Guns Guns Guns!

I went to the old Springfield Armory in Springfield, MA and also managed to catch some Civil War reenactors fire off muskets and a cannon. The museum wasn't very big but they had guns back from the middle ages up till when the armory closed in the 80s. Besides a few buildings the most of the old armory had been turned into a college and the rest is a National Park now. 

This is all of the armory that remains open to the public. The museum us inside this building. 

The clock doesn't work anymore, it was more like 10 at this point. 

I believe this is the house for the armory's headmaster. 

This are the Civil War reenactors and their cannon. No Confederate representation unfortunately. 

These are different types of cannon shot. Some are for smooth bore and others for rifled cannon. They differ from just a solid shell, to grapeshot (think a big shotgun), and a fused round which would explode mid air and were loaded with shrapnel. 

These are the guys who manned the cannon

And these are the riflemen. 

Ready to fire the cannon

This is the cannon firing

Musket fire by rank

This is some of the machinery used to manufacture guns here at Springfield. All of these are different types of lathes. 

Here are all the guns. I'll explain some but this wasn't even all of them

Sort of the evolution of rifles

These aren't dueling pistols. These Colts were presented by Mr Colt himself to people who would become important customers. These were presented to one of our presidents. 

Some accidents that can happen with guns. The spaghetti noodle musket got struck by lighting when someone was out on patrol, that's the bayonet as well. 

Under the lighting rod musket the next two are misfires I think and the bottom three actually got hit with musketballs in battle. 

Some personalized weapons. Weather it be carving of the stock, inlays, or etching the barrel and bayonet. 

Many different pistol designs. Foreign, domestic, old, and modern. 

Vietnam era guns

Breakdown of the Garand

WWII American guns

Variations of the Garand as it was being developed. 

Some ingenious designs by soldiers in the trenches of WWI to be able to shoot the enemy and stay behind cover. 

Many variations of the .50 and .30 cal shells

1903 Springfield

This whole thing is nothing but muskets. All the way through

Different carbines made for the cavalry

Confederate muskets

These are a combination of swords, knives, and bayonets carried by soldiers.

Evolution of the rifle from matchlock, wheel lock, flint lock, and percussion cap. 

Closeup of the wheel lock. There would be a wheel below where the hammer hit but it's not there for some reason. What you would do is wind up the spring loaded wheel and when you fired the hammer, which had a flint in it, would hit the wheel and make sparks. It didn't see much implementation because of it's complexity.

Matchlock. Pretty simple, it had a match, just a burning wick really, that would hit a pan of powder firing the weapon. 

This is a real Medieval hand cannon next to a Halberd. These were the very first guns. They are exactly as they are named, a small cannon on the end of a stick fired by hand. 

These are all the different rifles which the armory designed and built