The Deadly Weapons That Changed History | With Jonathan Ferguson

thank you the Royal armories in Leeds holds one of the largest collection of armaments in the world from the earliest long gun prototypes Damascus used in the Napoleonic Wars and the rifles that defined in the 20th century now for the history Hit YouTube channel we wanted to find out what it was like to fire these iconic weapons and test our accuracy all this with the help of British firearm historian and expert Jonathan Ferguson Jonathan lovely to meet you guys to meet you I'm good so we're here in the Royal Armory surrounded by thousands of historic weapons as you can see and we think you've got a challenge for us we have yes so I gather you haven't fired any Firearms before no no so what we got from three different eras of history I won't spoil what they are just yet okay okay we want you to have a bit of a shoot off to see who's the better Marksman you've got different areas of technology to play with so you might excel in earlier in history or later see how you do you're nervous already what do you think yeah not not too Compton but it sounds exciting yeah foreign to test out these mystery weapons safely we headed to a purpose-built firing range so we've come down to the firing range to try out three new weapons haven't we yeah um anyone that's seen our recent archery video will know that we're not exactly Sharpshooters we're not crack shots are we no Marksman we are not uh but today it's it's going to be even harder for us because this is the first time we should clarify the first time that we are firing these weapons we're complete novices but we're going to give them a go anyway aren't we we get no practice shots but there's no time no we've just gotta fire and see how it goes so let's give it a try to kick things off we're heading back to the early 1500s a century or so after the earliest forms of matchlock hand cannons first appeared in Europe so Jonathan this is a really nice looking firearm but it's not the kind of thing that we're used to probably shooting these days what exactly is it okay so this this is actually a very nice reproduction we don't normally mess with reproductions but when you're shooting something that would date to the 1530s 1530s you kind of have to but it's beautifully made um and it's what it's what they would have called an archibus so it sounds kind of uh old hat and antique and it kind of is there's some features of this you'll you'll see are not it's not normal by modern firearm standards it seems quite plain compared to some of some of the more modern guns quite a basic design yeah I think it's just there's no standardization at this time at all so some are quite plain some are quite elaborate depends what it's for as a military type weapon it will tend to be more plain but this is of the rough type that Henry VIII purchased few hundred of so you know right at the beginning of the 16th century so these are kicking around at the same time as people are still using long bows and crossbows in the battlefield absolutely yeah in fact Henry VII although he's he's very high tech and he owns like really high-tech versions of this himself his the core of his army is still using the English War bow the crossbow has become popular Pikes you know long staff weapons swords armor it's full armor he might still be wearing into battle at this time and yet you've got something that's recognizably and you probably call it a musket but we call it an archivist or later on they use the word caliber just to confuse people further and and what kind of ammunition are we talking about so those are yeah we've got no cartridges yep or at least we don't know if we don't really know if anyone was using cartridge at this time later with the muskets they've got cartridges yeah here we're loading loose ball loose bullets and loose gunpowder and you mentioned these could be on the same Battlefield as you know suits of armor how would this have fared against armor so uh in the main Museum here at the armories we have a display that recreates a Battle of Pavia where which is one of the battles where basically Knights man at Arms guys on Horseback armored to the hills went into battle against guys with ease and if you were far enough away or you had the top-notch breastplate and helmet you might shrug off a hit from this just but chances are you've got you've got a pretty poor chance against this and if you've got no armor you're in trouble so Jonathan we're gonna let you load this for us and then we get to have a go right we do you do get to shoot this amazing yeah so I mean no one is shooting Originals of this so this is this is as close as it gets and this is this is still pretty exceptional so what a privilege right so eye and ear protection on cool it's just as important with the older style firearms right so I'm going to load this thing for you because it is a bit of a faff yeah so to do that we have to put the butt on the ground we take one powder flask we pour that that black powder that gum powder down the barrel being careful not to spill it everywhere we then take a ball or a bullet whatever you want to call it and we're just going to load it Loose without a patch so that will just drop down hear it go down we pull out the what they then called a scouring stick because it was also for scouring out the fouling between shots and then make sure that's in place which for the first shot it is so that's the the weapon loaded but not primed okay so to do that we have to bring back the the serpentine so it's called in fact this is a little dragon nicely chiseled carved and we take the priming powder tap in that powder and then we close the pan and we have to make sure there are no loose corns of gunpowder around it yeah around it mainly to stop it from shutting you also don't want extra powder going off in your face so this is now loaded and primed okay ready to hand over to you okay we go been told to keep it steady yes aim it up at the ceiling first that's right pointing down the range okay so we're not ready to shoot just yet we have a burning piece of match match okay slow match it's called cool have to keep that burning yeah they used to keep a long length of it burning at both ends yes so you've always had an ignition Source it's quite it's quite top heavy isn't it this this guy on the right the rifle the barrel it's very it's a weight of heavy thick accurate Barrel actually so that means a lot of weight up front yep so you're going to get a bit tired if I don't yeah yeah let's do this be careful so okay okay so I put that on now this could go off at any point so don't panic if it does it's quite safe now this could go off at any point so don't panic if it does it's quite safe and when you're ready pull the trigger I'm aiming yep and fight weights we have a misfire very common with these things we have to wait make sure it doesn't go off okay yeah not in retrospect not great technology it has to be said okay well after that close call I could see why the Longbow was still preferable to the archibus in the early 16th century with my arm now shaking I had little confidence in hitting the target there we go there we go how was that didn't actually feel too much of a kick no it's quite light have no idea where it's gone I'm not going to look yeah I'm going to let Louis shoot first and then we'll see it's looking pretty good cool awesome excited Louis you're up next mate quite annoyingly that's looking like a very good shot well done mate right so Luke's done a pretty good job there um actually a little bit disappointed with how well he's done so let's just see if I can match that having survived an unnerving misfire Luke had somehow managed to pull off a very impressive shot and the pressure was on it was time to channel my inner conquistador open the pan and you're good to go foreign yeah I mean just the amount of smoke that fills your face as soon as soon as you pull that trigger it's a really light trigger which I was kind of worried that it would uh you know take a take a bit of a of a pull to get it to go off but yeah I can't see it I can't see oh you can see it I can see it it's not looking great [Laughter] it's a really good shot don't get me wrong it's on the target it's just that you've been there well let's have a look let's have a look let's go over yep right well that was uh what an experience first of all on Louie's one as we come up to it there was quite a delay on that is that was that usual did that happen quite a lot it it did yeah so you can have all sorts of things go wrong with black powder firearms and a hang hang fire is one of them um that wasn't a Hang Fire that was kind of normal operation still hit the target no yeah that might have been enough for you to just pull the shot up slightly it made the butt may have dropped in the shoulder yeah but you know laterally um you are just to the right of the ball so Luke I have to admit this is a pretty good shot which must be beginner's luck it must be beginners like how do you do it how honestly what's the secret my hand was shaking from the misfire because when you're holding it after a good you know minute your my hand was already wobbling yeah somehow now you've kept you've kept it on a slight fluke sometimes Instinct right so next up brown Bess yeah so see if I can regain my honor much better ignition technology but it's this is for General issues so you might find that it shoots less less accurately let's give it a go here we go one nil with the expansion of Empires came the rapid evolution of the firearm a couple of hundred years on from the archivus became the trusty flintlock musket a staple of the revolutionary period and a weapon that has become synonymous with the British Redcoat right so Jonathan next weapon we're moving forward a couple of centuries right yeah give or take um the main Leap Forward here is the flintlock mechanism which you'll see on the gun various yeah so this is generically what we call or what they called at least into the 18th century Brown bass okay nickname meaning not brown meant ordinary best was a female nickname and it's playing on the fact that um if you've seen a Full Metal Jacket you get the idea this was your new wife you were leaving the girlfriend behind or the wife well she might come with you but this is the one that mattered if you needed some company yeah and she'd look after you if you looked after her that kind of idea that's where the name comes from but it covers a whole gamut of different muskets from 1700 ish to the mid 19th century actually wow so this is the India pattern so this is what was in use in the Napoleonic Wars okay comes in right at the end of the 18th century and it's you know they made three million of them so it's one of the more numerous but it's still beautifully made original 220 year old this is an original weapon Yep this could have been used in battle it could have been yeah we can't we can't say that but it could have been one of the main main differences between this weapon and the octopus that we've Justified yeah so the big leap here apart from much more reliable ignition from the shower of Sparks they get carved off this bit of Steel and this piece of flint that's huge you saw from the faffing with the match um the other improvements are well firstly Firepower so we've missed out the um the English Civil War era yeah um uh musket which was big and heavy and clunky what we've done is combine those two so the archibus and the old school musket become one type of weapon that anyone can carry around it's not too heavy still very powerful blast through any armor that might still exist although by then they've kind of given up we believe with the with the early Firearms they were mostly firing them from the cheek would you believe not even putting them in the shoulder like you did this is definitely from the shoulder because you have to contain all that power and recall which is what you're about to do yeah so in 18th century infantry Moon we'll be able to fire three four shots three was the was the requirement three years requirement um I'm probably going to load it a lot slower than that but can I give it a go for safety reasons if nothing else we will be lowering it loading it slowly excellent but you can absolutely give it a go yeah good luck notoriously the brown best musket was a handful to reload months of drilling was required before an infantryman was ready for combat something that soon became apparent to the two of us okay so Jonathan unsurprisingly I've never done this before so I'm in your hands what am I doing uh first step is to pick the thing up I think I can do that okay firstly to introduce the ammunition so this is now in a prepared paper cartridge so the Bullet is there I'd hold it up at the or up at the neck with your fingers with your fingers up here it's easy to tear it that's it that's it nice uh yeah I think you've learned the first lesson there not too far down so there's no loads of gunpowder in your mouth so pouring in the powder using it like a little paper funnel that's it perfect do that until it's all gone all gone push in with your thumb and then you want to keep your your hand away from that muscle so finger and thumbnail from now on so thumb to get it started and then we want finger and thumb safety so hands away from the muzzle now okay because in theory this could go off and push it down now we want you to use finger and thumb on this as much as you can for safety looks very tight it is there you go come on I think he would have been shot by now [Music] close enough and then throw it down repeatedly let me just um yeah just check it for you yeah we want to be safe because if you have an air gap in the breach it could potentially blow up blow up okay most likely it would be increased recall but okay yeah so so now that's a Philly I can hear it yep I can take out now pull that out spin it round yep oh minding the ceiling yeah we'll bill you for that later don't worry right we are now fully loaded and primed so bring it up to the hip pointing at the Target and we now keep it in that condition the whole time because we don't want it going into the ceiling or anywhere else pointing down the range but there's going to be no delay with this one no not really a little bit compared to a modern firearm hope your firing is better then you're reloading [Music] all right oh that's quite a kickback good crikey good effort there very good that that feels it's certainly got more of a kick than the architecture it really you're putting a much heavier bullet downrange and you're doing it with a lot more powder wow that is that is powerful oh boy my hands are sweating already after watching that next tutor please I can see it it's gonna be tough to beat after the disaster of the reload and what looked like a very solid shot from Louis my confidence had been somewhat dented but then I remembered I'd almost hit the bullseye with an archivist this would be easy right three two one there we go it's a very strong trigger whoo nearly knock you off your feet yeah almost did that's what it means that's what makes us so reliable such a strong spring in there means every time you're shaving off lots of hot metal and yeah and creating the Sparks well I would say I would say firing it was easier than loading it but they're both quite difficult but yeah I have no idea where it's gone but let's have a look let's go and have a look let's have a look I don't even think I've hit the uh mate is that is that your hole there oh no oh no just off the paper maybe it was beginner's luck honestly so so Jonathan the first thing we can see is that these holes are a lot bigger they are huge these archivists yep entry wounds yep you might call them um so funny enough you you've actually done better with the musket what do you mean nothing funny about it I haven't even hit the target mate the question is Jonathan is is Luke going to get into the Green Jackets we're shooting like that we're gonna make sharks regimen well the three the three of us probably you know we could have made it into like a lion regiment lightning infantry regimen for sure light infantry I'm not sure about the rifles the psychology behind people using these weapons in in Mass ranks shooting at each other it's just otherworldly to us yeah yeah that pretty much I mean there isn't much in the way of Modern Warfare that compares so the next one happen uh going even more modern yeah Lee Enfield yes our final weapon for this test right now it's won all it's one all so it all comes down to this it all comes down to the Lee Enfield first introduced by the British in 1895 the Lee Enfield bolt action rifle was a Mainstay of the armies of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century easy to manufacture on mass and with over 17 million rifles having been built to date the Lee Enfield has become associated with the British Tommy able to load a 10 round magazine and with a firing rate of 20 to 30 rounds per minute the bolt action rifle turned the average Soldier into an efficient killing machine right so Jonathan we've got our final rifle this time I'm right in saying we have now got a rifle a little bit behind with rifles because you know we had General issue or specific issue rifles by 1800 in the British army um but by this point not only is everyone got a rifle they've now got a magazine Rifle right and so the advantage of this is that you can reload quickly fire fire quickly five rounds 10 rounds at the enemy which with the flintlock what we've just seen was not really an option absolutely yeah multiple shots rapidly which is just unheard of with you know anything muzzle loading even the early breach loader so loading in the back could only do one it's that innovation of not only a rapid mechanism in this case it's a bolt action but a magazine on the gun so instead of your cartridges on your belt they're already in the gun yeah you just got to top them off so how are we going to test ourselves in this last round yeah so we're going to change it up a little bit because the first two weapons were only capable of one round okay this is capable of up to ten so you're gonna load five and we're going to judge you on the size of your group just like a recruit would be judged effectively okay so so that it's how tight that group is we're not so worried about where it is so it's more about the consistency of the shot yeah although if it is in the bullseye obviously you're going to be happier bonus points and and if you somehow shoot the same size group that would be tiebreaker a slightly different challenge but I felt confident before I could shoot however it was time to see if I'd have an easier task loading this weapon okay Jonathan gonna pick up the rifle now I'm hoping this is going to be easier to load than the musket it should be yeah good okay so open up the mechanism okay that's it you've got it back there's your charger charger clip or strip a clip okay push down just forward of where the clip is with the thumb until all five rounds are in there we go all the way down oh all the way down and then further that's it and then remove the clip give it some Wally that's it there we go and then we can do is put the safety on like that there we go and then you're ready to get into your shooting position okay okay I am now ready I will remove the safety for you now you can now fire and reload and fire again okay Moment of Truth [Music] [Music] finger and thumb on the ball handle if you can oh okay that's fine yeah holding it the same way so got it that's how you need to do it every time one more nice okay good unload yeah okay clear put it down on the bench how's that yeah it felt much nicer to shoot all in the technique all in the technique yeah we'll see we'll see how good I was with the grouping but uh yeah natural look it was a pleasure it was a pleasure to shoot a solid final effort from Luke it was now my turn to complete our beginner version of the mad minute give it some that's it you are now cocked we'll put it on safe till you get into a firing position let me know when you're ready finger off the trigger so you're ready to fire ready that's all right okay so in your own time [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] absolutely no idea but I am very very happy with this it's almost overlapping you should be that's very good we've got one one flyer there the four the four are very close together yeah not not bad Luke but you know and actually slightly closer to the bullseye if we did exactly you see our car was gonna try to see if that one was even closer to his but I can't even win on that score so uh only in the last round yeah I mean and you've both done really well first time shooters if we stick to 16th century guns from now I think I'll be fine the experience of going through those three weapons from the the 1500s right up to the 1900s I mean yeah incredible experience of just kind of seeing exactly the kind of technological development between each I mean they're so different aren't they so yeah I mean there are still people using bolt action rifles today so you know right the way up to present in terms of its Legacy technology but you know they're still getting used you've both done really well honestly first time shooters you haven't fight anything before this no not really no no so to fire like three different weapons from three totally different areas of history and to do this well is is really good well done I'll take it joint Victory isn't it thank you Jonathan I appreciate it you're very welcome guys another challenge lost for me but as rookie recruits both Louis and I couldn't help feeling a sense of pride in our performance so Luke um how are we feeling about our kind of grouping with the with the Lee anfield there I'll be honest I'm not actually too disappointed uh with my grouping still hitting the targets but you've done exceptionally well there I can't deny but overall I think chuffed of myself with the archibus I really didn't expect the first time firing anything that looked like that um or anything like that but uh yeah a bit disappointed uh with the musket I must admit the more technologically advanced it was the worse you got yeah that is strange isn't it but incredible for anyone that's not fired those weapons before so so different weren't they like going from the delayed firing on the archibus the pure just raw power of that flintlock musket yeah and then the Lee Enfield at the end it was just kind of um I wouldn't say it was more like a gun that like a pellet gun that he used to find it was so much more powerful but in terms of the accuracy and the aiming sites and everything like that it was a lot easier to use certainly exactly and I think you can understand you know the the period in which they're using the archibus they're also you know soldiers who would prefer the Longbow you can sort of understand that with the reload times and it's a bit of a pain but once you get to the Lee Enfield I mean those things are just you can put them into hands of any soldier with some basic training and they turn into killing machines really and you can sort of understand the devastation of the first world war with that in context so but yeah pleasure to shoot them great fun uh yeah yeah we'll come up with a new competition soon yep two nil I've got my workshopped out now about a year ago we came to the Royal armories Museum and we shot three iconic weapons we shot an archivist we shot a brown best and we shot a Lee Enfield but you were clamoring for another weapon that's right we saw the comments all of them but don't worry we're not going to disappoint you this time now in this video we're going to give you everything you could possibly want to know about the martini Henry don't say we don't spoil you [Applause] as always helping us handle the weapon and explore its history its firearms expert Jonathan Ferguson later Jonathan would be testing just how much damage this rifle would do against simulated flesh and Bone [Music] nice look at that fantastic this should be everything's everything you need to cover the history of the martini Henry during the 1860s several European armies began to equip their troops with modern breach loading rifles leaving behind the now outdated muzzle loading musket where the projectile had to be pushed down the barrel by the turn of the decade the British had adopted a breach loading single shot lever action rifle the martini Henry named after Friedrich Von Martini a Swiss engineer and Alexander Henry a Scottish gunsmith produced at the Royal small arms manufacturer at Enfield the martini-henry rifle became the standard issue weapon for the British army from 1871 until 1889 and was used in campaigns across the British Empire in Afghanistan the Far East Sudan and South Africa to fill in the gaps between the brown best and Martini Henry we'd be relying on our expert right Jonathan last time we came to this place we fired Brown best musket and then we sort of skipped ahead straight to the Lee Enfield the bolt action and we left a pretty big gap in our people in the comment section certainly reminded us of that fact but we have now potentially can we fill that Gap in for the audience we can definitely fill in a fair bit of it the important bits I would say yeah cool so the the brown best must get kind of leaves active service for the main Army maybe in the 1820s 1830s is that about right yeah well the interesting thing is this this term brown best I've done some research into regardless of all the nerdy variations that we're going to look at and I talk about and know about the general public the soldiers that they all refer to Brown best they didn't care how it exactly worked it was a long gun that you shoved the ammunition in the front of basically um the key thing being smooth ball really so Brown bass is used for everything from the thing you shot through the percussion era the pattern 1842 musket and the critical thing is the introduction of the um on a global sense the mini a rifle for the Brits the main thing the main show there was the pattern 1853 Enfield the first Enfield rifle people might be aware of it shows up in the American Civil War um it's pretty critical to Firearms history I have one behind me okay let's see it oh lovely nice we have many like this but this is an important one the important message here this operates just like the old brown best musket the percussion version that they were still calling Brown bass Lock Stock and Barrel very recognizable to the soldiers of the day yes okay we've got the advanced percussion lock that we had on the last version of round vest yeah but down the barrel are those spiral grooves now back in the day you would have to essentially Jam the lead bullet into the grooves so that it will be twisted otherwise it's just gonna sort of rattle down the the bore it has to fit to be spun to be accurate to be powerful we had a hard time doing that last time as well looks very tight it is there you go come on I think he would have been shot by now yeah and that's and that's with smooth ball yeah so imagine now that you've got a super tight fit where the the grooves are biting into the lead so what was the way around that that was to create a new form of bullet shaped like a bullet rather than a ball okay with a hollow base and the gas pressure of firing makes the bullet fit the rifling so it goes down the muzzle like a musket ball easily you ram it down with the rammer just like you guys did but then when it blasts out it's expanding to fit those grooves if that makes sense and that doesn't sound like much but it's revolutionary in terms of range well velocity and therefore range accuracy power at range that's the first step of opening up the battlefield and starting to move away just starting from the sort of old-fashioned close range linear tactics suddenly we rattle through new ignition system new rifling system and then it's breach loading breach loading yeah yes so you can't get anything in the back of this no why would you want to well speed for one it's quicker to just insert a made-up cartridge so instead of having your ignition sitting on this nipple that's in the back of the cartridge now and you just shove the cartridge in but how do you do that so we're getting closer to the martini Henry yeah but not quite there yet that's right so the obvious thing to do there to make it breach loading instead of a percussion hole basically that's just a glorified touch hole at the end of the day this is not this is a firing pin and the face of what used to be the well it's still a hammer but that's now instead of crushing a copper cap to fire the gun it's hitting this plunger and then inside at the front end of the block it pokes out and hits the cap in the back of the cartridge just like a modern firearm and you load one bullet at a time that's the limitation here yeah we've moved to load it from the back so greater rapidity of fire you can load prone so it's just it's more convenient uh it allows it to the weapon to be more efficient as well in terms of powder burning and all of that breach loading literally means you are popping um the bullet in the back into into a hole in the back of the of the gun just like once more onto the breach the hole in the wall it's the hole in the back of the barrel [Music] the speed of innovation during the mid-19th century was truly staggering with global powers like Britain France and Russia involved in a near constant arms race on land and sea within a few Decades of the Napoleonic Wars the British Army's standard issue weapon had evolved from a heavy smooth ball musket to a deadly rifle equipped with a new breach loading ignition and rifling system without further Ado it was time to bring out the weapon we had come to see all right so this is the one we've all been waiting for yeah this is everybody's favorite I think so this is the true mark one you see the one on the one on the body there we called it a body and you can see you're starting it's starting to look slightly more like a Lee Enfield rather than an old smooth ball musket sort of in between you're right to say that because this is a two-piece stock once you've got a lot going on back here with the mechanism you have to move away from that Old Brown best style one-piece stock but you know other countries we're looking at early bolt actions the Prussian Riser the the French chaspo Britain looked at everything that was available as countries often did and went we're going to go our own way we're going to adapt another American patent okay uh peabodies patent and have a lever push that lever down you'll be doing that a bit later and that opens up that breach I've actually got here for you an example oh inert of an original round it's a little tired you can see how bumpy that looks that was made from foil brass early on well for the service life of the rifle I should say and we're gonna see later on in the video what a bullet like this the damage that it can do to simulated flesh and bone in this case that's the plan yep depending on depending on what we hit we haven't quite got the velocity of a modern rifle that is more consistent but we'll see we'll see what we can do with it and does this uh new sort of breach loading system does it revolutionize Warfare in a way does it does it change the tactics on the battlefield eventually I think is the answer so what this does is open up even more the battlefield uh flatter shooting longer range or alternatively a bit more Precision within that range you have still got guys in Red Coats lining up and exchanging fire interesting yeah but they have a bit more possibility to exploit the technology and we can see that if we look at the the boa War where these guys were still around in that caliber being used very capably by the boers against the guys with the even more advanced rifles who are still a little bit hardbound by their tactics the martini Henry rifle is still perhaps best known for being the weapon used by British Redcoats during the Zulu Wars in southern Africa made famous by the film Zulu starring Sir Michael Kane and in the anglo-boa war both costly campaigns for the British during the latter conflict the iconic rifle was actually outclassed by the Mauser bolt action rifle supplied in admittedly limited numbers to the boers by the German Empire concerned with the superior performance of the Mauser which combined with Guerrilla tactics was inflicting heavy casualties the British sought ways to improve the martini Henry leading to all sorts of Innovations some more successful than others one of the things that was tried oh almost looks interesting yep so we already have by the 1880s we have early magazine rifles um French LaBelle pops up in 1886 and suddenly you've got eight rounds under the barrel bit like a Winchester but bolt action and various other things are going on so the Brits are going okay right we need to make the next Leap Forward magazine rifles rounds on the gun so you don't have to reach into the classic cartridge pouch or well there's always a cartridge pouch really but and one experimental way of doing that and there are a at least three versions submitted for trials this is the harston loader was to graft on a magazine so obviously this this rifle never designed to have a magazine it's very much open it put one in close it shoot it yeah that's exactly why because it's boged on essentially so actually slides on and off have that loaded with five rounds and had this scene serviced in some alternate steampunk past yeah I suspect they'd have been ordered to carry this as a separate piece of kit but I can demonstrate for you you saw a little hint of it yeah yeah when you pop it open you can load it singly if you want to but what it's doing is storing up the next round and then when you close it that's pretty smart yeah round drops out gets shoved in all in closing up not not the prettiest weapon we've seen like the box kind of just wedged onto the side but that's uh that's pretty smart that shows that they were really thinking about it it's absolutely ingenious um but it's bulky it's heavy it's expensive it's vulnerable fiddly it's vulnerable to damage as well there are other experiments to try to make this thing keep this thing relevant um so this is uh well 1886 they managed to so pretty quickly yeah um so this one well I say 1886 in terms of yes we're going to have it this one was made 1887 1887 and weirdly enough that sort of looks nice similar to the original they've gone back yep absolutely gone backwards they've got the reinforced receiver which is just better to have because why not and the long lever which is was part of the experimentation as well wasn't on that rifle why would you want a long lever it's easier to open things with a long lever I think we're trying to open a paint tin with a pen knife a screwdriver exactly the same thing it's way easier to open it after trying to upgrade the standard model numerous times Simplicity was preferable in the end and even as technology surged forward at Breakneck speed having the edge in hand-to-hand combat was still crucial for regular infantry men the martini Henry bayonet was referred to by soldiers as the lunger due to its exceptional length of 22 inches at the Battle of rorke's drift in 1879 were a force of 150 British troops defended a supply station against an assault by 4 000 Zulu warriors bayonet charges led by Lieutenant gonville bromhead were used to great effect on top of the 20 000 rounds reportedly fired okay so Jonathan understandably we're not going to be able to use the bayonets for the martini Henry today no meaningful way we can test them really uh but can you tell us a little bit about them I mean Ben is still in use today really but what stage are we at here yeah so that the bayonet today is is really a minor uh minor player on the battlefield and I'd say the further you go back into history the more the more essential they become and it's because you know the the push toward Evermore Firepower you know from 30 rounds on your rifle today back to 10 in early Enfield um back to in this case none you have one round in the chamber and then you have to load from a pouch so apart from the Tactical imperative for the bayonet that's still part of Doctrine you train to assault with the bayonet even if it's just you versus the other guy you want that bayonet because you only have one shot you can you can hit people with a rifle but it's not very efficient at all good old-fashioned bayonet is still the way to do it uh so could you show us uh how how this burner attaches to the rifle yeah sure you can actually see that there are two fittings so this is for the alternative sword bayonet types one of which we just looked at and then the standard attachment is Just Like Old Brown Bess only this time we have a nice accurate iron sight on top of it and then we have our socket slips over the muzzle try and show you that over the front sight and then just like a it's a reasonable the reason why it's called a bayonet light fitting just like your light bulb you turn and then push it on and the final step by this point in history is that you can turn this locking ring and there's absolutely no way this thing can come off now and you can get to work a truly terrifying Prospect after Jonathan demonstrated the different ways the bayonet could be used in Anger it was time for us to see if the rifle could still be effective in the hands of novices Louis was up first okay Jonathan so we've got the opportunity to fire this one and we're going to be able to load it as well which is very cool can you can you show me what I'm doing yeah if we step forward to the firing point you've got three rounds yep take the rifle with us so if you take control obviously both hands you'll notice the thumb rest there oh yeah put your thumb on there when you're ready to shoot of course so to load you just put your thumb into that lever below the action there push down watching where the muzzle goes yeah it does slip in the shoulder sometime you take your first round insert that all the way into the chamber push it in or is that fine all the way in okay then close it up yep so that's one round ready to go [Applause] [Music] pulling her in tight that is quite a kick wow that's a that's a big boom oh you haven't finished yet so if I'm in the lever give it some Willy okay some Welly once that's happened you just need to get that out of the way okay and then second shot load yeah all the way in lever up same point today don't worry if it's going high around shot thank you okay close it flick it in and then ready to go same point of aim good good yeah and push down there you go it's all about technique I'll take that thank you very much oh sweating holy moly it sounds from what I remember it almost sounds like a bigger kick than the musket but uh about similar come see it comes out yeah yeah right okay same again same again okay well I think it's fair to say I wasn't exactly oozing confidence at this point insert that cartridge all the way forward and then give it a close it with a bit of authority like that finger on the trigger when you're ready to shoot are you when it's in the shoulder okay so you're on the bottom Target bottom Target okay I'm gonna try and lean into this one yeah finger on the trigger finger on the trigger squeeze when you're ready cool fever good second round and push it in set close it up excellent that went in yeah okay same again we'll do everything exactly the same oh good a little bit higher on that shot last one thank you split the difference good let's try and hit the target with this one didn't quite get get it clear there see the importance of giving it some is that really hot at the moment you feel it okay pretty warm smoking of course perfect click that button thank you very much Jonathan you're welcome time to assess our Marksmanship at the Target boards that was an absolute Cannon Jonathan it's a beast yeah it's quite an experience okay so oh yeah the grouping's not not groupings and Jonathan do you think our technique was better than last time I think I think you've picked up a few yeah I was impressed yeah oh thanks thanks right well we're gonna let you have the next shot okay and we're gonna see what this thing does close up to simulated flesh and Bone okay very interesting yeah damage today we were using a gel block and a forensic simulated cortical bone as a Target to demonstrate the deadliness of the martini Henry at admittedly very close range foreign wow okay well first of all well done that was a great shot to get it banged through the middle but close range but I'm glad I hit it nonetheless that came flying out as well didn't it yeah yeah and obviously without more dare I say meat to retain it this broken bone is just ejected straight out the top so you can see the the jagged edges there yeah this is forensic simulated bone sort of cortical bone then very small entrance wound that's typical it stretches and relaxes so that big 45 caliber bullet has stretched its way into that hole and made a small entry wound it's going to bleed less but then inside is a chunky old wound track if you can capture it either from the side or the top you'll see the the temporary stretch where it's stretching you apart and then relaxing back down so you've got the crush of the bullet crushing through your tissue you've got the stretch of the tissue and then you've got the I turn it round yeah much bigger exit wow which is the size of a musket ball exit wound pretty much the bullet will be going sideways when it comes out most likely we'll see on the high speed footage and there are shards of bone in the wound track you can probably hear them yeah I can hear them that's pretty Grim I can't retrieve them but you might be able to see and they will be distributed throughout the wound or at least from the from the bone aft as it were and if you've got to make healing well you're losing that limb yeah um with that level of bone damage it's just gonna have to come off and you've got more of these bullets going off all the time because oh yeah put it quicker oh and you're still yeah don't forget most of the use of this is still on mass you've still got them zipping through there at you you're going to get hit by potentially more than one uh it's pretty brutal so that that shape there that's how much you are stretching at the maximum that collapses back down but some damage is done and if that hits your your liver anything or you're obviously your head that's game over yeah but anything that has a lot of water in it it cannot relax back down and save that tissue that tissue is destroyed to be honest the thing that surprises me is the size of this wound is such a large bullet I mean we saw we saw we saw the size of that shell and it's it's really kind of like deceptive sucked in almost hasn't it do you get that with most sort of bullets that the it's the exit wound that's really always nearly always there are some forensic exceptions but yeah exit wound is always bigger this Obsession in Hollywood with must get the bullet out well first of all it probably won't be in there and if it is in there that's good times because you haven't got a gay thing exit wound yeah to worry about you've only got the entrance wound address uh bullets less of a concern there are guys Rocking Around in the 1910 uh 1900s and tens very very old from the American Civil War still with bullets in them absolutely fine so forget about all that it's about stopping the blood loss and then saving as much tissue as you can we're now moving forward to Center in my crash course and infantry weapons the first world war saw industrial Firepower on the battlefield artillery caused massive casualties but the average British infantryman from 1914 to 18 was armed with a weapon first introduced in 1895. the Lee Enfield rifle so we have here a bolt action magazine rifle the Leanne field short magazine the Enfield now rifle number one as some people might know it clip loaded so you need to open up the bolt that's it grab a charger clip or just a charger of five rounds this will take ten but we're going to load five push down with your thumb and then remove the clip and you close the bolt get used to the the weight the feel the aim and let me know when you're ready to go we'll have five rounds okay so when you're ready you push that safety forward with your thumb and then you'll be ready to shoot foreign that's not too bad that's all on there that is a very very different weapon to the brown bass isn't it yeah rate of fire Precision it's just it's gonna obviously it's Superior in every way it's three different generation but you know it is the same same basic idea absolutely tube close to one end get some sort of propellant and a bullet but as shooting it even someone's an experienced as I am it doesn't it doesn't discombobulate you as much as the brown best I mean that beats you backwards it kind of obscures your vision explosion in front of your face whereas this you do think I could put 5 10 15 rounds down whilst maintaining quite a cool head and they did yeah amazing accuracy mix I say mixed bag there the the you're standing up of course not not kneeling or in the prone position and you're firing pretty rapidly as well so your group's going to open up that they would have been expected to do what in sort of 18 round what how many rounds well I mean there's that all one hole from this distance in the standing position so they would have been standing all through the same hole most likely or touching at least and how many rounds a minute uh of 15 was the expected minimum so we've gone from three rounds per minute expected or required to 15. but a whole you know Battalion of 800 men or whatever all on with those you could put a huge amount of accurate fire down yeah I mean wow it's estimated that over 17 million Lee enfields were made in Tokyo it was the standard British infantry rifle of the first and second world wars and was only replaced as a basic infantry weapon in the 1950s affordable reliable accurate and extremely dangerous now I'm gonna fire at the gel block it looks like it's like it's twisted round as it's gone it's broken the bone though hasn't it but without hitting it it does look like that though yeah and sometimes the just the shock of the pressure of the bullet passing through can fracture the bone looks to have been what's happened here um there's a lot of tearing splitting of the of the tissue and then unlike the brown Bess a lot a big huge Exit Wounds yeah what's that means that is that just showing that this has got more velocity more more punch to it more velocity and it's a pointed bullet which will tend to swap ends when it when it hits another medium if that's whether that's water or tissue it will try to go base first so it's spun it's stable in air when it's spinning but because it's heavier at the back as soon as it hits something like this it will swap ends yeah and going sideways through you is going to do more damage yeah so that's what you're seeing there that's tumbled through which is why this is this is very small smaller than the bullet itself because it stretches the tissue and it drops back down and then out the back it's either come out sideways or base first that's horrific the lien field was an exceptionally effective infantry rifle but the weapon that's most associated with the first world war and did much to force the infantryman into trenches was this the machine gun this is a Vickers Maxim mark one first introduced in 1912. something tells me that we've been through something of an industrial revolution here we definitely have it happened while you weren't looking I'm afraid this is not quite the equivalent of a brown best musket like it's not an infantryman's personal weapon this would have needed a bit of a crew but it's not it's something it does a similar job doesn't it it's still still portable but in terms of the Firepower it's just orders of magnitude over and above it's a beast isn't it it's a steel um product of of a of a transformation how we we built things and made things you could not have produced this prior to the late very late 19th century essentially you could design it but you couldn't realize it and make it work right so we've just done the brown best that's only a hundred years before really isn't it there's only a hundred year Gap if if that we look at the brown best three-ish shots a minute 50 meters 100 meters maximum what's the equivalent stats on this people tend to imagine it set up firing sort of level attacking troops something like that so that's probably the closest equivalent that we'd have to how to use a brown best and even then you're looking at 800 yards a thousand yards the ability to hit a man at a thousand yards if you're good enough so if you can make them out clearly you can you can hit yeah and six you know five fifty rounds per minute that's crazy a little bit more than three you could if there's Open Fields ahead of you there's troops advancing towards you really the only limit on your ability to knock down every single Target in that space is is what just sharing number of bullets you have with you and and this presumably that gets very hot right so as this sleeve here full of water is this air cooled that is full of water yeah that's that's really perhaps the only meaningful difference between this and a modern machine gun is that we've moved away from water cooling because it makes the whole thing very heavy but in terms of ultimate robustness and reliability in in the 1914 period you cannot beat this thing if something breaks you can swap the part out in seconds and the barrel is just kept you know you can 600 rounds continuous before you start to boil the water in that and you can still shoot past that so it does take a fair bit of Manpower and a lot more training and expertise and now than an smle an Enfield rifle and certainly a lot more than a brown Bass and I guess the British army went to war with what they used to say sort of two per Battalion didn't they but I mean by presumably the once the war started they realize just how valuable these things were oh they ramped it up as hard as they could and of course you had the the Lewis light machine gun supplementing it which meant you could create this this new machine gun core of I mean I won't say Special Forces but specialist troops who did nothing but you know eat sleep breathe this gun knew it inside and out foreign needed a team of six men to keep it firing in battle everyone had a clearly defined role from carrying ammunition to range taking firing a weapon to feeding in the ammunition quite rightly you're wrong let me fire this one uh what do you want me to do I'll be number one so shooting the thing um you'd be the loader essentially the number two so you'd have the the box of ammunition there as we have ready to go and you'd feed it into the guard feed the belt through here yep as I'm cocking it right let's go so I probably want to hear some uh air Defenders right yes yep okay we're ready let's do it [Music] that was like being punched in the face repeatedly the power of this weapon it's it's pretty impressive yeah a sustained burst like that has a lot of impact it's nice sustainable that's a short burst and trench turns doesn't it it is yeah I mean 25 rounds is sort of a standard burst you could do less you could do more but yeah that's just really just a taster that is the noise the first World War it was a devastating weapon both offensively and also at short range like this in a defensive role now we're going to aim at the gel block the effect is horrifying so this is the impact of Industrial Revolution on Firepower isn't it four rounds and you've obliterated the Target and you could do that reliably again absolutely yeah repeatably it's automated destruction essentially and so we're looking here at the Big Exit Wounds in particular what does the casualties back presumably you can see the fronting something you make might be all right but don't need to turn them over and you'd see there was no what you're looking at is the combined effect as you say of those four rounds you know it's a rifle times four or however many times you get hit now this thing is weighs a lot less than a person so it jumped out of the way otherwise it would have kept on firing and it would have been hit with even more and then that's the classical image of the the machine gun in that defensive role and someone just getting annihilated and this is a simulation effectively of that and and the other thing of course this guy could do that to this target up to what kind of range oh good grief well you know dark properly dialed in you could hit with four rounds at you know a thousand yards or more I mean which is a gigantic step change from from the brown bass which is only really just over 100 years before it's Aston this pace of change in the 19th century and this is a this is a product of the 19th century although it comes in 1912. the the pace of change is phenomenal this is what really blows you know even my mind studying this is you know if you were a boy soldier at Waterloo with a flintlock musket as a Chelsea pensioner you could have been behind a having a go on a Maxim gun yeah what we're looking at here is is the reason for those Infamous horrific casualty figures that we're all so familiar with from the first world war essentially I mean even one bullet and a limb might be enough for amputation well you know this is the effect of multiples uh the bone in here um has been at least fractured it's very unpredictable as to what goes on inside the human body and of course a surgeon's nightmare to repair so we can see very extremely you're right on target there those little entry wounds there but the a scale of the injuries can be seen by the Exit Wounds on this side here a piece of blown out the back in there this weapon's so associated with those terrible casualty lists this the scale of death and injury that you see on the Western Front and elsewhere in the first world war isn't it it absolutely is yeah I mean regardless of you know the majority of casualties coming from from artillery I think that what's in people's minds when they think about the first world war and the trenches especially is the machine gun just rattling away doing this to people like the first like July 1st the bloody Stone the history of the British army when those German machine guns just played on those those troops marching crossing their man's land it's the ultimate gun in the sense of velocity penetration all the tissue damage it can do and the Precision at range as well it's you know there are more advanced Firearms since the maxim the Vic has gone but in some ways it is the ultimate gun it's time for another historic challenge video to round off 2022 and we're ending the year [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] we are super excited to be back at the Royal armories Museum in Leeds and today we've got the opportunity to fire some genuine historic firearms from the wild west period one of my absolute favorite periods of History at least that's what I think we're doing but I've been waiting here for about 15 minutes and Luke just hasn't shown up so I don't really know oh God's sake well howdy partner how are you doing mate ready to shoot some guns what are you doing well I'm in the question we're not in Period costume for this episode I told you this we've had this conversation no there were a couple of Gunslingers Jesse James Billy the Kid well you need to take this off we are we are handling some deadly Firearms today and I think you need to take this more seriously now take this off the way take that off you're gonna have to you're gonna have to get changed okay unbelievable and you're late holy get this that was out loud Sherry I'm allowed to wear that the museum have said I'm allowed to wear it okay for Jonathan Ferguson said you could wear it yeah because I won the last competition all right unbelievable shut up [Music] now we'll suitably dress for the occasion we were back in familiar territory surrounded by Rare firearms the Royal armories and Leeds houses one of the largest collections of arms and armor in the world looking after a large part of it is Firearms curator and you sensation Jonathan Ferguson Jonathan we're back here thanks for having us again welcome guys you're most welcome good to have you back thank you Jonathan um we were obviously here before and we can't claim to have never shot anything before because last time we were shot an archivist a brown vest and a lien field but today we're going for a slightly different period what we're going to be shooting today yeah we've kind of covered a swathe of history there albeit with only a few shots so you know expectations won't be too high um but I gather you guys this time are interested in Firearms of the old west we are oh yeah so um I mean what are the classics you've got the Winchester lever action rifle staple ranchers Cowboys gun Fighters such as they were you've got the sixth shooter in its various forms you know the cult the most famous and the shotgun is you know just as it is today just as it pretty much was in the 18th century that that thing was everywhere as well so the three main classes of firearm arguably we can do something with those for you um but we've all seen our fair share of western movies played games like Red Dead Redemption what would you send your opinion is the biggest misconception we have about firearms in that period on the frontier I suppose the biggest would have to be that you know the old west Jewel the old the gunfight as we imagine it it happened it didn't happen particularly often Firearms were obviously a big deal at that time but they you know within City Limits they were typically prohibited um so which is to say most violence carried out with Firearms is going to be basically as it is today gangs having the occasional shootout people getting murdered and talking of how rare those shootouts Jonathan are today we're going to be having something similar not shooting at each other hopefully hopefully we'll get on today but we are going to be having another competition right and you're going to be involved this time yeah yeah happy to happy to give it a go I mean I don't do this every day either so you do yeah pressure the the novice can always um can always surprise and I'm definitely no expert excellent right let's let's go do it let's go the wild west is a term often used to describe the American frontier between the mid 19th and early 20th century a place and time in history that has long captured the imagination it was a period when old ways of living clashed with rapidly changing technology and that was certainly the case for firearms the term Wild West has also become synonymous with the wild west outlaw in a time where no real Judicial System existed and disputes could be resolved by deadly Jewels the frontier is often thought to have become a breeding ground for criminal gangs robbing steam trains and Banks rustling cattle and killing lawmen but was it quite as wild as the movie suggest and was every man woman and child really packing the first weapons we'd be trying out are closely associated with the real quick draw gunfighters of the late 1800s as well as those in the movies revolvers or six shooters with a choice of lormen and criminals throughout the period we'd be firing all six shots and we'd be judged on our group size right Jonathan let's get into this competition tell us what have we got on the table here okay we've got two classic old west revolvers here the one you're gonna shoot is actually reproduction albeit a very very quality reproduction this is the Colt 1861 Navy but so this is definitively Old West it's before that it's in it's American Civil War of course which the two eras bleed together somewhat um so that's 36 caliber um six shots you know just as capable as a later weapon in many ways but then the reload is a bit of a fact with the pain okay and over here we've got the the cult Single Action Army synonymous with the wild west period yeah I mean everyone's got one of these haven't they or have they well um you'd be forgiven for thinking so if you watch the movies and the TV shows and read the books that literally everyone gets one of these you know January the 1st 1873 when it's first introduced needless to say that's not the case they are very popular everyone that has the money and wants a reliable quality sidearm we'll we'll go for something like this or the Smith and Wesson Scofield or one of the other options that are out there but presumably they all kind of develop from military use before people start buying them you know members of the public so often you find that something is developed primarily with the military in mind first but with a with a very um varied use uh multi-purpose firearm like a revolver or any pistol clearly Colts already got in mind that this could well be for civilians as well and what would be the main sort of differences between these guns I know this was sort of very preferable a lot of people really swore by this gun yeah what are we going to see in terms of accuracy and you know deadliness they're both single action so you have to [ __ ] them both before they shoot they're both six shooters they're both Cults the key difference is the loading it's slow but it's not quite as slow as it as it might appear when it's loaded carefully slowly on a range because we're not too concerned about fighting off an assailant but this is better all day long because it's flip open the loading gate uh sophisticated rotate to the next load load load load when it's fully loaded well you're good to go it's just undeniably more convenient faster if you are in a mythical old west gunfight you're going to want to be using that one right well you're going to be using this one in the competition we're going to be for legal reasons we're going to be using this one okay so make sure it's at the first position and it's just a case of inserting each cartridge in turn for safe carry you would only load five and have the hammer down on an empty chamber because if you drop this thing it would potentially go off we are keeping this pointing down the range at all times so I'm going to fully load it as though I'm off off for a gunfight which of course we're not close the loading gate and then I'm ready to go to full [ __ ] and shoot okay [Music] [Music] oh I can't really see it can you no not yet not yet I'm not not sure Jonathan's hit the balls over there must be maybe maybe the sights on the original cult are a bit off today well it's nice to see that I was still full of confidence at this early stage but it wouldn't last long they are relatively close together yeah it's not bad work for a museum curator foreign last time I shot first I think this time it's your turn to go first brilliant thanks pressure's on pressure was on Luke was technically winning our Challenge Series for the year 3-2 and I couldn't let him extend his lead nipple and for safety we're gonna do that now we have loaded off camera so originally the compound was a performance of mercury or there's another compound used today it's something a bit more advanced but they're all shock sensitive explosives essentially just like a cap gun really they're a little bit more powerful than that in order to make the thing go well and the pistol to you okay so take a good good high grip with your truck keep your your left hand away from the front of the gun yeah because there's Fire coming out of there so at this point your right finger there you go just so you've got a bit more control but your finger's not on the trigger you see clocking this back yep nice tight grip front sight on that red dot and squeeze shooting High okay but we're going for group size so finger out of the trigger guard yeah okay not a bad effort at all but Louis had been foolish and gung-ho going for the authentic single hand grip I'd need two to keep my aim steady right Jonathan why is it the moment I'm about to shoot this gun my hands only go all clammy why is that can't be helped can't be helped just don't drop it please no I won't I won't right not sure how well Louie's done but we'll see we'll see later the the truth will out so I think what I'm going to try with this one is I'm going to try slightly different technique okay and I'm gonna try use using two hands unconventional eventually the 1870s I'm hoping it'll give me some more stability cheating so you jumped in your DeLorean with your knowledge of modern tactical questions I know now that the sites as well which Louis said he said he didn't know uh so okay well we can all see the front sight okay yeah yeah rear sight is on the hammer on this so we'll go forward okay I'll hand it over to you keeping your left hand away from the cylinder now okay yeah get a nice high grip on it with your right hand though trying to tilt it up too much okay okay and then when you're ready use your thumb to pull it to full [ __ ] and then finger on the trigger and squeeze when you sites are aligned on the Target right so you're on the bottom Target yep I see what Louis says about changing the eyes okay keep the right eye open not going for the two hands oh yeah you've reminded me right here goes [Music] oh hold it there yeah just in case there's a Hang Fire and then what we'll do is just [ __ ] and fire the next shot we'll give it another few seconds okay this is reminding me of the archibus and fire wait we have a misfire it happens it's older technology okay when you're ready pull it back to full [ __ ] if I try the next shot okay don't let that put you off same point okay Carry On seriously why always me okay we have actually we have failed to count so yes I I think I can't remember how many I've shot hand it over to me yeah we'll just take a look now do you want that last shot or because you've got a chance of making your group bigger you could always take the uh the excuse that it didn't fire I think I'll take the last shot if that's possible that's fine with me I would want to do that too okay full [ __ ] same point of aim hand it over to me thanks Jonathan you're most welcome again no idea where that's gone oh let's have a look so just to clarify Jonathan you're top right yep yep Louie's top left um bottom left okay I think well Jonathan was up first I think we can safely say Jonathan's grouping is is the best there it's not my best work but um I think I think it does the job I might as well have just taken this shot and then just give it up and then just give it up at that point but you know fairly close to the Bull's eyes very good shot though and that's all you need right I only need one good shot in a gunfight right exactly the grouping is uh is not exactly great do you reckon I've just about pitched you on the grouping again I only yeah sort of one on the target I think you have and I think these were your last couple of shots I was feeling pretty smug up until the last couple of shots and you weren't really hit Jonathan was the color winner of the first round but more importantly Luke was ahead of me in second place clearly handguns weren't my specialty but I might have more luck with our next weapon the Winchester 1873 had a huge for the time and a rapid fire lever action apparently its mechanism would later Inspire the devastatingly powerful Maxim gun hi Jonathan I'm quite pleased with my performance with the revolver I must say but we now move on to a different type of gun the rifles or repeaters I should say um are these the sort of most iconic weapons of the Wild West era it's arguable you know the revolvers are it's hard to get away from the Romance of the revolver and of course you can carry that on your hip at all times the rifle it's on your it's on your horse maybe or it's it's at home if you know you don't want it to be at home you want it there for the fight um so you can say either generally you have to speak of them I think obviously yeah in fact these are pistol caliber rifles okay um there were full-length rifle cartridge Winchester's course but the classic 1873 which is the original that we have here do we do we know where that was from was that from the USA um it's from the USA in terms of being made there these were popular the world over and the Brits were no exception but the heart of it is yes of course the lever action yeah so in terms of brand name the Winchester is well it's still it's still pretty well known today isn't it everyone would kind of recognize that name why is that were they just a very successful gun maker it's a bit of it's a bit of marketing and it's a bit of the origin of the rifle so um Benjamin Tyler Henry was the inventor and Oliver Winchester is the boss of the company so his name displaces Henry's essentially and and talk to me about the rate of fire so with that Lever Action System I mean you can really fire what is it 12 12 rounds it varies entirely on barrel length Okay um I won't do it with the original I mean I'm no expert with these things but wow all right yeah but essentially if you combine the pull of the trigger with the closure of the lever and you don't care as much where you're precisely aiming see I would say I'm as fast as that on Red Dead Redemption aren't we all aren't we all in real life but I guess we'll see how fast we are when we give these a go what what something told me that Jonathan had done this before again we were firing six shots each and being judged on the size of our grouping okay and then push the last one all the way in of course all loaded ready to go now we have to cycle the action to chamber the first round but we'll move forward if I'm good to go yeah [Music] just look cool [Music] even from this distance we could see that Jonathan had had a pretty good round my back was already Against the Wall go for it we're loaded but not ready so once you've taken control very much you can cycle the lever so obviously front sight yeah rear sight here line them both up so I'm On Target and leave it now lever now yeah all the way forward all the way back yeah and we're ready to go good to go yep keeping it level [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] love you yeah it's right I'm all ready to go what's the firing Point obviously both hands on this okay front left hand quite far forward yeah bring it up to the shoulder okay front sight in the rear sight line it all up okay and when you're ready cycle that action finger off the trigger operate the lever that's it okay and ready to fight yep don't think you operated it quite vigorously oh come on ah there seems to be one more try a common occurrence of me have a look yes do I just break rifles that would be my superpower if I was a superhero breaking where fire is breaking rare Firearms yeah arguably not the best superpower in the book as Jonathan struggled to clear the jam I felt the nerves consuming me but I had not let this put me off before and I wasn't going to start now right here we go what [Music] I think I did all right they look good you look good maybe rushed a little bit at the end though I did I did I felt my brain got a bit foggy right let's take a look let's let's have a look see how we did oh wow look at that that's pretty close this is a bit better isn't it yeah better from everyone a lot easier with a butt Stock and Two Hands on the gun and you see no pressure got to Jonathan because I clearly calls a cucumber there that's insane yeah that's good so good that is good grouping and Lou you've done a lot better this time yeah well there's those two outliers I mean we've both got two outliers haven't we probably need a ruler to decide second place on this one [Music] we can find one you see these four very close together I I've noticed that we keep shooting you know it keeps going too high of the target we are at close range most most Firearms are zero to a longer distance so at that given distance it would be on what yeah having said that for me it shocked no dead on at this distance so you did all right Jonathan shooting high is not uncommon I think you're gonna have to decide you're gonna have to decide this one well let's wing it so this this is not a scientific approach but I do believe we have a winner Louis second place okay that makes things a bit more interesting going into the final the final round which is the shotgun Let's Do It come on let's do it okay perhaps unsurprisingly Jonathan had already won the competition with a round to spare but second place was up for grabs and it would be decided by a weapon that was all about power not Precision Anything Could Happen [Music] so talk us through these shotguns well um the two we're going to be shooting I think you're going to make me shoot this one-handed so that's always we are definitely yes these are both modern so we're looking here for the effect on target we're not we're not saying these are Western they're not although this configuration of double barrels side by side yeah you'll definitely see in the movies and I dare say some Maniac tried it in Period as well um I guess the the main thing we should focus on is now this is an example I've picked somewhat at random but it is a hammer gun so the guns of the era had had external hammers rather than internal locks but standard break open Action insert your 12 gauge close it up you then have to manually [ __ ] and fire a bit like the revolver single action kind of could you fire both barrels at the same time and then one or one barrel depends on the lock work on the trigger mechanism so this has the classic independent triggers yeah so you'd have to put both fingers in the trigger guard and Boom at once right do that yeah or you'd go boom boom like that interesting okay you can you can finagle it and Fire Two Shots almost simultaneously maybe not to be recommended because the the kick is going to be pretty The Recoil is going to be pretty heavy yeah accuracy is probably going to suffer um but you know basic configuration that you might find in the old west this is an English gun uh with a slightly wacky lightened buttstock not not massively spot on for the old west but perfectly plausible that someone might have purchased this period gone would not be out of place and we get the phrase riding shotgun from roughly this period right so we know that they were using them yeah I don't know exactly when riding shotgun pops up but it's definitely from the position of the stagecoach where you're guarding defending yeah um I was going to ask about uh the Saun off so literally people used to just saw off the barrel length what was the they still do listening behind them they still do this is a relatively modern um criminal style sorn off um so you saw off the butt stock that's where you lose the most accuracy yeah you can't shoulder the gun and then your shot pattern is gonna be bigger now it's not a linear thing that you cut off a certain amount of barrel and it gets proportionately massive but you definitely lose you don't get as tight a pattern it's wider spread yeah but the main reason for doing it is not not kill everyone in the room it is portability concealability and shootability although when it gets this short it becomes a real handful but we'll see you handling that later I guess if you can beat us with this one Jonathan then you know I think I think you can really claim the title of uh of Gunslinger yeah I mean we're not we're not shooting that right we're shooting this yeah this is a gigantic shotgun this is a a moderately nice modern um over and under so not side by side 12 but 12 gauge shotgun 12 ball in in the UK the same technology is still in use you know the Lock Works a bit different the fashion of having barrels one above the other has changed but you know they're not so different it's more about the ammunition you you put in them as to the effect I know with the musket I almost got knocked off my feet there we go it's a very strong trigger I'm fearing that this might do a similar thing it's got some you know the more Mass from the projectiles broadly speaking the more felt recall so you'll notice it okay as long as it actually shoots for you Luke this time yeah that's true yeah modern technology not a problem we'll see right let's get them again let's go for it because it could bounce back [Music] okay foreign [Music] Jonathan had finished in style but Luke and I's competition had come down to sudden death who would keep their nerves so Make It Count okay point and shoot not the same as before keeping it pointing down the range finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot [Music] all right do you think it voices down the range I'll take it from you thank you no worse at all and there goes the empty okay Luke's got one shot can he beat it right okay it's gonna be if you can get a bit closer to the bullseye more Central with your shot pattern okay then you'll win this one all right ready for it load me up straight forward follow the trigger on this one finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot and get it well into your shoulder before you do okay leading into it yep okay here goes nothing and it looks more Central to me if I get all excited mind your eyes [Music] gun is clear [Music] okay um a bit gutted but I think Luke is taking at least the competition between us with with this shot I mean Jonathan you are the overall winner even though you're shot with the Saun off wasn't your best unsurprisingly with a short shotgun one-handed with no sights yeah I was up here somewhere wasn't I I think the pattern was was bigger so then we had slightly up here yeah and then we had more Central so this round yeah Hey listen I try to I've noticed that a lot of the shots were going too high so I actually aim purposely lower than the bullseye and I think it's fair to say that Target is I mean I've taken them out yeah you've taken them out well done mate uh thank you you take the wild west challenge I do and unfortunately I think that means you get you get the prize I get the sheriff's badge thank you very much and I guess more on this wearing this as well I don't think you can warrant that whether you can pull off the house it's probably unrelated Jonathan thank you so much for having me very welcome I really appreciate it thanks jumping cheers hopefully we'll be back at some point in the future good shooting guys both of you honestly welcome to the history Hit YouTube channel hope you enjoyed that video and if you'd like to see more videos where we attempt to try and bring history to life please don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification Bell cheers guys see you soon [Music]

Channel: History Hit

Views: 549,146

Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, gun history, history of guns, brown bess musket, history of weapons, vickers machine gun, jonathan ferguson, military history, full series, lee enfield, brown bess, musket reload, musket rifle, evolution of guns, old gun, first gun, matchlock firing, martini henry, arquebus, winchester rifle, colt single action army, bolt action rifle, flintlock musket, firing a musket, musket shooting, history hit dan snow, history hits youtube

Id: x9oqAWvskps

Length: 94min 21sec (5661 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2023