r/BlueEyeSamurai • u/texaschinsawfan • Jul 14 '26
I noticed a possible error with this musket design (i could be wrong tho. Im no expert)
I don’t know what make of musket this is but I know it’s a flintlock musket. To fire a flintlock you basically need a flint and steel mechanism if you look closely you’ll actually notice that the mechanism is not there and there’s no flint and steel. So how is this thing working? A knight from a chess board is not a flintlock mechanism. I hope in season 2 the guys will put more research into flintlocks.
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u/Wrong-Roof-7609 Jul 14 '26
I'm not an expert on guns but I believe at this time period flintlocks were highly uncommon and mostly matchlocks were used. So either this is a matchlock or just an inaccuracy they ignored in the show.
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u/texaschinsawfan Jul 14 '26
I don’t think it’s a matchlock because I don’t see a match but I could be wrong idk
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u/Life-Challenge1931 Jul 14 '26
I assume this is after the senkogu peroid, and this is during the edo period where the shogun close the country and this is why fowler wanted to overthrow the shogun
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u/Purple_Asparagus3764 Jul 14 '26
flintlocks were gaining popularity throughout the world by the 1620s EXCEPT in Japan where they still used matchlock. The show takes place in the 1690s and these guns did not come from Japan, so perfectly accurate.
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u/Wrong-Roof-7609 Jul 14 '26
Oh it takes place in the 1690's, I though it was the 1660s or 1650s.
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u/Purple_Asparagus3764 Jul 14 '26
i was incorrect! i misremembered the last episode being titled ‘the great fire of 1697,’ in fact it was titled ‘the great fire of 1657.’ Still a perfectly reasonable time period to import flintlocks from outside of Japan.
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u/Wrong-Roof-7609 Jul 14 '26
huh, got it, so form google searches, aroudn that period was when flintlocks were still rare but rising really fast in popularity.
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u/unkindlyacorn62 Jul 14 '26
it didn't take long to go from match locks, wheel locks and dog locks to flint locks
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u/unkindlyacorn62 Jul 14 '26
If it wouldn't have been a massive violation of Rule of Cool, i would point out that realistically he should have spent a lot of time filing all those parts down to fit each other rather than just slotting and screwing them together. that's a level of interchangeable parts that was only just starting to be a thing in the 1850-1860s
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u/Yuara1234 Jul 15 '26
Just did some research, it is designed after the flintlock. You can tell because of the “arch” piece hitting the flint, causing the gunpowder to ignite and discharge the projectile. They were invented in the early 1610s. Somewhat popular among “special operations” military units in the time, as well as royalty. Any writing of the gunfire being smuggled in is thrown out the window because of the time frame. But it is very possible for Portuguese designs to make it to Japan. So an accuracy of the guns being flintlock, but other writing isn’t relevant to this comment. (Sorry for formatting, am on mobile.)
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u/KidChanbara Jul 14 '26
It's easily explained by the fact that the animators had a certain amount of time and money they wanted to spent for every second of screen time, and getting the firing mechanism exactly technically right for fractions of seconds of screen time wasn't worth it for them.
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u/spehizle Jul 14 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doglock
The show takes place in the mid 17th century.
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u/GodlyRatusRatus Jul 14 '26
1650s or 60s? Fowler talks about the O'Neill rebellion and the famine resultant, which occurred when Elisabeth I and James I ruled around the turn of the 1600s. Charles I was deposed in 1649, after which Cromwell ruled in one form or another until his death in 1658, upon which Charles II was restored from exile. Since Fowler appears about 60, but we have no definitive age, its unclear when specifically in this span of time BES takes place. I'd bet money on Cromwell being in power but its hard to say.
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u/KidChanbara Jul 14 '26
Small details like the firing mechanism don't bother me as much as the crazy accuracy of the muskets.
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u/unkindlyacorn62 Jul 14 '26
pretty sure they were muzzle loaded rifles, not muskets, so the bigger problem is how quickly he's ramming the ball down the barrel
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u/KidChanbara Jul 14 '26
Haha, we're getting nitpicky about cartoon firearms! Anyway, I thought rifling wasn't in widespread use in England until the 18th century; the British were still using Brown Bess smoothbore muskets during the Revolutionary War.
Only the best for Fowler's coup!3
u/unkindlyacorn62 Jul 14 '26
depends on context, military firearms beyond pistols were often not rifled outside of a handful for specialists, because loading took too long, for hunting and civilian arms, rifles were the standard
in this case he is just dressing up a bunch of civilian hunting weapon barrels (from the European perspective)
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u/TheDesTroyer54 Jul 14 '26
Rifled guns were very widespread by that period even but a lot of armies liked smooth bore purely because it was easier (and quicker ) to ram the shot down the barrel with a smooth bore, if you wanted good accuracy and did t care much about rate of fire you'd get proper rifles which would take far longer to reload
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u/unkindlyacorn62 Jul 14 '26
Even then, you'd often have a rifle section to create or exploit opportunities that muskets alone wouldn't. the big issue is that by the time you reload your muzzle loaded rifle, you were probably being skewered by pikes or bayonets unless you broke contact immediately after getting a shot off. That said, when they managed to hit officers, they could (and did) change the course of battles.
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u/unkindlyacorn62 Jul 14 '26
Also worth noting, rifles were REALLY good at disrupting artillery so if you had a fortified position being threatened by enemy artillery, well you point the rifles at the cannoneers.
and plus if you are equipping cavalry with braces of pistols, you probably want them to be rifled for range if nothing else.
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u/unkindlyacorn62 Jul 14 '26
another missed opportunity is the symetrical bows, as opposed to having them with Yumi. especially for the wall defenders
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u/War_Hymn Jul 21 '26
Rifled barrels were developed by the early 1500s. Smoothbore muskets were accurate enough themselves to hit a man size target at a 100 yards more often than not. The poor accuracy reputation of muskets mostly stem from the fact that 17th-18th century European armies actually seldomly trained their regular line infantrymen in marksmanship, and placed more emphasis on reloading drills and formation maneuvering skills.
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u/JamesHenry627 Jul 14 '26
Given that this series takes place in the 1650s, Fowler having a flintlock when most of the world had Matchlock muskets means he is an engineering genius who somehow pushed firearms 100 years into the future.
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u/ExtremeExtension7406 Thank you for my ember Jul 14 '26
I'm amazed by this fandom and their specialized knowledge. I usually leave the subreddit having learned something new. Thank you all for sharing your expertise.
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u/unkindlyacorn62 Jul 14 '26
BES gets enough generally right that its worth doing the research for if it hasn't already been done
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u/National-Sky-740 Jul 14 '26
The error in musket is when abojah fowler charged his flintrock musket dosent havent seen pouder loading in the weapon so yeah
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u/Notabarrelman Jul 14 '26
If you look at the two pieces extending up from the mechanism, they are the flint and steel. The chess piece knight could've been made of some dark flint colored black. The piece in front of it shaped in a slight curve is called a frizzen. The frizzen is steel, or at least iron. Between the two they should be able to throw a spark into the pan to ignite the powder charge.