Guns 2012-08.pdf - Jeffersonian

Matchlock muskets such as these were issued with a hooked
stick to steady the arm during firing. The Newtowne stock
(inset) is branded with the town name in three places just as
the originals were. Note the unique “club butt” stock of fancy
maple. It is not uncomfortable to shoot.
also of the Newtowne matchlock,
the Massachusetts Bay Colony had a
militia force of 1,500 men organized
into 10 militia companies—a
formidable, well armed, matchlock
force—our original National Guard.
What’s it like to shoot the
Newtowne? While the Newtownes
being offered to the public do not
have their touch holes drilled and are
considered to be non-firing replicas,
our test musket from The Rifle Shoppe
was considered a “ballistics research
instrument” with a drilled touch hole
and was ready to bellow with ball or
shot.
Jess Melot, owner of The Rifle
Shoppe, observes that when he
disassembled and examined the
original Newtowne for reproduction
purposes, he concluded from its
very American, curly maple stock,
its hammer forged, rough finished
serpentine and internal lock parts, the
appearance of the pins and pin holes
holding the barrel and stock together
and the “lumpy” exterior of the barrel
that the Newtowne matchlock was
indeed, American, not European,
made. It’s a significant opinion,
making the Newtowne one of the first
firearms made in the New World.
Being a .75 caliber, a very universal
musket caliber for the next 150 years,
the Newtowne can be loaded with
standard 12-gauge wads, shot, or
a .735" patched or unpatched lead
ball. A typical charge would be 70
to 80 grains of FFg black powder
or Alliant’s flintlock-friendly, Black
The lock of the matchlock (above) is “the
earliest mechanical form of firing” a gun. Note
the manual pan cover (below) to protect the
powder in the flash pan from the continuously
smoldering match.
MZ. Since its recent introduction,
I favor Black MZ in smoothbores.
Load-for-load, it doesn’t equal the
higher velocities of black powder, but
it is consistently accurate. It leaves so
little firing residue, you don’t have to
wipe between shots plus it’s virtually
corrosion free. On the other hand,
I did chronograph Swiss 1-1/2 Fg
black powder in the Newtowne to see
what the performance difference was
between it and Black MZ.
My roundball load consisted of
70 grains of Black MZ, followed by
a 12-gauge overshot wad, a 12-gauge
Ox-Yoke Wonder Wad and a .735" ball
from the Vance Bullet Co. patched in
.011" linen and greased with Track of
the Wolf’s Mink Oil grease. A dash of
FFFFg in the pan to be ignited by a
3/8" nitrated, sisal cord from The Rifle
Shoppe, and I was good to go.
Mash The Serpentine
Melot told me to be aggressive with
the matchlock trigger. In other words,
don’t gently squeeze the trigger but
snap that glowing matchcord down
into the pan for the fastest ignition. I
did as told.
Blowing on the tip of the matchcord
to get a good hot ember glowing, I
snapped the trigger and the Newtowne
reported immediately. There is
something mildly disconcerting about
the idea of a fire-carrying serpentine
arcing toward your face, rather than
away from your face, as is the case
with Japanese matchlocks, but the
system works, and I didn’t walk away
from the shooting session with either
singed eyebrows or a smoke smudged
brow.
Shooting from a rest at 25 yards, I
(and fellow onlookers) were amazed
as a well centered 4", 3-shot group
developed on target. These Newtownes
do shoot, even if there’s no rear sight to
center that front bead in!
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WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • AUGUST 2012