Was this Axe Gun really used in battle? Boarding Axe Carbine with firearms expert Jonathan Ferguson
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2024
- We have shown you the gun with two bayonets, but what about a gun with an axe!? This week Jonathan explains why having an axe on your gun (gun on your axe?) is not as impractical as it sounds by looking at the m/1703 boarding axe pistol.
Subscribe to our channel for more videos about arms and armour
Help us bring history to life by supporting us here: royalarmouries...
Explore our online collection here: collections.ro...
Sign up to our museum membership scheme here: royalarmouries...
⚔Website: royalarmouries...
⚔Blog: royalarmouries...
⚔Facebook: / royalarmouriesmuseum
⚔Twitter: / royal_armouries
⚔ Instagram: / royalarmouriesmuseum
We are the Royal Armouries, the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Discover what goes on behind the scenes and watch our collection come to life. See combat demonstrations, experience jousting and meet our experts.
Have a question about arms and armour? Feel free to leave us a comment and we'll do our best to answer it.
"So, are we being Vikings, or age of sail Pirates?"
"Yes."
I mean Sweden was a navy power for a long time in history just that swedes navy was more in modern term destroyer and light cruisers because big ship does not work that well in the baltic sea.
and if Sweden would lose the baltic sea that would be a disaster for Swedish trade and military power as Sweden is a coastal nation.
not like polland that if its loses its access to the baltic sure its not great but its not crippling it.
Somali Pirates
The Sweedish where Vikings, just like the Danes and Norse
@@torg2126 Not in the 18th century though.
@@Immopimmo The Sweedish where still descended from Vikings
Ah, so Jonathon has decided to make his imitation of a gun he probably saw in Tarkov. Great content as usual
Chungus dingus
Damn, you've seen through my ruse!
@@samholdsworth3957 chingus is missing?!?
That has Stunty [Warhammer Dwarf] written all over it :)
I read this and was like "What did I do now?"
Normally most Jonathan's are Joe-Nathans.. not as many Jona-Thons.. Anyway, this is an expert I'm filing Next to Ian from Forgotten Weapons
This looks like something a warhammer fantasy empier soldier would use in close quarter combat coupled with a shield, especially if someone made a blunderbuss version of it.
Fitting comment, in the upcoming Total War Warhammer 3 there'll be (Kislev) troops using something similar to this!
So this is in fantasy warhammer too? My first thought was the Custodian bolter/glaive from warhammer 40k
Absolutely, and let us face it, I'd really expect this from a dwarf (in fact I am unsure about actual models, but in Age of Reckoning artbooks there's a few pistols for the engineer which have knife or axe blades) or even a cunning orc, ha! And in fact, in the old Warcraft 3 art you can see plenty of weapons like such from the Dwarven Sharpshooter sketches.
A Marienburg weapon I'd say.
@@Lord_of_Dread The Grey Knights used to be armed exclusively with storm bolter force weapons, before GW had the daft idea of making them into an army choice and put a load of them in tactical armour.
As a Swede, I have to say that pronunciation was not too bad actually.
Almost nailed it on the second try!
@@oscarjosefsson9300 Thanks guys! And thanks for Ghost, by the way :)
@@jonathanferguson1211 Sjöblad is kind a strange surname, well a strange composition, I would say. Sjö means sea or more correctly lake. Blad means leaf. What is a leaf of the sea, it doesn’t make sense. But I guess we have other, strange combinations like, Sjökvist (kvist means twig), Sjögren (green means branch of a tree) etc. There’s other meanings of the word “blad”, like blade (knife blade), so it would then translate to Seablade or Blade of the Sea? Sjöblad isn’t a common surname in Sweden, I can only get 150 hits on that in online phone book, while Sjögren and Sjökvist has more then +9999. Maybe that’s way it sound peculiar?
@@jonathanferguson1211 Passable pronunciation surely. And I had a feeling you were a heavy metal fan-considering all that heavy metal weaponry you handle on a daily basis
@@bdekw Absolutely. I draw the line somewhere between Ghost and Behemoth :)
According to a swedish museum site that has a similar weapon this should be a Änterbila m/1703. The flintlock is that of a m/1699 but the "dog" was something used on the m/1688. So somewhat of a hybrid between those?
Also the ramrod would probably have been secured by a lid held in place with springtension.
Yes, the Swedish army museum calls it an m/1703, which is actually what we had ours catalogued as (in English, based on their identification I think) and I should have used that designation in this video. The m/1688 and m/1699 that they mention (and that the lock on the m/1703 is a hybrid of) are conventional flintlock pistols. Most likely the dog on the axe pistol was retained for extra safety (no longer deemed necessary on the pistol) so that you could hit people whilst loaded :)
what I dont understand, considering that there were actually quite a few gun/weapon combos... where the heck are they in movies and games?
Rulemakers are lazy I guess
Hunt Showdown has a sawed-off break-action single barrel 12 gauge that has a hatchet blade fixed to it.
In one AC Unity DLC you get the guillotine gun. It's more a hand mortar but hey, it's got an axe head (you can use) and it can shoot grenades
All got stuck in the Final Fantasy series I spose?
@@Vagabond671 As a Swede I'll start yelling in Swedish whenever I go for Romero Hatchet kills from now on!
the Hunt Showdown "Romero Hatchet" is the most obvious inspiration from that piece in particular, being a break action single barrel shotgun with an axe head, a sawed down barrel, a hatchet head, and the same shaped stock/handle as this particular piece. I think the moving parts of the break action on the Hunt Showdown shotgun equivalent might make it prone to breaking from use as an axe, but it doesn't seem entirely implausable.
I believe in some of their early access dev diaries, they had a replica of this particular piece on the table to model the Romero Hatchet off of. ruclips.net/video/FrV0Cptx7fg/видео.html
Honestly, I'd see the Romero Hatchet being one of the more believable 'modern' renditions of a gunaxe. Cheap, rugged, single action, a general risk to use, but still usable.
@@BucketKingu I don't think it wouldn't work, but i would question it's durability as an axe just due to the break action compared to something like a flintlock muzzleloader, but yeah other than that it probably would be a practical tool
@@TheEveryDayC The way I see it the trick here is your chopping head and motion are working against the break hinge, not with it. If you've made a break action shotgun axe where the head swings in the same direction the action breaks, you've done it wrong, try again. Out of all the possible actions few are as robust and abuse resistant as break action, with maybe the exception of a hinge action like what you see on a Model 1873 Trapdoor Springfield. That one would be my first choice for a modern single shot axe shotgun.
It’s perfect for all your demon and witch-hunting Needs , it’s a shame a film hasn’t featured a hero with one in a fantasy film like Van Helsing
I'm in love with the shape of this weapon, the axehead in particular. The lines are elegant yet brutal and I feel there's a lot of versatility with this design. You can shoot, cut, hook, stab and spike your opponent any way you fancy.
Fascinating piece of history. Looks like something that came out from a video-game
Actually, there is a snes game where the first boss uses a weapon like this, the only difference is that in the game it is longer
Agreed
@DanielCook Single shot shotgun, but cartridge firing, not flintlock
Reminds me of "the huntsman" from enter the gungeon
There was a somewhat popular video game from the PS2 era called Dark Watch, a vampire cowboy FPS, that this beauty would fit in quite well, I think.
As a boarding weapon it looks like a useful bit of kit. Makes me think of the US Elgin cutlass pistol, a single shot percussion weapon merged with a Bowie type blade. It was issued in limited numbers to the US Navy in the late 1830's to members of the South Seas Exploring Expedition and apparently they did see use. Love to see one of those up close.
funny to think that we think they're odd as a concept, but combination weapons are still really common in the military, the combination Rifle/Spear... they just made the spear tip detachable in most cases now
Good observation, but it kind of proves the point though; the bayonet has always been detachable, whereas the true combination weapon is a permanent kludge of more than one weapon type and so usually doesn't work well as a result.
@@jonathanferguson1211 The rifle-bayonet combo doesn't work that well either, it's either been too short, too long, too light or too heavy or the US model 1873 bayonet.
But it's true the best combo weapon is the combo weapon with the combo removed and made optional, but the mentality is still there (combo weapons still turn up in fiction) and there's still the odd leftover idea, "spike on a stick, but the stick shoots bullets and you can take the spike off, because Jeff..."
Also because it's the internet and it's not a place for rational discussion ... laughs in Carcano M1938 and other rifles with permanently attached under folding bayonets :p
I kind of think they. didn´t combine the two best weapons. on the other hand. it´s not the worst. I think wheellock axe combo would be worst.
@@MrTrilbe The ultimate combo weapon is a chainsaw machine gun, clearly.
@@Tetragrammaton22 no, no, no, no, the rifle-coffee grinder combo
Many years ago I argued with someone about using firearms like this a melee weapons, there was a pistol that had a very weighted grip that was used as a club he said that no one would use an expensive pistol as a club, I said you would use what ever you could to survive the melee with no way to reload and as long as it isn't broken or lost when you have space you still have a pistol to reload and shoot. Glad to see the Swedish taking that concept to a logical level :)
I agree with you - but sometimes you do see the features like the bludgeon grips on fancy show pieces where they would never reasonably be used.
Depends on the design the anime/jrpg gunblades where trash you would damage them in combat and risk a misfire. But this is solid wood, with metal reinforcment. Its not firing any precision shot or ammo, worst case your smoothbore weapon would be as innacurate as a smooth bore weapon lol. Stuff we normally see is like ff8 style stuff where you drop it wrong or hit something hard and damage the barrel, or mess up the abilty to aim. The idea of a rifled weapon or accurate one with a melee purpose is never good. Its same with all modern weapons you drop it you got rezero the damn thing 9/10, same thing you club some one your gun sights if it has any are now worthless. But this weapon is intended for point blank range never intended to fire more then a few yards away from you. You don't fire this thing 20 yards out preboarding, you wait till you are so close you can see the whites of their eyes lol
@@Zalzany So you might not know or you might know not sure by what you write the gunblades from the jrpgs/anime is bad gunblades are a real weapon.
And even gun knives exists though.
@@havtor007 they are but mostly cosmetic peices that broke when parried or hitting anything solid. Gunblades traditionaly were not usefull for more then decrative peices many tried gun combos but in end baynet ended up being the most succesfull with some having fixed simply to make it more sturdy as early models broke easy minus plug which could get stuck in combat makingnit just a pike
Yeah but its easier to just carry a club and cheaper. Its easier to drop a pistol since reloading at melee range not possible then swap to another weapon in fact some pirates and sailors did this carry multiple pistols fire then drop and recover them after boarding was over. It was pretty common to at least have a club if not a sword in combat if using pistols.
This axe is so you can use it on boarding nets while climbing and you get one shot. Boarding axes already were a thing so it was just a one shot pony for poor sob stuck cutting ropes to be able to shoot and even drop as it had a strap then use it as needed in melee or what not.
The pistol part is 100% one time heat of momment use then you drop it use another pistol or better melee weapon once on board
You probably still have the ram rod somewhere, it's just a case of waiting for it to turn up where you least expect it.
Since the Royal Armouries collection has certain resemblances to the ware house in final shot in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” - it could take a looong time
Though they might not even realize it goes to that gun.
@@craigdavidson4378 You simply had to search something else.
@@M.M.83-U the matching left greave to a 14th century set of Italian plate armour?
@@craigdavidson4378 yes, somethig like that.
I love it, now I have a weapon for my next Battle Smith Artificer in Dungeons&Dragons. Thanks mate!
My Battle Cleric of a war god already has one of these!
When you need to hunt and cut firewood in one trip.
As a Swede I simply loved this episode! Looking forward to seeing you show of more Swedish weaponry!
My girlfriend and I really enjoyed the combination weapons at the museum, particularly the pistol shield and musket-mortar/grenade launcher. I hope to see more videos like this in future!
Jonathan Ferguson's Gamespot vids brought me here on strength of name alone. Give that man a raise!
This is quite possibly the most metal thing I have ever seen!
Great Video as usual. Jonathan is such a sympathetic man and he hits the perfect spot of not seeming too sober/serious while still being very professional.
Definitely looks effective, probably the best combination weapon i've seen. Very 'tacticool' ;)
Can I purchase one at IKEA?
Jonathan, I met one of your predecessors on a 2008 RA Stores tour (research on Officers fusil/American War). A lifelong highlight to see and touch some of your wonderful treasures. You are a rock star. Keep it up!
As a Swede i must say, your pronunciation of "Sjöblad" was surprisingly good.
That’s one hell of a foresight!
Interestingly, that particular weapon, the m/1703 was also found with a SIGNIFICANTLY longer grip...as in, something that couldn't possibly be shouldered and fired(hence "grip" and not stock), clearly meant primarily to be used as an axe, and the pistol part is at best an add-on.
The ramrod you're looking for is still in the museum. Check inside the barrel of the Kalthoff repeater. When Gerald worked there he didn't want to set it on the ground so like a genius, he used the Kalthoff's barrel as a temporary place to hold it but forgot about it in the middle of inspecting the firearm.
Reminds me of the Riverboat Pistols I saw in a Lousiana Museum but they were big knives attached to Pistols.
I admire how calmly this man can brandish such an incredible weapon. Öber Viking boom stick. Literally.
Impressive bit of kit.
Gonna make a dwarf artificer in D&D who dual wields these and uses them to sling spells.
Looks like something from Assassin's Creed Unity, although they had Mortar Guns which were just handheld cannons with axes on the end, wild stuff!
Ah Jonathan you really are a top-notch chap. I appreciate the hell out of you.
Six Nock volley guns behind you? Now that's soldiering.
I would love to see (if it hasn't been done already) a video on the Elgan cutlass pistol, the wheellock mace, and/or possibly the Katar pistol.
Dude I watch your videos because I'm infatuated with your voice man. It's soo soothing, no homo
That's so cool. Leave it to the swedes to make something that awesome.
Eastern US rabbit hunter/beagler here. My father and I got consecutive serial # 28 gauge Beretta onyx o/u shotguns with Xtra wood. My father crashes thick brush with his while I try my hardest to avoid any scratches at all. As soon as I saw this vid I am certain he needs one of these attached to his rabbit guns lol
Cannot believe it took me this long to come to this channel. Love the work you do!
Somewhere, Mac from Agents of Shield smiles.
Awesome front sight protector.
These go from strength to strength as does the confidence in the presentation!
Your Expertise is obvious as is your enthusiasm and as this grows your Wit and Teaching Skills increase !
'Stealth' learning is always my favourite where you enjoy the presentation and come away thinking about what you have just learnt and realise you have taken on more than you were aware of!
Well done and thank you! As soon as sanity allows I will make a pilgrimage to Leeds and see your collection !
That thing looks bad ass
Gimli: "AND my...... Um..... er...... hmmm..."
Very cool. When I saw the title I thought "Probably not" but seeing it, it looks very substantial and well made. Vicious!
If that's a smoothbore, I'd imagine it would be rather effective delivering a blast of shot at close range to wound and daze before putting the blade to work.
It most probably is smoothbore, it's more like a flintlock pistol of some sort
Cool episode, thanks for making this one. I could easily envision this weapon being used by navy cadets or officers in a barge, about to enter a ship after sneaking up on it.
That was a bloody good attempt at "Sjöblad" - the many different SJ sounds in Swedish are famously vicious for non-native speakers. The "-blad" bit has more of an "aaah" sound rather than a short A, that's about all.
Come to think of it, I know a guy at the Army Museum here - I'll send the link over to him and see if he can add anything!
To me it sounded perfect, but I'm Finnish and not a native speaker.x) Also we learn Finnish-Swedish at school, which has a different accent than what we call rikssvenska.
This is definitely going into my DnD Eberron game.
I think I used this in WoW
Definitely got to show off more combination weapons!
More combi weapons!!
Thanks Johnathan for another fascinating video
Guillotine gun from AC:Unity was what I thought of immediately when I saw this. The axehead brought back some sweet memories :D Does the Armoury have a guillotine gun though?
I dont think there is real life guillotine gun but who knows
Very cool video! I found out recently that ramrods were typically made of wood and French soldiers referred to a ramrod as a baguette 🥖which means “stick” in French
The "dog" was used in the Swedish military until the early 19th century. When Sweden imported Brown Bess muskets in 1808 and 1812 some of them were converted to "doglock"
Just binged all of your videos with GameSpot, and am so excited to binge these as well! I hope to visit when I move to the UK here soon! Love history, love guns, love museums (used to work for one as a blacksmith), so I'm very excited!
The coolest bayonet I've ever seen on a pistol.
I could see someone doing that and then immediately unloading their shot into the poor sap that's impaled on the axe point.
Never heard of an axe gun but it should be used in every battle
That back-spike looks good for attacking the enemy’s shins😂
For those not familiar, the 'Dog' was so called because the catch resembled a dogs leg in shape, but over time "Dogs leg catch lock" got shortened to 'dog'. I think that contraction may have happened over the course of... about 5 minutes.
"Babe I heard something downstairs."
"Aight let me grab my gaxe."
I’ve heard the axe pike thing deflect POI about 1-2 MOA when attached.
I totally want one of these. Quite fascinating and definitely badass.
Very cool!
Your content is absolutely fascinating, thank you for the knowledge... keep it up 👍
Imagine winning a competition to spend a day or two,in the armoury at Leeds,with a All Access Pass with Jonathan.
What a fearsomely functional piece of kit! It clearly worked as intended if there were percussion versions made... I can see why the secondary dog, if you were scaling with the assistance of this one-stop shop of naval melee combat.
Fantastic thing
It looks like something a pirate would use to hunt vampires and werewolves in the 1700s.
So... From Bloodborne.
@@samovarsa2640 My generation would probably immediately think of Grant DaNasty from Castlevania 3, but I forget what year that takes place.
If i'm not mistaking, weapon like this was extensively used by polish hussars around 1700s to 1800s
What about a series dedicated to lovingly designed weapons that proved to be hopeless on the battlefield? It would be really educational to learn about ambitious designs with glaring errors. Things like the Cochran turret revolver, Colt 1855 revolver rifle or Chauchat.
Next summer's intern project - search the misc. ramrod collection for the missing unit. With that length it should stand out, maybe?
Wow. People actually used that thing? Fascinating
Very cool! Would love to see more combos.
Lots of those used in eastern Europe, both by infantryman and light cavalry.
Awesome video
Oooh, I love a good boarding axe!
My favourite ones have to be the gun spears/gun halberds. Though I have also seen a gun crossbow, with the gun mounted on the underside of the bow. Pretty interesting stuff.
The dog was used on swedish muskets and rifles well into the percussion era, with the pattern of 1854 being the last model with said feature.
Do you guys have a gun sword or a crossbow sword love the channel
sjöblad directly translates into Seablade by the way
Hoping some game devs see this one
it could be actually secured (the ram rod) by that swivel point you mentioned for strap. it would make perfect sense, pistols and axes does not have straps very often... :)
Would love to see you do a top ten of your favorite firearms of history
oh god. now i want him to see all the wacky stuff from Enter the Gungeon. this is basically the huntsman
The Romero Hatchet from Hunt Showdown
so to me just looking at it. its basically a variantion and modified flintlock rifle, an early version of a rifle that uses a bayonet type tactic. used for both close and long range but id argue the very early blueprints of a m1 garand with the bayonet addition to it that finally caught on as it proved very useful in the war. im not great with history so bare with me on this but id say it was the early victorian times? at a guess. i would also personally say that its technically the 1st few weapons that had gun modifications to it. a reciever and a stock as a rifle that shoots reduces weight however they ended up messing it up by adding a heavy bayonet to the weapon. probally was used in battle although very unique and rare and id say one of the few weapons that was used in its short life span before getting replaced with only a few made as an experimentation of the flintlock weapon variants.
A cork fit sir ! heeeey 😀
I always love gun-axe combinations, I thought they were so cool and super functional. I think they may have been used by the polish cavalry around the 17th century aswell.
Sorely missed opportunity to call it a "gaxe".
I was going to say the russian Streltsy had this, but then I remembered they had axes they used for their old muskets. The axes were a sort of tripod for it when they needed to shoot with it.
It's not exactly an urban myth, but modern testing proved this technique to be somewhat uncomfortable. Besides, typical Russian muskets of the day were smaller in calibre than their Western counterparts, being rather like a grenadier fusil, and thus did not necesserily require a rest to fire effectively.
There was a type of American pistol that featured a large bowie blade underneath the barrel that was adopted in limited capacity by the US Navy. Called the "Elgin cutlass pistol"
I want one!
Cant express how much I like this combination.
The spike should work fine against armor since we are in 1700 it is in common use.
But not abord ships as far as i know. And those who still used armor around 1700 mainly had a cuirass and a buffskin jacket. I feel that a cut with the axe against arms or head would be more efective than trying to puncture a thick bulletproof chestplate.
I've always loved these things, so much more of a practical answer than trying to fit a pistol in to a sword.
We now need a modern version with a lever action or semi auto shotgun in combination with a ballistic shield slotted to proved a steadying point. Coastguard/customs inspectors would be treated with a degree more respect if that was standard loadout when boarding a ship :)
That thing was 100% effective.
Do you have any knife and fork flint locks with pearl grips?
Saw a couple in a book once.
Romero 77 in Hunt showdown was based on this i think
Brown bess and Baker rifle next video perhaps?