How effective was the Blunderbuss?
A. Not terribly. The blunderbuss, that familiar old flintlock firearm with the belled muzzle is a staple of pirate movies and was considered the equivalent of the modern day riot gun. They were not all that effective. A test was run some years ago of a .60 caliber (at the breech) pistol with 7″ barrel with a 2″ flare, and two long arms, one with a .75 caliber breech, an 18″ barrel with a 11/8″ flare, and the second with a .69 caliber breech, a 24″ barrel, and a 11/4″ flare. They normally used “bore” diameter musket balls and the historical records for the two long arms are 12 balls of .69 caliber and 120 gr of powder for the “.69 caliber” blunderbuss and 15 balls of .75 caliber and 130-140 grs of powder for the “.75 caliber” weapon. These weapons were fired at 40 and 60 feet at silhouette targets mounted on a 4 x 8 sheet of wall board held horizontally. Both long arms produced lateral spreads of about 30″ at 40 feet and 50″ at 60 feet. Patterns were spotty and it was possible to comple
