Is this a Blunderbuss or a pistol?

[Cutlass Cole]

I'm Wondering if the common LEGO Pirate Pistol is a Blunderbuss. When the show Modern Marvels did a Pirate thing,they said the Blunderbuss packed a bigger punch.The Blunderbuss was just Fatter and had a longer barrel in appearence.But when I looked on Wikipedia, It looked almost like a Musket. 8-|

[ZCerberus]

I'm Wondering if the common LEGO Pirate Pistol is a Blunderbuss. When the show Modern Marvels did a Pirate thing,they said the Blunderbuss packed a bigger punch.The Blunderbuss was just Fatter and had a longer barrel in appearence.But when I looked on Wikipedia, It looked almost like a Musket. 8-|

I think a blunderbuss would look more like a sawed-off single barrel shotgun with a large flared muzzle. I think that the DUPLO Pirates gun would look more like a blunderbuss... here is a picture of the DUBPLO

[conductorjoe]

Yeah, that's just what I was going to say. A blunderbuss is more like a shotgun-kind of a cross between a pistol and a rifle. And a little bit of shotgun thrown into the mix also. X-D

That's a blunderbuss-quite larger than the LEGO Pirates Pistol.

[El Bucanero]

I googled for "blunderbuss" abit, and I found several pictures:

So this is a very musket-like weapon.

But this is a very pistol-like weapon.

And there's these guys:

Also seem very pistol-like to me, but the have different handles...

I always defined the pistol-like "blunderbusses" as grapeshot pistol...

Well, I'm no expert, so I don't know.

Have a nice day,

Mr Tiber

[Mister Phes]

According to Wikipedia, this is a "blunderbuss":

Dictionary.com defines a "blunderbuss" as

a short musket of wide bore with expanded muzzle to scatter shot, bullets, or slugs at close range.

[Cutlass Cole]

Wow, there are so many pictures of firearms, somebody would think this is the Black Market. :-D Or mabye I Weapons dealer, or a proud hunter. :-D

I think the First one of Mr. Tiber's was closest. Duplo wouldn't be a good comparison, Because everything is HUGE. And It looked like a megaphone. :)

[Mister Phes]

I'd say Mr Tiber's first image is a blunderbuss because it looks closest to Wikipedia's picture of a blunderbuss

However...

I think the muskets in the Pirate theme are too long to be blunderbusses, instead I'd suggest they're arquebuses.

Here are more blunderbusses (at the top) and some arquebuses.

[Cutlass Cole]

Hmmm...

So if I want a Blunderbuss, Would I have to saw a musket? :S 8-o

Rifles & Whotguns weren't Invented back then. :) :) :) :-P

[Mister Phes]

Hmmm...So if I want a Blunderbuss, Would I have to saw a musket? :S 8-o

If you want a really rough blunderbuss...

Rifles & Whotguns weren't Invented back then. :) :) :) :-P

"Whot Guns" Mr Cole? What guns are you referring to? X-D

[ChrisF2006]

I just use the standard weapons that Lego provided as flintlock pistols and muskets. If I wanted a blunderbuss I would just take off a bit of the musket barrel and glue it back together.

[Cutlass Cole]

How would you cut it off? >8-) >8-) :-D ;-) X-O

If you watched the: Mythbusters : Mega Movie special, you'd know what i'm talking about. ;-)

[Mister Phes]

I can't remember if I've seen the Mythbusters: Mega Movie Special or not. I remember they had special after special for a while and it all kind of melded into one Mythbusters mass!

Remind us what happened in the Mythbusters: Mega Movie special

[ZCerberus]

Remind us what happened in the Mythbusters: Mega Movie special

Well I don't remember anything about that Mega Movie Special, but maybe that special was related to the pirate special they did not too long ago...

They tested if rum was a good laundry cleaner, if you could go down a sail with a dagger stuck in it, if an eye patch increased night vision skills and if a cannon ball through the hull caused more damage via splinters than the cannon ball itself.

[El Bucanero]

Well I don't remember anything about that Mega Movie Special, but maybe that special was related to the pirate special they did not too long ago...

They tested if rum was a good laundry cleaner, if you could go down a sail with a dagger stuck in it, if an eye patch increased night vision skills and if a cannon ball through the hull caused more damage via splinters than the cannon ball itself.

I'd love to hear the results of those experiments! Please tell me.

Is there anyone here who tried modifying his muskets ot pistols??

I'm quite a purist so I probably wouldn't dare to.

Mr Tiber

[Mister Phes]

I remember the one where they tested the scene out of American Graffiti by wrapping a wire around a car's axel and seeing they could yank the rear wheels off by driving really fast. That's about the only part of a Movie Special I recall right now.

[Cutlass Cole]

That Pirate Special was awesome, but wasn't what I was talking about. The one i'm talking about was 2 hours, the Myth I was talking about I were to see if you shot bullets through the floor, it would collaspse to the floor.

The announcer was funny, Grant needed help with some support beams, when he was using an M gun, so tory walks out with the shotgun, and the announcer said, in a cartony voice ( Tory looked like the Guy from Bugs Bunny) " Tory is about to use the Whotgun to whast away the whiccty suppourt beams. >8-)

[Mister Phes]

Pirate Special? I'm completely unaware of that... But Wikipedia lists it as Special 11

[JJ.walkers]

Who cares I Wan't one!

[ZCerberus]

I'd love to hear the results of those experiments! Please tell me.

They tested if rum was a good laundry cleaner, if you could go down a sail with a dagger stuck in it, if an eye patch increased night vision skills and if a cannon ball through the hull caused more damage via splinters than the cannon ball itself.

1) Rum is not a good cleaner

2) You can not travel down a sail with a dagger stuck into it

3) eye patches do indeed increase night vision skills

4) the cannon ball appeared more deadly than the splinters. I think this experiment was not conducted right though.

[Mister Phes]

I'd love to hear the results of those experiments! Please tell me.

Did you hear Mr ZCerberus's words, Mr Tiber? X-D If you want a full list out results for all Mythbusters Specials, then follow the links in my previous post

Is there anyone here who tried modifying his muskets ot pistols??

I'm quite a purist so I probably wouldn't dare to.

You mean LEGO musket and pistols, or the real geninue historic relects valued at 100's or maybe even 1000's of dollars?

Who cares I Wan't one!

And what we yer be doing with such a device?

[Paladin]

If I recall correctly the Blunderbuss is something of a predacessor to a shotgun, in that it scattered small bits of shot in a large pattern rather than firing a single ball.

I looked a bit and found that the flare on the barrel is designed, not to aid in the scattering of shot, but to aid in the loading of shot down the muzzle (these were, of course, muzzle loaded weapons).

Because of it's ability to spread shot over a wide area I believe it was used on naval vessels for boarding action. I think I recall seeing the 19th century equivalent of the weapon at the USS Constitution Museum, along with other boarding weapons, like pikes. Anyway, it's same concept as riot control today.

As far as the applicability to our LEGO parts, it's probably not incorrect to call the standard lego flintlock weapons "Blunderbusses"...especially since their first use was in the Pirate Theme sets. However, I also think the LEGO weapon can be whatever you want it to be based on it's purpose. Hence rifles on field soldiers, Blunderbusses for pirates, etc... Seeing that LEGO tends to abhor military equipment that looks like guns (and their refusal to make modern military models of anything...wouldn't jet fighter models be nice?)...and there aren't many alternative parts for our minifigs to carry anyway.

And yes, the carbines from the Wild West and Adventurers series are nice, but they certainly don't look the part on Napoleonic era, or earlier, MOCs. Nor do the automatic weapons featured in the Batman series MOCs.