The development of firearms went in several directions. The gunsmiths sought to increase their firepower, while at the same time trying to make the weapons more mobile and easier to handle. In the XIV century, a whole class of hand and siege weapons appeared in Europe, which in Russia was called pishchal.
Instructions
Step 1
Traditionally, hand weapons, as well as siege and fortress weapons, which resemble cannons, are traditionally referred to as pishchal. For the first time such a weapon appeared at the end of the XIV century. At first, the tweeters were made of steel strips fastened together, which were welded to each other for reliability. In this way, it was possible to obtain a barrel of the required length. Subsequently, the casting method began to be used for the production of arches.
Step 2
The hand-held squeak was an individual melee weapon with a caliber of about 20 mm and capable of sending a bullet a couple of hundred meters. The weight of such squeakers reached 8 kg. The first samples did not differ in accuracy, because they did not have a sighting device. The reloading speed of the hand-held squeakers was also low. It took several minutes to get the weapon ready to fire. In the course of hostilities, the arrows usually fired volleys at the same time, which made the firing more dense and effective.
Step 3
For several decades, the production of arquebuses has been set on a grand scale. Weapons workshops in Pskov, Vladimir and Moscow made several types of such weapons. The most skilled gunsmiths were considered Andrei Chokhov, Stepan Petrov and Kondraty Mikhailov. The names of all the craftsmen, unfortunately, have not reached the present day. Many of the surviving examples of pishchals were made by unknown craftsmen.
Step 4
Already in the 16th century, the first siege and serf pishchal appeared. These powerful weapons were designed to destroy fortresses and other fortifications. In the arsenal of the Russian army, there were also smaller guns that did not belong to manual weapons. These "babies" had good efficiency and were used to defeat enemy manpower at considerable distances.
Step 5
There have been preserved references to multi-barreled pishchal, which at that time possessed a very great destructive power. The device of such a weapon made it possible to simultaneously fire shots from several dozen barrels. The multi-barrel squeak bullet was about the size of a goose egg, and the height of the gun was comparable to the height of a man. However, samples of multi-barreled arquebuses have not survived in full, only descriptions of their design have survived to this day.
Step 6
In the beginning, hand squeaks had wick locks, which were later replaced by flint mechanisms. Improvement of the fuse made it possible to reduce the reloading time of the weapon and increased its reliability several times. In Europe, the analogue of such weapons were muskets. Squeaks were used in the Russian army for several centuries and were withdrawn from circulation after the military reform carried out by Peter I.