Barrel from Grandson battlefield

[Spiridonov]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

By now I have read the captions to the illustrations and learned that 'our' barrel in discussion was not found on, but near the Grandson battlefield site. So it is not sure that it actually saw service in that battle. This fact accounts for my suspicion that it was altered during its longer working life: the blade backsight, im my eperience, is a modernization of ca. 1500, as well as the pan and possibly the barrel loops. In the 1470's, the touchhole was still situated near the top of the barrel, and pans were unknown. All there was to the touchhole was a more or less deep molding, the earliest predecessor of a pan. Integral pans on wrought iron barrels did not show up before ca. the 1490's.

Maybe it was an exception like handgonne from notebook of Lorenco Ghiberty or arquebuse from "Fuerhwerk" Maybe it was such a rare thing