Wheellock Rifle
Historical Gunsmiths (generic) · Rifle · Out Of Production · 1500
Also known as: Wheel Lock Rifle, Radschlossbüchse, German hunting rifle, wheellock büchse
Overview
The wheellock rifle is a muzzle-loading rifled long gun built around the wheellock ignition system, which appeared in the German and Italian states around 1500. Its lock spun a serrated steel wheel, wound against a powerful V-mainspring with a spanner key, against a clamped piece of iron pyrite to shower sparks into the priming pan, much like a modern cigarette lighter and without any smoldering match cord. Fitted with a spiral-grooved (rifled) barrel and frequently a delicate set or hair trigger, it was the precision firearm of its day and prized for accurate hunting and target shooting. Because the lock was intricate, costly and largely the work of master gunsmiths in centres such as Nuremberg and Augsburg, the wheellock rifle remained an arm of nobility, princely hunters and elite marksmen rather than the common soldier, and many surviving examples are lavishly decorated with carved staghorn inlay and engraving.
Specifications
| Weight (empty) | 4200 g (148.2 oz) |
| Overall Length | 1170 mm (46.06") |
| Barrel Length | 820 mm (32.28") |
| Action Type | Muzzleloader |
| Firing Mechanism | Wheellock |
| Trigger Type | Single Stage |
| Muzzle Velocity | 350 m/s (1148 fps) |
| Muzzle Energy | 1100 J (811 ft·lbf) |
| Effective Range | 100 m (109 yd) |
| Maximum Range | 250 m (273 yd) |
| Rate of Fire | 1 rpm |
| Barrel Rifling | Right Hand |
| Rifling Twist | 762 mm (30.00") |
| Number of Grooves | 7 |
| Barrel Material | Iron |
| Stock Material | Wood |
| Finish | Blued |
Calibers
- .60 Caliber Rifle Ball · primary — also known as 0.60 in, lead round ball, ~15mm bore
Features
- Firing modes: Manual
- Feed systems: Muzzle Loaded
- Features: Rifled Barrel, Muzzle Loaded, Wheellock Mechanism, Spring Wound Wheel, Pyrite Doghead, Spanner Wound, Priming Pan, Set Trigger, Hair Trigger, Ramrod, Staghorn Inlay, Ornate Engraving
Variants
- Tschinke (Silesian wheellock birding rifle) — Configuration
- Wheellock/Matchlock Combination Gun — Configuration
Service history
Operators
- European nobility and princely hunters · adopted 1530
- Holy Roman Empire elite guards and marksmen
Conflicts
- Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
Production
Production years: 1500-1700
Built by skilled individual gunsmiths, especially in Nuremberg and Augsburg; never mass-produced. No reliable totals.
Origin
Country of origin: Germany
Discontinued: 1700
Notes
Caliber, length and weight vary widely between individual hand-built guns; figures given are representative of a mid-size German hunting wheellock rifle. Surviving museum and auction examples cluster around a 14-16 mm bore (Met examples 11.7-15.9 mm), barrels of roughly 700-880 mm (Met Peter Danner 881 mm; Georg Hoffman 1670 c. 699 mm) and a loaded weight near 4.2 kg (a late-17th-c. German wheellock rifle is recorded at 9 lb 5 oz, c. 4230 g). Rifling on Germanic rifled guns is typically 6-12 grooves with about 1 turn in 30 in (c. 762 mm). The Silesian 'Tschinke' was a light, slender wheellock birding rifle. No period chronograph data exists; the 350 m/s velocity and c. 1100 J energy are estimates derived from comparable rifled black-powder long arms.
Background
Because the rifled wheellock could group shots far more tightly than a smoothbore musket, German princely courts held elaborate target-shooting festivals (Schützenfeste) where ornately decorated wheellock rifles were as much status symbols and works of art as they were weapons.