Yannik F.
2015

Hunting weapons at the Gunsmiths
Source: Gunsmith, Interpreter At. Gunsmith. N.p.: n.p., 2015. Print.

For hunting what was the prime weapon to use? You would use a rifle for hunting because the bullet was spinning so it was much more accurate but did not in fact go farther. You have to load something tighter into the rifle but the musket ball is much more loose. It was not used for the military because it took much longer to load. You would not use a close range gun but if your animal was still alive you would use your knife. Also you would not want to waste any gunpowder and lead. Most people are not hunters but if you’re a bird hunter you use a shotgun because a duck can fly 50 mph and the bullet still need to have power to take it down. What is the difference between a shotgun and a musket? One is for hunting and one is for military fighting. They are roughly the same shape and size but they do not meet the same standards, the shotgun is much heavier and the musket is lighter so it would be Easier to swing. On the front of a shotgun there is a sight and on a musket there is a beignet. They only supply guns for hunters and farmers. Muskets mostly came from France and England.  They would only use muskets in war. A musket was made with 50 people so they could never get a contract to make one. The gunsmith was used to make sporting guns and to repair guns. You could make a living in the gunsmith shop and never make a gun.

Paraphrase:

• A rifle was the prime hunting weapon
• A rifle was more accurate but did not infact go farther
• The bullet would go through the air easier because the gun had a spiral barrel which would send the ball spinning
• You have to load a larger bullet into a rifle so a musket ball would not work
• A larger bullet would be better so it would spin while in the barrel
• A rifle was too heavy and took too long to load for military use
• Close range guns were not used
• Knives were used for close range
• Gunpowder and lead was too expensive to waste, when you could use a knife
• Bird hunting was used with a shotgun
• Birds fly very fast and you need lots of power to get the bullet up high and still have power to take it down
• Shotguns are for hunting
• Muskets are for the military
• Both the musket and shotgun have the same standards but one is heavier, and one is lighter and easier to swing
• A shotgun has a sight and a musket has a beignet
• Muskets took lots of men to make so it would not be possible to build one in a small gunsmith
• Gunsmiths made sporting guns (hunting guns) and repaired guns
• Some gunsmiths have never made a gun but only repaired one

My Ideas: I think that rifles should be used for military use. Although it is heavier and harder to load they would not waste bullets on missed shots. It was used for hunting and it was more expensive but it would pay off if there were less deaths on our side and more on theirs. Many of the people I asked in other interviews thought the same as this one that these guns were very similar in performance but different in weight. If they were similar in performance why didn’t they save the money and give everyone the cheapest and lightest gun? Shotguns today are for close range and bird hunting too but now they have lots of power but not a long range. In the colonial era they say a shotgun and a musket were similar. All the guns besides the rifle were all very similar but they still had different guns for different uses. I can infer the small differences made a big difference when put to use. I find it very interesting how the rifle was built. The barrel was made like a normal barrel but at the end they would put it into a machine and use a spinning pump sort of thing to create the spiral feature in the barrel of the musket. When I first heard about the spiral barrel I thought you would not really notice it but when you look down the barrel you can see very clear spirals throughout the barrel. When you shoot a traditional musket you would aim for the chest area because you would not really know where it would go, but the rifle has very good accuracy so you would not question your shot as much. I think it would be very fun to go more indepth on how the rifle was made and how the musket was made because then I could compare each gun and find out my own answer for what gun would be better for hunting. When were rifles used in the military? If you put a larger musket ball into a musket would it have more accuracy? What would happen if your musket ball was too tight in the gun?