"Take aim. Align the two firing points in a straight line and aim at the middle of the target. Keep your hands steady. Pay attention to the match. Close your eyes and fire!"
Welikro's shout rang in his ears. Claude closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
"Chi … Bada … Bang!"
He pushed the butt of the gun against his shoulder and pushed it backwards. Surprisingly, the recoil of the aubass mark 2 wasn't as strong as he thought it would be. It was much weaker than Welikro's Gally Mark 3.
The recoil of the musket was like being punched by a heavy fist. It was considered good if one wasn't prepared for it and took a few steps back. If one was weaker, he might even fall on his back.
Welikro didn't look at the target. Instead, he walked over and took the gun from Borkal's hands. He looked at it fondly and praised enviously, "What a good gun. Actually, I should've tried it first. When I watched you shoot, I realized that you don't need to close your eyes to fire."
Hmm?
Seeing the doubtful looks on Claude and Borkal's faces, Welikro raised the gun and explained, "I was wondering why the cartridge of this aubass mark 2 is so far away from the wooden butt.
Look, the wooden butt of this gun is especially long. It's about one and a half feet away from the end of the barrel. Firstly, it lengthens the distance between the cartridge and the eyes when aiming, ensuring that the sparks from the match entering the cartridge won't hurt the eyes. Secondly, it allows the wooden butt to rest more comfortably on the shoulder, maintaining the stability of the gun body. Thirdly, such a long distance makes it easier for the gunner to aim between the two firing points and the target …
If you have seen my old 'Gally Mark III', you will notice that the position of the cartridge box is particularly close to the rear, so that when aiming, the firing point on the cartridge box is easily obscured due to the distance being too close.
"Also, I noticed that the cartridge on your new guns is quite well-sealed. When I pull the trigger and the match enters the cartridge, there aren't many sparks.
That's why I don't think you need to close your eyes when firing. "
Welikro raised his gun to his shoulder and got into a standing position to aim. "Look, the cartridge is now closer to my eyes. I don't need to close my eyes when I shoot, so I can maintain better accuracy.
Also, the wooden butt of the gun was very comfortable and could better maintain the stability of the gun when it was fired.
By the way, I forgot to ask you. Did you feel the recoil when you were shooting just now? "
Claude and Borkal shook their heads in unison. The recoil wasn't that strong.
As for Welikro's concerns about the distance between the cartridges and the wooden stock, Claude didn't find them to be too much of a surprise. As long as he studied the mechanics of the human body, the matchlock would look quite similar to the modern rifles in his memory, even if the firing method was still rather primitive.
Welikro weighed the matchlock in his hand and held it up to measure his height. "It's around half a kilogram lighter than my old matchlock. The length of the gun seems to have been shortened by 20 centimeters, making it easier to carry and fire long distances.
I remember my father saying that the aubass mark 2 can be equipped with a bayonet to act as a spear for direct assassination on the battlefield. Does the gun you bought come with a bayonet? "
Claude recalled all the accessories in the box and shook his head. "No, I didn't see anything like a bayonet. If I did, I wouldn't have bought that fishbone dagger from Wakri."
Borkal said that he didn't see anything like a bayonet in the box either.
"I wanted to see how the bayonet fits on the barrel," Welikro said as he touched the barrel. "Your gun's barrel is straight and the muzzle is the same size as the barrel. It's not like the one I have, which has a bit of a flared muzzle.
My father said that my old matchlock had the bayonet inserted directly into the barrel, but your new one is clipped to the outside and won't affect the firing of the gun. "
Claude had seen Welikro's bayonet before. Welikro had brought it with him when he went to Egret.
It was about the same length as a dagger, but one was single-edged while the other was double-edged.
However, the handle of the bayonet was bare and uncomfortable to hold.
It couldn't be helped. Welikro explained that it was to be able to fit inside the barrel.
"It's actually quite simple. You just need to put two metal rings in front of the handle and at the end of the bayonet. That way, it won't affect the firing of the gun." Even though he didn't have the actual bayonet, Claude was able to figure it out after some thought.
"Let's go check out the target. Let's see if Claude and I hit it with our shots."
Borkal was getting impatient with everyone standing around and talking nonsense. He couldn't wait to see his results.
So, the three of them walked towards the target that was 50 meters away.
That distance was determined by Welikro himself. He believed that if they were to use standard dry powder as gunpowder, it would be best for them to aim within 50 meters.
Firstly, he could see the target clearly and accurately, and he could easily adjust the gap of his aim according to the position he hit.
Secondly, they would only be able to shoot in a straight line at that distance and wouldn't have to worry about external factors such as the strength of the wind.
However, when the three of them reached the target, they realized that it was perfectly fine. There weren't any bullet holes on it. It was obvious that the two of them hadn't hit their targets.
The two targets weren't the ones that Claude was familiar with with a red dot in the middle and a circle around it. Instead, they were two wooden targets, one of which had the image of an antelope and the other of a wild boar.
The targets in this world were all shaped. Archers, for example, would use human-shaped grass targets when they practiced shooting.
In the era of firearms, the grass targets were replaced with human-shaped wooden targets in the barracks.
They didn't pursue the accuracy of a single gun. During training, they would stand in a horizontal formation and fire in unison. Then, they would count the number of bullet holes on the wooden targets to determine their success rate.
Welikro had once heard from his father that if a hundred soldiers lined up in a row and fired at the same time, the ten wooden targets in front of them would be considered excellent. Eight targets with bullet holes would be considered good, and six targets with bullet holes would be considered passable.
Any lower and they would be punished.
The two wooden targets that Borkal brought from his family's warehouse were actually merchandise. However, there weren't many people who bought them. Over the years, there would only be one or two sales.
That was why Borkal took it from the storehouse to practice his marksmanship.
"Where were you aiming at?" asked Welikro.
"I was aiming at the center of the wild boar's body," said Borkal. He was aiming at the boar.
"I was aiming here," said Claude as he pointed at the heart of the antelope.
The two targets were each leaning against a large tree.
Welikro looked down at the target's surroundings in an experienced manner.
"This should be Claude's shot." Soon, Welikro found a bullet hole under the antelope.
Claude looked at the hole on the ground and back at the target he was aiming at. Wasn't it a little too exaggerated? There was a difference of more than thirty centimeters and a deviation of more than a foot.
It was good enough that he could find Claude's bullet hole, but he couldn't find Borkal's shot at all.
After much effort, Welikro could only helplessly come to the conclusion that Borkal might have closed his eyes and shaken his hand at the moment of firing, causing the muzzle to tilt and the shot to some unknown place.
Fortunately, they were in an uninhabited forest. Otherwise, they might accidentally injure each other.
Borkal wasn't convinced, so the two of them poured some more gunpowder into the box, pounded it in with a rod, loaded the gun, pounded it in again, and filled the box with gunpowder. Then, they cut the match and clamped it tight. After setting the gun on the stand, they lit the match and took aim.
This time, Claude didn't close his eyes. When he saw that the match was almost fully lit, he pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, the powder box lit up and gave off a puff of grey smoke.
Borkal fired a few seconds later than Claude. But after he fired, he complained that he was startled by Claude's gunshot and that he might not be able to hit the mark this time.
When he looked at the target again, it was still as smooth as ever.
But this time, less than a finger's distance away from the target, they found a bullet hole in the tree trunk and a flattened gun.
Claude estimated that there was a deviation of about twenty centimeters from where he was aiming.
Borkal's bullet hole was also found, but it was about half a meter away from the target. The deviation was far too great.
For the third time, Claude adjusted himself and moved the two firing points a finger away from the target before firing.
This time, he finally managed to leave a mark on the target. However, the mark that Claude thought should be on the antelope's head was on its back.
Welikro laughed. If it was a real hunt, the antelope would still be able to scurry away in the forest.
Borkal's shot missed once more.
Welikro took out a small brush and dipped it in some ink before smearing it on the mark Claude left on the target. He didn't want to confuse the mark for the next shot. After checking it, he added some more ink to the mark so that he could make full use of it.
Claude continued firing.
Borkal, on the other hand, got bored after ten shots and tossed the gun to Welikro for him to adjust the deviation of his shots. Then, he drove the carriage to the docks to look for Eriksson. He even made up an excuse that he wanted to see if Eriksson had towed the flipper back.
Claude and Welikro looked at each other and smiled bitterly. That was just how Borkal was. It wasn't that he wasn't smart, but he didn't have much patience for weapons, just like how he learned swordsmanship.
If he were given an account book, Claude and Welikro wouldn't be interested in flipping through it. But Borkal would look at it with great interest for a long time and even tell his friends what kind of account book it was and whether there were any falsehoods in it.
Compared to Borkal, Welikro was much more professional. With the aubass mark 2 gun in his hands, he was able to estimate the deviation after only ten shots. When the two shots were in a straight line with the target, the bullet hole was a finger's width to the left of his aiming position. After adjusting the deviation for the next ten shots, he hit the target eight out of ten times.
Claude was still shooting and estimating the distance. He felt that no matter how much he adjusted his aim, he wouldn't be able to hit the right spot. Perhaps it was because of the antelope target. That thing wasn't easy to aim at and he could only get a rough outline of it. It was already good enough if he could hit the part of its body. It wasn't as simple as he imagined it to be.
Borkal drove the carriage back and said that Eriksson had already towed the broken flipper back and was currently roasting it with Pegg at the pier.
"Why are they roasting it?" Claude didn't understand.
Welikro chuckled. "That's because we have to remove the planks. Don't you know that planks are made with grooves on both sides? The glue is made from fish glue, beast horn, and cow tendon mixed together and boiled together to form a glue. To remove the planks, we have to raise the temperature to melt the glue before we can separate the planks. Otherwise, even if the planks are cracked, the glue will still be strong enough to hold them together."
So that's how it is. Claude thought of what he had to do. "Boa, send me to the bookstore first. I'll buy some papyrus to make some target paper.
You don't have to bring these two dummy targets with you tomorrow. I'll give you the measurements, and you can ask your firm's carpenters to make two simple targets for me to practice shooting. I guarantee they'll be better than these two targets. "