alone. Civilian hunters also began using the rifle.

Although it was determined early in the eighteenth century that an elongated bullet, more aerodynamic than a round lead ball, would travel with greater speed and accuracy, little progress was made in ballistic design until the 1840s when Claude-Étienne Minié (1804-79) and others experimented with a new projectile that would eventually bear his name. Known as the Minié ball, the projectile revolutionized the employment of the long arm. The conical ball was made of soft lead with external grooves and a hollow, cone-shaped base. When the bullet was fired it expanded, 'grasping' the rifling in the firearm's barrel, closing any existing gap to trap the expanding thrust of the discharging powder and increasing the muzzle velocity of the projectile.

During the American Civil War, sharpshooters search for targets from the protection of a trench. This eyewitness sketch was completed during a prolonged siege, such as at Petersburg in 1864-65.

The Minié ball was packaged with the appropriate charge in a paper cartridge that was torn open by the operator. The powder was then poured down the barrel with the bullet following. A ramrod packed the charge tightly, and when the trigger was pulled the process produced the desired improvement in performance. The greater accuracy, velocity and range were accompanied by cleaner firing with reduced fouling of the rifle barrel with powder residue.

A variety of cartridges and bullets were utilized in early long arms, both smoothbore and rifled. This assortment includes the Minié ball, which revolutionized the accuracy and lethality of a weapon.

Rate of Fire

New rifle designs, such as the breechloader, that offered a much higher rate of fire than the muzzleloader began to steadily appear during the nineteenth century. Early rifles sometimes closely resembled the musket in appearance and operation, and were even referred to as 'rifled muskets'. Improved cartridges and breechloading mechanisms hastened the adoption of the rifle among the armies of the world. Conflicts of the mid-nineteenth century, such as the American Civil War, were marked by extremely high battlefield casualty rates due to the improvement in rifle technology - the Minié ball had only recently come into widespread use - that outpaced the refinement of battlefield tactics. As soldiers in closed ranks blazed away at one another and an accomplished rifleman was able to load, aim and shoot three rounds a minute, the more accurate rifle killed and wounded the enemy at a devastating rate.

By World War I, the rifle was the standard-issue long arm of all belligerents. Repeating rifles had been introduced in the later years of the nineteenth century, substantially increasing firepower. Bolt-action rifles that were loaded with multi-round clips produced even greater rates of fire. Submachine guns and automatic weapons carried by individual soldiers soon brought more firepower to bear with an individual soldier than ever believed possible.

Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947

The introductions of the semiautomatic infantry rifle and the world's first operational assault rifles during World War II were followed closely by the advent of the iconic AK-47, the most widely manufactured and distributed infantry weapon of modern times. After more than half a century, the Mikhail Kalashnikov design reigns supreme among military automatic weapons carried by the individual soldier.

The shotgun, meanwhile, developed with the generic term of 'fowling piece', ideal for hunting birds and other small game. Designed as a smoothbore weapon to fire a cartridge of small diameter pellets or 'shot', or to utilize a slug-type cartridge, the shotgun is known for its shorter range and is generally preferred for use with smaller targets that are often moving. In theory, the user of the shotgun may not be required to draw exact aim on a target since the weapon fires a 'spread' of shot that results in a pattern. The expectation is that the pattern of shot will be sufficient and concentrated enough, even without specific aim, to subdue the target.

U.S. Marines fire AK-47 assault rifles during training in Mongolia. It is believed that between 50 and 75 million AK-47s have been produced since its introduction.

In addition to hunting small game, the shotgun has historically been used as a defensive weapon by virtue of its supposed ability to stop an adversary. In the American West, guards protecting passengers and valuables on overland stagecoach passages were often armed with shotguns. Early shotguns discharged their loads with a hammer-firing mechanism, and by the mid-nineteenth century the hammerless shotgun, breaking and loading at the breech, was becoming popular and utilized a firing pin to ignite the charge. Later innovations provided for multiple shots as the shotgun was loaded with several rounds in an internal magazine. Lever action, pump action and...