The next afternoon, they went to the outskirts to practice shooting as usual. But when Borkal drove the carriage to pick Claude up, he complained that he didn't think the target Claude had the carpenters make would be so simple. There was only a square wooden raft on the top and a stick nailed to the bottom. It was over.
"How many did you get them to make?" Claude asked.
"I got them to make two, but because it was too simple, they made four more.
There are six of them in total. I moved them all to the car, "replied Borkal.
Welikro said, "Claude, the targets you made might be simple, but they aren't very useful.
They mimic the shape and size of animals and can be placed in forests and bushes to train a hunter's shooting accuracy and estimation skills. They can also quickly understand how much damage a shot can do to a prey. "
Claude smiled. "It's fine. These targets are only half-finished products. You'll understand when we get there."
When they arrived at the spot where they practiced yesterday, they stuck two of the targets that Borkal brought. Claude took out a roll of papyrus and handed one to Welikro. "There's some paste there. Stick this onto the wooden board."
It was a target paper that was cut into a square of the same size as the wooden plate. There was a red circle in the middle and ten enlarged black lines on the outside.
Claude spent the entire night drawing more than 20 of them.
Welikro looked at the paper and immediately understood its purpose. He couldn't help but give Claude a thumbs up. "These are the best targets. How did you come up with it, Claude?"
Claude shook his head with a smile. "I'll give it a try first. We'll see if it's useful after we try it."
This time, Welikro was the first to try. He only used two shots to get the hang of it and the next three all hit the bull's eye.
He then called Borkal to his side and explained to him the difference between aiming and shooting distance, as well as how to adjust the aim to achieve the desired accuracy.
Borkal started practicing excitedly. Even though he didn't hit the bull's eye for the first few shots, he still managed to hit the target. That made him very happy and he continued practicing under Welikro's guidance instead of going to the docks to look for Eriksson when he got bored.
In truth, the targets Claude drew greatly improved the accuracy of the musket.
Just as Welikro had praised, the red dot in the middle of the target made it much easier to adjust for errors. It wasn't like the two targets Borkal and Borkal brought yesterday. Since there wasn't a red dot in the middle to aim at, every shot would have to rely on luck.
The theory was actually very simple. The two firing points on the gun were in a straight line with the red dot in the center of the target. Then, the actual error could be calculated based on the black edge of the circle on the target. When the second shot was aimed, the error could be subtracted, and the center of the target would be hit.
However, Claude still wasn't satisfied. The two firing points of the aubass mark 2 musket were the same as the older ones. One was at the front of the muzzle and the other was at the back of the cartridge case. The two markings were even coated with white fluorescent powder to make it easier for the shooter to aim.
When the firing point at the front and the firing point at the back were not on the same central axis, the simple aiming trick of three points in a line became useless. Every time before shooting, one had to estimate and adjust the distance of the target. This would delay the firing frequency of the flintlock, and also increase the difficulty of hitting the target, especially those moving targets …
Just as Claude was considering whether he should get a blacksmith to make a sight for him, Borkal finished his practice for the day. He fired around 30 shots with a hit rate of around 58%. The target he shot at was already full of holes.
That result made Borkal very proud. He believed himself to be a talented marksman.
So, he took the target paper off the target and brought it to Eriksson to see and brag about it.
However, he wanted to discuss a business partnership with Claude. That was for them to fork out some capital to produce the target paper and put it up for sale in his family's trading firm. The profits would then be split proportionally.
"This is a genius design," Borkal gushed.
"Not only is it convenient to aim, it's also a huge improvement in the durability of the target. I think this is a great business opportunity and it's worth investing some money into it. Even if we can't make a lot of money, it won't be a problem for us to recoup our capital and get some pocket money."
Borkal wasn't wrong. Their trading firm only sold seven or eight of those in a year and the profit they made was extremely low.
Usually, only the children of the upper-class families in town would buy one when they were about to have shooting practice.
Even though the hunters and highlanders of Elephant Town had to practice their shooting skills, most of them would just use something as a target and wouldn't spend money to buy them. Even if it was just a small amount of money, they would rather spend it on alcohol. Those with some carpentry skills would even make their own targets.
Additionally, the durability of the targets wasn't that great either. Most of them were pieced together from leftover pieces of wood and would easily shatter when shot from a gun at close range.
Even if they didn't shatter, the number of bullet holes left on them would make it difficult to check the accuracy of the shots later on. Even if the bullet holes were painted with ink, it would still be the same.
The wooden targets that Claude designed could be made from sturdier wood. No matter how many bullet holes were left on them, a new one would be formed the moment they were pasted on.
As for the target papers, there wasn't a need to draw them one by one like Claude did the night before. It was much more convenient and cheaper to print them out.
That was why Borkal had his eye on them. While he might not be able to make a lot of money out of them, it wouldn't be a problem for him to earn some pocket money.
"Alright. How much do you want to invest? We'll just treat it as a small business venture between the four of us." Claude didn't really care much about the targets and leaving it to Borkal was a good idea.
Borkal did some calculations and said, "I think we'll invest one thale each. We'll spend two thales to make twenty targets. Thirty target papers for each target should be enough and we'll save the rest for later.
At three riyases each, there should be a market for them.
I can even get my father to sell them to people who like to shoot, or I can sell them at the shooting range myself. "
A single target with 30 pieces of target paper cost around one riyas to make. Selling it for three riyas wasn't expensive at all. Two riyas for a single target was a pretty good business. Borkal's calculations were rather astute.
The only downside was that it wasn't something that was commonly used in daily life. There weren't many people who needed it and there wouldn't be a lot of demand for it.
Welikro didn't have any objections either. He felt that the targets Claude designed were good stuff and it wouldn't hurt to invest some money in them.
So, Borkal happily went to the docks to look for Eriksson. He still owed him a thale.
After Borkal drove the carriage away, Claude continued thinking about how to install a sight on the muzzle. Welikro took Borkal's gun and fired a few more shots. "What are you doing? Why aren't you practicing?" he asked curiously.
Claude explained his idea to Welikro, who didn't think much of it.
He said that flintlocks had been around for nearly six centuries and everyone was used to it. There was no need to add a sight to the muzzle. Just having a firing point was enough.
He believed that the main reason Claude found it hard to aim was because he didn't have enough practice and that he would get used to it after a few hundred tries.
There was no way Claude could convince Welikro with an example from his past life.
He asked Welikro where he could find a smithy that could make small objects. Seeing that Claude was focused on the sight, Welikro could only recommend a smithy in the south of town. He said that the smithy there was more affordable and the quality was decent. His father's traps were all bought from that smithy.
So, Claude started designing the sight. It was simple. He just had to draw out the sight of the air gun he played with in his past life. It was a centimeter wide, round and hollow with a crosshair in the middle. The height of the crosshair should be the same as the muzzle of the cartridge.
Below the sight was an iron sleeve that was slightly larger than the gun barrel. It was used to cover the muzzle. It had to be noted that the iron sleeve had to be fixed above the muzzle so that it wouldn't fall off or shake due to firing.
At the same time, it had to be easy to disassemble.
Other than that, Claude also wanted to change the firing point on the top of the cartridge into a U-shaped hole.
It was a pity that the cartridge was movable and wasn't suitable for the rear sight.
But there was nothing he could do about it. He remembered that in the video he saw on the making of a flintlock, the end of the gun would be the crosshair and the crosshair.
There was also a related video at the end of the video that talked about the principles of aiming and firing a flintlock.
Claude gave it a quick look and forgot most of the content. However, he remembered that the simplest principle of aiming was to use one's eyes, the aperture, the crosshair, and the target. As long as the gun remained stable, one would be able to hit the target.
The video also said that the installation and calibration of the crosshair were simple. The front crosshair and the rear sight were on the same axis and were parallel to the gun.
The principle of the sighting device was that it was an absolute straight line from the eye to the viewport, then to the crosshair, and finally to the target. However, the bullet fired from the barrel was a vague curve, so a movable ruler was usually installed at the viewport to adjust the aiming, so that the aiming line and the ballistic curve could converge at the target to achieve the goal of hitting the target.
Claude remembered how the crosshair looked like and even the curved adjustment mechanism of the crosshair.
But the problem was that he was holding a matchlock and not a flintlock. The biggest difference between the two was that the barrel of a matchlock had a cartridge, a cover, and a match clip on it. There was no way he could install a crosshair on it.
So, Claude had no choice but to use the cover. Since the firing point was engraved on the cover anyway, he might as well make it bigger and use it as a crosshair.
When Borkal drove the carriage back, he was surprised to see Eriksson in it, but he didn't look too good.
After asking, he found out that he didn't see his father last night. It seemed that he had gone to a good friend's birthday party.
Eriksson didn't see him in the morning either. When he got home in the afternoon, he found out that his father had gone out to sea.
The news was a nightmare for Eriksson. He had planned to get some money from his father to fund the remodeling of his fishing boat, but his father would only be back for at least half a month. The remodeling of his fishing boat was greatly affected by the delay.
Eriksson said that Pegg's labor costs could be delayed and most of the materials could be found in the warehouse at the docks. However, he would still have to buy some glue, powder, and other miscellaneous items from the shops in town. That would cost him around three to four thales.
If he waited for his father to return, it would be a waste of time.
Eriksson had wanted to borrow some money from his friends at first, but when Borkal came over and told him about his plan to invest in the crosshair, Eriksson felt like crying.
In the end, Welikro said that he had four thales with Borkal and that he would use one thale to invest in the crosshair and lend the other three to Eriksson for the construction of the boat.
Borkal also offered to lend Eriksson two thales and helped him fund the one thale he had spent on the target.