#1
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What is the difference between musket and arquebus?
Some muzzleloader black powder handheld firearms named muskets (charleville, Brown Bess, wheellock, matchlock etc), but some similar firearms named arquebus (Tanegashima and other). So, I don't know: what are the criteria to inclusion in Category muskets or Category Arquebus? What is the difference between musket and arquebus?
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#2
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The definition is very imprecise and varies with the time period and level of technology. I believe that originally the Arquebus was a smaller weapon with little or no stock. Conversely, the original muskets were rather huge, having a barrel of at least 4 foot and a caliber approaching and inch, and they were only ever fired from support on a shooting fork. During this same period you also had something called a Caliver, which was an intermediate between the two more closely resembling what we would today think of as a "musket" in its proportions.
As time goes on the whole thing becomes very muddy though, with the musket shrinking in size to the point where they didn't use forks gradually the terms arquebus and caliver were phased out in favour of calling everything a musket. An extra confusion is that whellocks seem to have been referred to as arquebusses even when the terms caliver or musket would have been more correct. All in all, its best just to not worry about it too much as whatever you call something you will probably be right in one time/place or another. |
#3
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I'm pretty sure all arquebus are match lock type guns, succeeded by the musket that employed flintlock for the ignition.
__________________
"There's a fine line between not listening and not caring...I like to think I walk that line everyday of my life." Blessed be the LORD, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle Psalm 144:1 “It is always wrong to use force, unless it is more wrong not to.” |
#4
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#5
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Good point since the term musketeers came out way before the invention of flintlocks. But in some of the histories I've read, it keep telling me that muskets is the next evolution after the earlier guns.
__________________
"There's a fine line between not listening and not caring...I like to think I walk that line everyday of my life." Blessed be the LORD, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle Psalm 144:1 “It is always wrong to use force, unless it is more wrong not to.” |
#6
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I think where the notion that the musket was an improved form of the arquebus might come from is that fact that it was in the end replaced by the musket, but only once technology and metallurgy had gotten to the point where to musket had changed significantly into a weapon that was much more effective as a standard infantry weapon, resembling what we would stereotypically refer to as a musket today (Brown Bess like). |
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