"Big Shots – Amusettes, Jingals and Other ..." Topic

…Super-Sized Firearms.

"Larger than a musket, but not large enough to qualify as artillery, the amusettes of the 18th and 19th centuries certainly packed a wallop.

Also known as ‘wall guns' or ‘rampart guns', these over-sized long-arms were primed, loaded, rammed and fired by a single gunner in much the same way an infantryman would operate a musket. In fact, the chief difference between amusettes and more conventional firearms were the weapons' size: They were huge! Just how huge? Well, click here to see for yourself.

Pioneered as far back as the late Middle Ages, amusettes, wall guns and rampart guns eventually found their way into the arsenals of most 18th Century European armies, albeit in limited numbers. During the War of Independence, at least one Continental armoury furnished the rebellion with several of the jumbo long arms – both smooth-bore and rifled. Another source shows that they were used by the King's forces in North America as well. They quickly proved their value on rugged landscapes of the North American frontier, particularly in environments where traditional artillery couldn't go.

A typical amusette measured up to seven feet from butt to muzzle – more than two feet longer than a British Brown Bess. While standard European and North American muskets varied in caliber from .69 to .75, an amusette fired a much larger ball — sometimes 1.2-inches (30 mm) in diameter. And it fired much farther too. The average smooth-bore long-arm of the era was accurate to about 50 to 100 yards – an amusette's 60-inch barrel could propel a a lead ball weighing a tenth of a pound or more 10 times as far. And they were accurate too. American general Charles Lee of the Revolutionary War boasted in a letter that practice shots from his newly acquired amusettes had struck paper targets at up to 500 yards. Some fired as far as 1,000 yards…"

Full article here
link

Are there miniatures in 28mm with those big shots?

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

Amicalement
Armand

Fife and Drum has Amusettes with British Royal Artillery gunners. There is a kneeling "sniper" behind a wheeled mantlet, and his "spotter".
Now that he has acquired Minden Miniatures, perhaps we might see some Hessian Amusette gunners!

RAFM also make "wall guns", essentially Rampart Guns as pictured above, but they are in tiny "true 25mm" scale.

Many thanks for your guidance John!.

Amicalement
Armand

Foundry make (made?) some nice Chinese jingals and crews as part of their Opium Wars range. Given the indifferent attitude of the Chinese towards powder, ammunition, and soldiering in general, I rate them as having mainly a psychological effect.

I think it would have a big physical effect……on the firer!

Many thanks for your guidance too my friends.!

Amicalement
Armand

Perry makes a Hessian and a Queen's Rangers Amusette as well.

Does anyone do Amusettes in 15mm? My small but rich ImagiNation NEEDS these to complement their Saxon quick-firers transported by mules…….

Why not use a standard size 25mm musket for a 15mm amusette? I could get you a few, I have bags of them from my on-going 18th century projcts.

That would be very kind. But I'm in England, Europe! The Margravate of Braunau is an ImagiNation version of southern Swabian Turkey that has somehow escaped from direct control by Maria Teresa. It repudiates and defies the Treaty of Passarowitz, and raids deep into Bosnia, sending out punitive columns. Hence the need for easily transportable fire power!

Herr Freiherr, postage to the UK for a few bits of lead machts nichts. Drop me an email with your land address. I am zippy-at-fuse-dot-net.

Ausgezeichnet! Vielen Dank, gnädiger Herr! Thank you very much.

Does anybody make swivel guns in 28mm?
Mark

Old Glory has a pack in its Pirates range that includes gunners, and I believe Eureka and Redoubt may sell such pieces separately.

I purchased some from Eureka.
Mark