It's the Fourth of July, so let's talk about guns of the American Revolution.

Hello and welcome to the STNGR Workshop. My name is Rick Barrett and I'm your host for the series of videos where we talk about everything from gun accessories to gun maintenance. It's that time of year, the time of cookouts and fireworks. So while you're hanging out by the grill or maybe getting ready to sit down and watch some fireworks, let me talk to you about the guns of the American Revolution.

Now, while discussing the guns of the American Revolution, it's important to know that these guns were used by both the British and the American colonists. The military tactics of the American Revolution were defined by the firearms that they had access to. Battles were fought with numerous types of small arms. As a side note, if you ever hear somebody talk about small arms, they're talking about pistols, rifles, things of that nature.

The first musket we're going to be discussing is the Brown Bess. Now the Brown Bess was the most common used musket by both American troops and British troops. This would make sense since the American colonists were former British colonists. This type of musket shot a cluster style shot that had an effect similar to today's shotguns.

They could be found in two different types. The first type was the short version which was used by the British.

The second type was the Long Land Pattern.

The other very common smoothbore Flintlock musket that you would have found during the American Revolution was a French infantry musket, the Charleville musket. Now this musket was most commonly used as weapons for the French troops. Many historians today consider it to be better than the Brown Bess as it was lighter and more durable. So those are the two most common smoothbore Flintlock muskets that were used during the American Revolution. Now the smoothbore of the Flintlock muskets caused the bullets that were fired out of them to be a little more unstable.

Now in addition to these smoothbore muskets, there were also employed rifles. They were Flintlock muskets that had grooves carved inside of the barrels that allowed the musket ball to spin when exiting the rifle. These muskets with the grooves carved in them would be the forerunners of today's rifles. However, they were not widely employed because they were very slow to reload and they did not have the ability to attach a bayonet to them.

And that is a general overview to the rifles used during the American Revolution. The smoothbore Flintlocks like the Brown Bess and the Charleville, and then you had the employed rifles with their grooved barrels.

Next up on our overview of guns of the American Revolution, we'll be discussing three different pistols.

Generally speaking, officers on both sides, both the American and British, were the ones who are carrying pistols.

The first pistol we're going to be discussing is the Light Dragoon pistol. Now this pistol was created for the British dragoons. Some of you are asking what is a dragoon? Well, simply put a dragoon is a class of mounted infantry who used horses for mobility. These Light Dragoon pistols were used for sweeping a battlefield as they could be deployed quickly.

On the American side, it was the Kentucky Flintlock pistol. Now the Kentucky Flintlock pistol was used by American cavalry in military officers. This pistol was very comparable to the Light Dragoon.

And not to be left out, the French had the Model 1763 pistol. The Model 1763 was very similar to both the American Kentucky Flintlock and the British Dragoon pistol.

And that's it for this video. We've discussed the most common weapons used during the American Revolution: the Brown Bess, the Charleville, the Light Dragoon, the Kentucky Flintlock, and the Model 1763.

My name is Rick Barrett. I hope you enjoyed this video. Happy 4th of July, and I'll talk to you again soon.