Got a Real-World Weapon or Armor Question? Mk. VI

[Galloglaich]

As I understand it, the Greek Aspis was not an entirely metal shield, but constructed of wood and faced with bronze: Matthew Amt's Greek Hoplon Construction Page and Chris B's Aspis.

In the near east, though, round metal cavalry shields lined with leather seem to have been possibly quite common in the medieval period. The history of the western metal buckler has always been somewhat elusive to me, but they are geerally thought to have been in use from at least the thirteenth century, though I am unclear if they were typically entirely metal.

I wouldn't tend to disagree much with Matthew Amt either, I've corresponded with him before he really knows his stuff. Yes the Aspis was of composite construction, a bronze face and rim over a wooden body. It was still probably the heaviest shield in use anywhere in the world for nearly 1500 years.

The I.33 bucklers (not 'shields' per say, though there is overlap) have been interpreted as either all iron like this or iron / wood composite construction, essentially a large iron boss with a wooden or leather rim like this.

I suspect all-iron but like I said, those are bucklers. Shields got smaller and harder. You do also see some larger iron shields particularly the various types of rotella in the Renaissance.

G.

[Galloglaich]

Yes, I didn't mean to imply that they had no padded armor themselves when they arrived. The Spanish did, however, adopt essentially indigenous padded cotton armor once they were established in Mexico, probably for simple reasons of logistics, and there already being a production base.

I think they did adopt the local fabrics, and that is a good point.

G

[Galloglaich]

armor stuff

I'd say that looks pretty good. You left out the various iron / textile composite armors like Brigandine, coat of plates, jack of plates etc., and also the various mail / plate / lamellar rcomposite armors such as were worn from Eastern Europe to Central Asia and the Middle East. Russian Baktherets, Byzantine Klibanion etc. There are also a few more types of plate armor, you have your various munitions grade partial armors (half harness, three quarters harness) as well as fancier field armors for cavalry or ground combat.

And this is (forbidden?) rules talk here but I think you get into trouble if you don't differentiate armor coverage from armor DR. That's what I did in my book anyway.

G.

[fusilier]

And this is (forbidden?) rules talk here but I think you get into trouble if you don't differentiate armor coverage from armor DR. That's what I did in my book anyway.

G.

I'm not terribly sure what you mean, but GURPS has armor that only protects specific areas. 3rd edition also gave armor PD and DR (Passive Defense and Damage Reduction). Passive Defense gave a little bonus to an active defense, and I always interpreted it as representing the ability of the armor to deflect/turn blows. Some people didn't like it though, and felt that those qualities should be rolled into the DR. Like any abstract system it isn't perfect but I feel it provides a little more fidelity. I guess this may be out of the scope of this forum topic?

Anyway,
Meso-american cotton armor, looks very similar to European quilted armor. I'm not sure exactly how similar it was (there are surviving examples), but I believe the Spanish simply adopted it, as there were plenty of people around who knew how to make it. Of course, it didn't totally displace European armor, but when getting resupplied from Europe might take years local alternatives would have to be used.

[Fhaolan]

While this is a bit later, the Soldados de Cuera were mounted troops on the frontiers of New Spain that wore long heavy leather coats. These were flexible but made out of as many as seven layers of leather. They were generally considered arrow-proof, although I've also heard that they (or perhaps similar leather armor) might not stop an arrow completely, but would take enough energy out of it that the arrow would only penetrate maybe an inch into the flesh. I've also seen padded and quilted leather armor dating from earlier periods -- and I've worn replica of it.

The Comanches would make leather shields out of many layers of leather, stuffed with all sorts of things (settlers were often amazed that Comanches wanted to trade for books, and paper), and were reported to be very strong and even able to stop a spent musket ball. I don't believe "spent" is a technical term, but I think it usually refers to a musket ball that was fired at long range, or has ricocheted and therefore "spent" some of it's energy.

Part of the problem here is that D&D doesn't deal very well with 'degrees', so people get caught up in it's rather rigid terminology. Padded and quilted armour varies from the buff coat or jack all the way up to the multi-layered leather you describe above. If I was forced to use D&D stats for this stuff, I would probably stick the multi-layered leather into the 'Hide' category. But then, I would probably want to rejigger the armour rules anyway into something more like what Swordguy posted.

Hardening leather, I imagine would help prevent a sword from gaining purchase and make it more likely to deflect the blow. Not all sword strikes will be perpendicular to the surface, and I would think that a hard surface would be more likely to turn the blow than a soft one that is easily cut into.

I've boiled leather in water, and soaked it in hot oil (not boiling, because you end up with a shrivelled mess if you do), as well as saturating leather with different types of wax. It has a drawback. It can deteriorate in the right conditions.

Wax-treated leather softens in the heat (speed of which depends on the wax used). So in the middle of the summer I've actually seen beeswax-hardened armour... melt. It's actually kind of amusing.

Boiled leather (both water and hot oil versions), hold up a lot better to straight heat, but the salts in sweat and blood can cause it to get brittle. Unhardened leather is *very* prone to this as well, which is why glove manufactures make good deal of money off of reenactors.

Oh, and on a similar note, when you're oiling your armour, don't use WD40. WD40 is sold along side of oil, but it's not precisely an oil. Part of the point of WD40 is that it encapsulates water to remove it from metal surfaces. It does the same thing to leather, causing it to go dry and brittle even faster than what simple sweat and blood does. I've spent far too much time replacing straps on other people's armour at shows because they weren't aware of that.

[fusilier]

Oh, and on a similar note, when you're oiling your armour, don't use WD40. WD40 is sold along side of oil, but it's not precisely an oil. Part of the point of WD40 is that it encapsulates water to remove it from metal surfaces. It does the same thing to leather, causing it to go dry and brittle even faster than what simple sweat and blood does. I've spent far too much time replacing straps on other people's armour at shows because they weren't aware of that.

Hahahaha. WD-40 ends up getting used a lot more than it should. That reminds me I need to oil my boots after the last reenactment and apply some more shoe polish (they're still too light in color). I guess leather is so rarely used by people these days that many just don't know how to care for it.

[Matthew]

I wouldn't tend to disagree much with Matthew Amt either, I've corresponded with him before he really knows his stuff. Yes the Aspis was of composite construction, a bronze face and rim over a wooden body. It was still probably the heaviest shield in use anywhere in the world for nearly 1500 years.

Maybe, but I am starting to lose track of what you are referring specifically to here with regards to "D&D shields". As I recall there are three types - "small", "large" (later renamed "light" and "heavy" for 3.5) and "tower". The large and small versions can be made primarily of wood or primarily (perhaps entirely) of metal. We can pretty safely say that the large metal 15 lb. D&D shield is unlikely to have a historical analogue (though Beowulf famously uses one to fight the dragon, so within the realms of conventional fantasy), and the tower shield, which is described as being nearly as tall as the character and 45 lbs, appears to be some sort of overly heavy pavise like object.

However, it seems to me that 10 lbs is a fairly reasonable estimate for a large wooden viking shield, Roman scutum or Greek aspis, though the latter two could certainly be much heavier (and in some periods conventionally much heavier). When D&D is talking about "steel shields", though, I am pretty sure it is not talking about metal faced wooden shields, so I think that pretty much leaves us with the wooden versions, with small metal shields being possibly admissable, such as the dhal, which could apparently get as large as three feet or so in diameter (possibly display pieces, though).

With an abstracted game like D&D I would have to say I am pretty comfortable with the large/small 10 lbs/5 lbs split.

The I.33 bucklers (not 'shields' per say, though there is overlap) have been interpreted as either all iron like this or iron / wood composite construction, essentially a large iron boss with a wooden or leather rim like this.

I suspect all-iron but like I said, those are bucklers. Shields got smaller and harder. You do also see some larger iron shields particularly the various types of rotella in the Renaissance.

Well, let us be wary of weapon and armour nomenclature; I am reluctant to draw a hard line between "buckler" and "shield", and uncertain what definition you are subscribing to here. In general, I would be inclined to say that most small shields/bucklers were primarily of wooden construction, but some would have been all metal.

[Galloglaich]

I'm not terribly sure what you mean, but GURPS has armor that only protects specific areas. 3rd edition also gave armor PD and DR (Passive Defense and Damage Reduction). Passive Defense gave a little bonus to an active defense, and I always interpreted it as representing the ability of the armor to deflect/turn blows. Some people didn't like it though, and felt that those qualities should be rolled into the DR. Like any abstract system it isn't perfect but I feel it provides a little more fidelity. I guess this may be out of the scope of this forum topic?

Yes it is off topic to this threads rules from what I gather. So I'll leave off discussion of rules in my system. Lets suffice it to say, I think you can cope with armor one of two ways, you can go through the armor (brute force) or you can go around the armor (precision). So for example, in the case of a steel cuirass, better normally to go around it, it will be very hard to pierce, in the case of a leather coat or a light Gambeson, better to punch through it (preferably with a thrust) since it covers a lot of area but isn't too hard to pierce.

Anyway,
Meso-american cotton armor, looks very similar to European quilted armor. I'm not sure exactly how similar it was (there are surviving examples), but I believe the Spanish simply adopted it, as there were plenty of people around who knew how to make it. Of course, it didn't totally displace European armor, but when getting resupplied from Europe might take years local alternatives would have to be used.

Indeed.

G.

[Galloglaich]

Maybe, but I am starting to lose track of what you are referring specifically to here with regards to "D&D shields".

I'm referring mostly to RPG art like this:



..where the shields (and the armor) usually seem to be about an inch thick.

Well, let us be wary of weapon and armour nomenclature; I am reluctant to draw a hard line between "buckler" and "shield", and uncertain what definition you are subscribing to here.

I'm basing my terminology on the Historical European Martial Arts world, which is admittedly as arbitrary as any other but based on historical sources. Certainly there is always overlap, but to me if you have ever fenced with a shield vs. a buckler you know the difference.

In general, I would be inclined to say that most small shields/bucklers were primarily of wooden construction, but some would have been all metal.

I'd say it would be more accurate that most shields Historically were made of leather, wicker or hide, with a light wooden frame. Some shields such as the Roman Scutum and the Germanic roundshield were made of light wood with a metal boss, and a few (mainly the Greek Aspis) were composites of metal and fairly heavy wood.

Some small shields and bucklers from the Medieval period on out were made of iron. A few were made of steel. The Turks actually had some bullet-proof steel shields.

G.

[Matthew]

I'm referring mostly to RPG art like this:

..where the shields (and the armor) usually seem to be about an inch thick.

I see, that is a bit different, I think. When I think "D&D shield" I just think of the statistics in a long line of editions, though I suppose a case might be made for the odd shaped shield that featured in the initial 3.0 art:

I'm basing my terminology on the Historical European Martial Arts world, which is admittedly as arbitrary as any other but based on historical sources. Certainly there is always overlap, but to me if you have ever fenced with a shield vs. a buckler you know the difference.

I suspect that varies by organisation; could you describe your definition for sake of clarity?

I'd say it would be more accurate that most shields Historically were made of leather, wicker or hide, with a light wooden frame. Some shields such as the Roman Scutum and the Germanic roundshield were made of light wood with a metal boss, and a few (mainly the Greek Aspis) were composites of metal and fairly heavy wood.

Some small shields and bucklers from the Medieval period on out were made of iron. A few were made of steel.

Frame built shields are an interesting subject, no idea how pervasive they really were, though. I would not expect to see much of them in the Medieval West, but I understand they were relatively common amongst light armed troops in the Near East, Africa and Ancient Europe.

The Turks actually had some bullet-proof steel shields.

I can believe that; sounds like a possibility for the D&D large steel shield, though I suspect such an item would be heavier than 15 lbs...

[Lupy]

Can I ask a sword question of those of you who own them?

I'm in the market for a sub $300 Norman styled sword (30ish inch blade, wider guard than a Viking spatha). I really like the Valiant Armoury model, but I'd like to know if it's a good brand.

This is the sword.

[Galloglaich]

I don't know that particular sword but you can't beat these guys for info on lower cost sword replicas, they do brutal evaluations, cutting 2 x 4s and trash cans etc.

http://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/

I found where they rated some of the valiant armories ones here:

http://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/me...liant-medieval

Hope that helps,

G.

[Swordguy]

Can I ask a sword question of those of you who own them?

I'm in the market for a sub $300 Norman styled sword (30ish inch blade, wider guard than a Viking spatha). I really like the Valiant Armoury model, but I'd like to know if it's a good brand.

This is the sword.

No experience personally with that line...but I'm going to have some soon. They're partnered up with Gus Trim (of Angus Trim swords - some of the best), and I can't imagine him allowing sub-par weapons to be produced with his name attached.

Additionally, those are effectively rave reviews from SBG (thanks, Galloglaich!) on the weapons they DID review. With the understanding that any hand-forged weapons are going to have variances, I'd say go for it. That's a nifty little arming sword and a good start or addition to a collection.

[Lupy]

Thank you much. I'll check out the review site before I make any purchases.

[Karoht]

Can I ask a sword question of those of you who own them?

I'm in the market for a sub $300 Norman styled sword (30ish inch blade, wider guard than a Viking spatha). I really like the Valiant Armoury model, but I'd like to know if it's a good brand.

This is the sword.

The Paul Chen Practical Norman is dirt cheap (less than $200), and while I will remind you that you get what you pay for, I will tell you that anything Paul Chen is tough and will last. I STILL use my Gen 1 Paul Chen Practical Knightly, from 5 years ago. And for the first 3 years, I didn't exactly take good care of it. ...and I blocked edge on edge most of the time. It's still in one piece, in no danger of breaking any time soon. My Paul Chen Practical Norman which I bought about 2 years ago, is still in great condition. I'm a fan of the weighting on it, though I'm going to shorten mine for a more authentic length. However, the Paul Chen stuff seems to be getting thinner and thinner blades lately. Still, great weapon.
www.darkagecreations.com
check it out there, or on the Cas-Iberia page.

Oh, and seconded on the Angus Trim stuff. They make amazing gear.

[Fhaolan]

Can I ask a sword question of those of you who own them?

I'm in the market for a sub $300 Norman styled sword (30ish inch blade, wider guard than a Viking spatha). I really like the Valiant Armoury model, but I'd like to know if it's a good brand.

This is the sword.

I don't know the specific sword, but I do have a little experience with some older Valiant swords. It really depends on what you are intending to do with it.

If you're wanting a beater for going out and doing live steel stage combat, it's pretty good but may not be quite robust enough depending on the particular group you're in. Some groups are considerably rougher on the equipment than others in order to match audience expectations and those groups really do need the 'crowbar' swords that get mocked in some circles.

If you're wanting a low cost sword that is somewhat historically accurate for HACA/ARMA sparring, you could do worse. Swords in this price range tend to feel tip-heavy and a tad unwieldy when compared to high-end blades because they usually do not have a good distal taper. On average, historical swords get thinner all the way along the blade as you approach the tip. These inexpensive reproductions usually don't. The old Valiants I've seen didn't have much distal taper at all, but they may have improved them since that point.

[Galloglaich]

if you are doing HEMA (Haca is defunct and ARMA is just one of literally over 500 HEMA organizations worldwide now) I'd recommend the Paul chen practical hand-and-a-half sword for drill (only), this is the one a lot of people use you can't beat it for $100, it's made extra bendy with multiple fullers, thin but with a rounded point and rebated edges. It's a good sturdy drilling sword for partner drills.

http://kultofathena.com/product~item~PC2106.htm

for real sparring the high end is the Albion Maestro line ... I have sparred with them they are fantastic but they cost $500,

http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/...tice-meyer.htm

... the low cost alternative is there is a new nylon sword which is going to be coming out early next year for $65. Made in the UK and distributed by MRL. Here is a sneak peak.





Hanwei is also supposed to be coming out with a new generation of their federswords but they are already a month overdue.

For sharps to test-cut wtih, if you want something somewhat realistic I think your best bet are one of the newer designs from MRL / Windlass. I have their 15th Century Longsword is one of the few sub-$200 range swords that I bought that I've ever kept. You can find plenty of good deals though on that Sword Buyers Guide website, they say good things about Gen II these days as well though I've never handled one.


I'm real glad to see so many people around here hip to the reality of swords, medieval combat, historical fencing etc., there seems to be a paradigm shift going on among gamers. This is a good sign methinks. It's good for me, no doubt about that.

G.

[Swordguy]

I'm real glad to see so many people around here hip to the reality of swords, medieval combat, historical fencing etc., there seems to be a paradigm shift going on among gamers. This is a good sign methinks. It's good for me, no doubt about that.

G.

Er...I hate to say it, but I think the paradigm shift to which you refer is overrated. This is a reference thread where people curious about RW Weapons/Armor come to get answers from people who have high levels of knowledge about such things - there's perhaps 2 dozen regular posters in here who consistently demonstrate what I'd consider an "expert" level of knowledge (welcome to the club!). That's out of several thousand playgrounders.

Don't get me wrong - it's nice to know that people are concerned at all about the way stuff worked(s), but if you venture into any of the gaming-related threads in here or homebrew, you'll tend to find a vast contempt for how stuff really works. People don't seem to want - as a rule - reality represented in their games, just the Rule of Cool. Heck, check out this post; in a homebrew thread devoted explicitly to wanting more "accurate" armor, somebody still drops in to say that it's pointless since people can do magic anyway.

I used to get upset about stuff like that. I told people so. Then I got a bunch of warnings and infractions, and so now I just sit back out of gaming-related discussions and dispense factual information when a topic interests me.

[Mike_G]

I used to get upset about stuff like that. I told people so. Then I got a bunch of warnings and infractions, and so now I just sit back out of gaming-related discussions and dispense factual information when a topic interests me.

What were you thinking, messing up perfectly good internet theory with your real world knowledge?

[Swordguy]

What were you thinking, messing up perfectly good internet theory with your real world knowledge?

Curse my idealism. I can't believe I thought people would be willing to accept they were wrong and be willing to learn new things when confronted with facts. How silly I was...

[Karoht]

I used to be a huge fan of Windlass and MRL, and it was a great company until Hank Reinhardt passed away. I had the privilage of receiving training from that man, he was awesome. I was not impressed by John Clemmens(however you spell his name) comments after he passed on.

They used to be great, now I'm somewhat leary of MRL goods until I see and handle them myself.

As such, I'm in the market for either a scimitar, a shamshir, or cutlass. I've seen and handled just about all the MRL lines for any of the above, I'm not super impressed, but perhaps I received poor representations.

Any suggestions on where one could find any of the above?

My issues with the scimitars I find, is that the weight seems high. shipping weight being 3-4 pounds, not what I'm expecting from such a weapon, unless I'm missing something about scimitars. I have yet to find a shamshir or anything close, and MRL/Windlass cutlasses... lets just say I saw one fellow go through three of them. In one performance. For reals. First one broke the hilt off, second one got a nasty chip almost half an inch deep in the first swing, the third one the blade broke in two places. This against the lightest and gentlest fighter I know, armed with a wood and leather shield and a paul chen practical knightly (Mark 2). The knightly had no damage to speak of.

Thoughts?

[Galloglaich]

I used to be a huge fan of Windlass and MRL, and it was a great company until Hank Reinhardt passed away. I had the privilage of receiving training from that man, he was awesome. I was not impressed by John Clemmens(however you spell his name) comments after he passed on.

Agreed, it's hardly the first time Clements has made an ass of himself, I've seen him do it in person. Be glad you had the honor of meeting Hank, I wish I had met him instead of the little snaggletooth ;) Hank was a 1st class guy.

They used to be great, now I'm somewhat leary of MRL goods until I see and handle them myself.

MRL has some crap in their inventory, but their newer weapons have been much better. It's probably something on a case by case basis but I'm not alone in noticing this, I've seen a lot of comments and informal reviews of some of their newer offerings on Myarmoury, which is a much stricter review site than SBG. You can see their reviews here:

http://www.myarmoury.com/reviews.html

As such, I'm in the market for either a scimitar, a shamshir, or cutlass. I've seen and handled just about all the MRL lines for any of the above, I'm not super impressed, but perhaps I received poor representations.
Any suggestions on where one could find any of the above?

I don't know sabers of any kind very well, I know Cold Steel makes a Shamshir but I haven't been very impressed with their stuff (their grossmesser was utter crap, for example). But I posted a query on Schola Gladiatoria forum where I know many people are into those kinds of blades, I think Matt Easton has a collection of something like 20 antiques.

Somebody should chime in here in a day or two:

http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/phpBB3...hp?f=7&t=14257

You can also try Kult of Athena, if you see any nice sabers there you can look 'em up on Sword Buyers Guide, probably steer you in the right direction.

Or you can try Ebay, you never know what you will find... antiques usually run around $1500 but sometimes you can find bargains especially on contemporary weapons... always a bit of a roll of the dice but so are replicas.... and with antiques the luck can go both ways. I know a guy who recently bought a Schiavona for $2000 on Ebay which turned out to be from the early 17th Century and worth about $30,000.

Here is a Tulwar for $400 which looks like it could be real, seller has 100% feedback

http://cgi.ebay.com/Indian-Tulwar-Sh...item2a03482531

Here is another

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Indo-Per...item2a02be4f93

Here is one for $300, looks like it's real though not antique.

http://cgi.ebay.com/37-old-rusted-tu...item5884fb59b2

My issues with the scimitars I find, is that the weight seems high. shipping weight being 3-4 pounds, not what I'm expecting from such a weapon, unless I'm missing something about scimitars.

If that is the weight of the actual blade, yeah I agree that is way too much, I would guess more around the ballpark of 2-3 pounds, and it should be balanced well so that it doesn't feel heavy in your hand.

G.

EDIT: I followed one of the Ebay links to an auction site, this Tulwar is $175

http://www.swordsantiqueweapons.com/s094_full.html

[Fhaolan]

As such, I'm in the market for either a scimitar, a shamshir, or cutlass. I've seen and handled just about all the MRL lines for any of the above, I'm not super impressed, but perhaps I received poor representations.

Any suggestions on where one could find any of the above?

I always feel safe recommending Therion Arms for getting weapons: http://therionarms.com/reenact/sharp..._western.shtml

There's a few of those kinds of blades on that page, and a few more spread all over the site. Make sure you check out the Ethnographic pages as well, as he gets ahold of some interesting pieces on occasion.

I recommend Therion Arms because the fellow runnning the place (Hal Siegel), is always willing to chat about the weapon before selling it to you to make sure it will suit your purpose. If you're wanting a beater for example, he won't talk up a delicate wallhanger. I've bought a few items off of him and haven't been disappointed yet.

[Shademan]

well not a arms and armour question per se...
but how would a second crusade arab merchant be dressed?

[fusilier]

well not a arms and armour question per se...
but how would a second crusade arab merchant be dressed?

This might help, but unfortunately it skips the period in question:
http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/history.html

It's a historical costume manifest from the late 1800s(I think). It does have arab costume, but from the 4th - 6th century, and then ethnic dress from the late 19th century.

The other option would be to look for images of specific known merchants, or explorers. Unfortunately I only know of Ibn Battuta, although he was a Moroccan he may have worn Arab dress (I honestly don't know).

Wish I could be of more help.

Good luck!

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Is it possible to design a gun that can be disguised as a broom?
It'd fire a small bullet, since broom shafts aren't so thick. The barrel would be wood, so people don't get suspicious.
It wouldn't have to last long, a one-shot weapon disposed after firing.
Triggering mechanism in the broom handle. Assassin janitor or something.

[Mike_G]

Is it possible to design a gun that can be disguised as a broom?
It'd fire a small bullet, since broom shafts aren't so thick. The barrel would be wood, so people don't get suspicious.
It wouldn't have to last long, a one-shot weapon disposed after firing.
Triggering mechanism in the broom handle. Assassin janitor or something.

A steel barrel inside the wooden handle would work. I don't know hwo well a hollow wooden rifle barrel would hold up to the pressure of the round going off.

Other than that, sure, all you really need for a simple, one shot gun is a firing pin, trigger, and barrel.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

A steel barrel inside the wooden handle would work. I don't know hwo well a hollow wooden rifle barrel would hold up to the pressure of the round going off.

Other than that, sure, all you really need for a simple, one shot gun is a firing pin, trigger, and barrel.

Roughly how far would a broom-sized gun be able to shoot? Could you fit a rifle cartridge in there? I'm not so familiar with bullet sizes and effective ranges.

[Norsesmithy]

You could easily be able to fit a broom handle with a cartridge/barrel combination that would have th ballistic potential to be dangerous out past a thousand meters, but it'd be awful hard for an assassin to be very consistently able to score hits, with any single shot weapon lacking a sight, past about 25 meters.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

You could easily be able to fit a broom handle with a cartridge/barrel combination that would have th ballistic potential to be dangerous out past a thousand meters, but it'd be awful hard for an assassin to be very consistently able to score hits, with any single shot weapon lacking a sight, past about 25 meters.

If it was reloadable, it would be more accurate?