What are the parts of a birdshot?

The structure of the birdshot is also more complex, the traditional cannons of the Ming Dynasty most of them consisted only of the body and the wooden handle of the cannon, some of them had a fire door cover, and some of them didn't even have a fire door cover. Birdshot, on the other hand, consisted of multiple parts, making it an extremely sophisticated weapon given the productivity of the 16th century.

Overall, the birdshot consists of three parts: the barrel, the receiver, and the wooden stock. The wooden stock consists of two parts, the gun bed (equivalent to the barrel shroud) and the butt, the barrel is mounted on the gun bed, and the receiver is mounted between the gun bed and the butt. The lower part of the gun bed has a deep hole, which is used to insert the thrusting stick. The stick is a long wooden stick, which is used by the gunner to fill the ammunition and clean the bore of the gun.

Structural features

Compared with the hand-held cannon used in the early Ming Dynasty, the bird gun body tube is longer, smaller caliber, firing round lead bullets of the same caliber, the range is farther, stronger penetration; the addition of collimation and illumination of the door, the change of the hand-pointed fire for the gun machine fire.

The handle of the gun was changed from a straight wooden handle inserted in the tail axe of the cannon to a curved wooden buttress holding the cannon tube, and when holding the gun and firing it was changed from a two-handed grip to a one-handed foregrip on the gun body and a one-handed grip on the handle of the gun, so that it could be stabilized and aimed at, and the firing accuracy was high. And because of its gun machine shaped like a bird's beak, it is also known as the beak of the cannon. Its basic structure and shape is close to modern rifles, is the prototype of modern rifles.