Buccaneer Era Firearms

[Animal]

I still think that is the coolest gun made. I love the fishtail design on it.

[Commodore Swab]

Wait till you see the next fishtail that's in the works . . . much much shorter and a much much much larger bore

[Quartermaster James]

I still think that is the coolest gun made. I love the fishtail design on it.

+1

[Jib]

yes indeed that fishtail is a beauty!

[Frtiz]

[The origin of the word is 'donder busch' or thunder gun in German.

Although Dutch and Deutsch (German) are closely related and were even more so in earlier times I am sure that "donderbusch" is Dutch, not German. "Donder" is Dutch for thunder (German: "Donner") and "busch" seems to be an older spelling for "bus" which is similar to the German word "Büchse". "Büchse" literally means tin or can, regarding firearms it is usually translated with hunting rifle nowadays. But the word "Büchse" clearly predates the invention of the rifle. One of the earliest firearms named "Büchse" were guns like this:

http://www.intermundus.de/site2.0/wehrundwaffen/img-wehrundwaffen/bums2.jpg

To make things even more confusing this early version of a gun was nicknamed "Donnerrohr" (thunder valve).

Edited January 2, 2013 by Frtiz

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

I have a freind, who like me is fairly obsessive about accuracy, and i've seen his pieces, and even bought one off him. he had a doglock blunderbuss (which is what i bought) a matchlock musket, and several regular flintlocks. Buccaneers, like any pirate, would steal what they had, also, they traded with the dutch, and French supply ships that came to Tortuga and Western Hispaniola for powder, shot, and other Europian goods, in exchange for hides and boucan grilled meat. as well as whatever england had to offer, when they went to Port Royale. And since they plundered the Spanish, they probably had access to miquete locks (don't quote me on the spelling though)

Something I would advise, is to look for a 'fish tail' musket, I have only ever seen them mounted with plain flintlocks and matchlocks, but the fishtail was period accurate for the English Revolution and the decades afterwards, (the revolution took place only two decades before), and would not have been out of place in the hands of an english buccaneer. also, wheellocks, though proven to be unreliable, (as if any other gun of the period was more so) were still in use, wheelock pistols were fine, though with a wheelock, you also have the option of a medium length wheelock gun called an 'arquebuss'

So I would say all in all, flintlocks, miquete locks, doglocks, snaphaunce, wheellocks, and matchlocks are are all not out of the question, but when you start to get into flintlocks, in the mid/late 1700s, you've gone too far simply because of the style. I myself, plan to get 2 gentleman's dueling pistols, with inlays and carving one a wheelock, the other either a flintlock, or miquete lock, as well as a fishtail musket