The purpose of this page is to share and update information, videos, and images of our current live-fire studies as well as some from our experiments from the past. Douglas Scott, Jay Waller, and I continue to add things we want to research to our list, so there should be much information that will interest archaeologists working on conflict sites, arms historians, as well as collectors of antique firearms, educators, and reenactors.

Using multidisciplinary methodologies to collect our data, our goal is to research documentary evidence on 17th, 18th, and early 19th century arms, extant original arms and arms-related archaeological finds to better understand how they were used as well as how they functioned. We are using modern technology to record information, but we’re using the shooting techniques that those of the period used. Our goal isn’t to fit the tightest patched ball in a smoothbore firelock to make it more accurate, but to use the guns like soldiers, civilian hunters, and Native Americans did during the period and record the data. Recreational black powder shooting is a lot of fun, but so are controlled scientific experiments where we can collect data that will be useful to us as well as others who are trying to understand the internal and external ballistics of historic arms or to interpret a conflict site now as well as on archaeology projects in the future.

Full reports from previous work are on the Publications Page of this site and future reports will be posted there also. But this is the perfect place to share some of the information in a more informal way, some of which can’t be in the reports.