How to calculate the power of traditional muskets

In many films showing the Ming army's operations, there will be pictures of the Ming army musket battalion with three eyes and large caliber short guns. The three-eye large-caliber short gun has three eyes, which looks much better than the single-barrel musket. It has become the standard of the Ming army, and it will surely become the representative of the Ming imperial firearms. Many people think that the gunners in the neatly arranged firearms camp have three rows of large-caliber shotguns, and under the strong firepower, they beat the distant enemies to pieces. Is that so? I'm sorry to tell you, but that's not the case. Three-eye large-caliber short gun is just a backward firegate gun, and its accuracy and lethality are hardly excellent, but it has become the standard equipment of the Ming army, which is of course for a reason.

The materials of three-eye large-caliber shotgun include wrought iron and refined iron. The three spears are made separately and then fixed together with iron hoops. Dig three pin-shaped grooves with a wooden stick as the spear handle, and arrange three spear tubes according to the pin shape, which is basically a musket. There is not only one specification for three-eye large-caliber shotguns. In the Ming Dynasty, Liu Tianhe, Zhao Shizhen, Qi Jiguang and Xiong Tingbi successively improved them. At least one foot, four feet, four inches and five feet and five inches are allocated to cavalry and infantry respectively.

Three-eye large caliber shotgun is not a very accurate weapon. Its optimal range is about 30 to 40 steps. In 30 steps, its power can sunder armor, and in 50 steps, it can kill unarmed or lightly armored enemies. If you exceed 100 step, you will lose your lethality. This lethality means that both the short tube with three eyes and large diameter and the long tube version increase the charge and lead. Theoretically, it should be more powerful. I didn't find this information in the yard, so I dare not jump to conclusions. However, according to the casting technology of the Ming Dynasty, even if it is increased, it is estimated that it is no big deal.

Early firearms were not accurate, especially cavalry, who shot in motion. In order to make up for the accuracy problem, many officers and men of the Ming army, especially the cavalry, changed the bullets fired by three-eye large-caliber short guns to "two to three bullets per shot" and set up three eyes to fire at the same time. In this way, a total of six to nine lead bullets were fired at the same time, which improved the hit rate at the expense of endurance. If the infantry launches in situ, they can choose not to merge the leads, and then they can make an explosion. So the three-eye large-caliber shotgun is actually just an ordinary firearm.