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Old 15th July 2020, 12:18 AM   #11
Philip
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: California
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Originally Posted by phil.reid
Hello chaps ,
Smooth bore barrel 13.2cm(mouth .08cm wide caliber)
Any help appeciated
Hmm, that works out to 8 mm caliber, the same bore diameter as a World War II German army rifle which was and is a perfectly serviceable thing. But in the context of black-powder smoothbore muzzle-loaders firing round balls, this wouldn't pack much "oomph" especially out of pistol-length barrel. I'm trying to think of hunting firearms of the pre-industrial age in that caliber range, and I can think only of Pennsylvania-Kentucky "squirrel" rifles, or the wheellock "birding rifles" of Central Europe (notably Silesia) which were by definition intended for small game.

Boar hunting was mentioned a couple times above.

Now consider Wilbur's wild tusked cousin living out in the woods -- a thick-skinned, big-boned beast with an impressive amount of muscle mass and an evil temper when he knows someone's out to kill him. I have a hard time thinking that Mr Piggy is going to be intimidated or subdued with this.

Also look at the blade attached to this thing, and compare it with any European boar (or bear) spear from the 15th-19th centuries... Or those Spanish "lance" heads of ace-of-spade shape which I think were intended for boar hunts from horseback (as still practiced in Spain today).
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