"How long to load and fire a caliver?" Topic

We have lots of information about how many shots a trained musket man could fire per minute.

Does anyone know the rate of fire for a trained caliver man?

Thanks in advance.

It is a hard one to find. My guess is somewhere around 1 round per minute. Of course, that's based on nothing.

Yeah nothing at all but it was my estimate too. I would like to know for sure though as I actually know how much powder was expended by both sides in an engagement and how many shots you got to the pound.

If I knew the answer I might have something that could give us some insight.

A little progress.

"Regarding range and the time it took to reload and fire; according to Robert Held, a nimble musketeer could fire two shots in three minutes, but in general it was believed that the harquebus and caliver could be fired at twice the rate of a musket, but on the other hand, the musket was a much more dangerous weapon."

So two shots a minute. I'd still like to hear more if anyone can oblige.

Ask Dave Ryan?

Most ECW re enactors if they are not using a rest use caliver drill.
In Pre Civil War drill manuals if it had no rest it was a caliver, this develops drawing and after the Civil Wars in to a musketeer drill manuals.

Yeah I have the Hexham exercises. Also interesting to find out the lads kept a couple of bullets in their mouths to speed things up.

I've never timed myself with my 1580s arquebus, but arquebuses and calivers were generally considered quicker firing than muskets. One of the problems with trying to time such things is that there appears to have been a lot of tricks that could be used. I read (somewhere, can't find it) that they could use undersized bullets that could be dropped in without any ramming (De Gheyn's manual hints at this practice). The accuracy would be terrible, but if you're being pressed . . .

Another trick was to not "cock" the match, and instead just touch the weapon off with the hand holding the match cord. I've never tried it -- I'll need to get some good gloves before I do -- but it makes sense to me: cocking the match can take an annoyingly long amount of time.

I think trained arquebusiers were expected to fire a shot a minute (and a minute and a half or two for musketeers), although in an emergency could fire faster. Although I don't think it was common to try to time such things using such measurements. (I.e. measuring time in minutes and seconds wasn't terribly reliable until the later 17th century, and so most time measurements were relative).

Interesting. I wonder if drop the bullet in and bang the butt was in fashion?

My concern with banging the butt on the ground is that it might cause the pan to open, and thus you would lose the priming powder. A matchlock has a simple rotating pan cover, unlike a flintlock which has one held in place with a spring. Still it's possible, although I'm not aware of it being done.

Me neither it was just a thought.

Late to the party again.

A well trained re-enactors should be getting close to three shots a minute when not using a rest. Bear in mind that this is with modern powder and not having to force a musket ball down a fouled up barrel. On top of which there isn't the distraction of musket balls whizzing past or occasional colleagues vindictively plastering their blood brains or guts over you! I think two shots a minute would be a good opening rate of fire.

There are tricks like using slightly under size bullets and keeping a couple in your mouth but to my mind the key is training. Well trained troops are less likely to panic and will follow the proper drill. Calivers were shorter barrelled IIRC so less ramming against a fouled barrel so lets say two rounds a minute on average.

Thanks Elenderil that's helpful and if I take you right a declining rate of fire as time goes on?