Why did it took almost 400 years to realise that round musket

People understood it fine, but that didn't matter when you couldn't get precision barrel and ammunition manufacturing going.

But they it was understood, they just couldn't make anything better at the time. A cube would probably have bettered the penetrating characteristic, but would decrease aerodynamics drastically.

>>2050553

Why did it took almost 4.5 billion years to invent the bullet in the first place?

???

>>2050553
why did it take 14.5 billion years for your consciousness to arise from the quantum foam of the universe to make this thread?

File: 1479589664199.png (65KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

65KB, 600x600px

>>2050553
How many centuries will it take you to realize that this should have been asked on /k/ ?

>>2050601
Nice

>>2050553
Whats the point of aerodynamics if your accuracy is going down the shitter past 100-150 meters anyways? A conical bullet fired from a non rifled musket is not going to be much more accurate than a round one since both bounce around in the barrel.

>>2050553

It didn't, it was known since ancient times that oblate missiles are more accurate than spherical ones. However, when every musket has a slightly different barrel diameter, you can't mass produce your ammunition but have to rely on each gunman making his own. And round balls are a lot easier to hand-make than oblate spheroids with the same diameter.

WHAT IS A RIFLE?

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF RIFLES?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifle#Muzzle-loading

>>2050601

>implying consciousness arising in the first place isn't an indication that consciousness is a property of the quantum foam

Because thats how long it took to invent breechloading and rifling. Without rifling keeping the bullet flying stable ball is the most aerodynamic option and without breechloading loading non ball shaped ammo is really slow

>>2051037
This.

Not to mention that spherical bullets are much more easier to make.

File: Tips forage cap.jpg (47KB, 231x244px) Image search: [Google]

47KB, 231x244px

>>2051037
>breechloading
No. The first rifles that fired Minié balls were muzzle loaders, and rifling had been around way before that. The Minié ball solved the problem of having to jam a ball down a closely fit barrel by having the rear of the projectile expand upon firing, thus combining the advantages of rifles and muskets.

*tips forage cap*

>>2050601
I don't think you understand how implications work

>>2051481
Breach loading was invented in the medieval period.

Two reasons.

1. Without rifling, a conical bullet couldn't be stabilized and would tumble as soon as it left the barrel.

2. For the same caliber, a conical bullet is heavier than a round bullet. Heavier=slower. When used muskets were machined into rifle-muskets during the mid-19th century they developed a rainbow trajectory because the heavier conical bullet was moving so much slower.

>>2050553

rifling without industrial machining tools is difficult

ball shot is easier to cast and has less margin for fuck-up than rifle shot

>>2052202
okay but without a contained cartridge.......

>>2052202
What I meant was that breechloading and the development of muskets that fired conical projectiles was unrelated.

>>2050553
A conical or whatever bullet fired from an unrifled barrel will tumble, resulting in tons of drag and shit accuracy.
If a ball tumbles on the other hand, it doesn't matter much at all.

>>2050662
Incorrect. You know nothing, but you answer as if you do for the purpose of self-aggrandizement.

Conical bullets had a soft lead base that would melt and deform as they were fired. This meant that they had full contact with the walls of the barrel and didn't bounce.

other shapes would have too much friction when the soldier tries to ram it down the muzzle, reloading took 20 to 30 seconds to begin with

>>2050572
>A cube would probably have bettered the penetrating characteristic, but would decrease aerodynamics drastically.


You are trolling right?

>>2050553
They knew, conical projectiles are difficult to load as fast and can easily become angled if loaded improperly which causes very inaccurate and anemic shots. To avoid the first two problems many soldiers issued early conical bullets loaded them backwards. This however (at least in the case off the walker colt) allows more room than normal for extra powder and because of the shape also generates higher pressures making these guns liable to explode. It wasn't until the minie ball that a sufficient level of technology was reached to maximize gains from both conical projectiles and rifled barrels.

>>2050607
This pic has always bothered me because libertarians aren't fudds. The shottie should be in the top right and the ar bottom left.

>>2050553
because every invention seems so much more obviously good or bad after it is invented.

>>2050572
Believe it or not they did make cubed bullets.
See the puckle gun.
Cubed bullets dont penetrate better though, they just do more damage.

>>2050601
damn, but what a waste of quantum foam.

>>2050553
People realized that musket ball where pretty bad piercing surfaces or being accurate at range for a very long time. It's just that rifled barrels where absurdly hard to make prior to the mid 1800s. Loading a projectile like a mini ball into a smoothbore musket would not yield any significant gains in accuracy or muzzle velocity, so it would mean that putting in the effort for specialized ammunition would be a waste without the ability to produce rifled weapons alongside it.

Also Smoothbore muskets where manufactured with loose tolerances when it came to their barrels due to most firearms being muzzle loaders until the late 1800s. Fitting a projectile created with the intention of being used with a modern rifle would either be impossible, or ridiculously difficult, assuming the caliber of the barrel and projectile where equivalent.

Rifling was still used pretty regularly by light infantry or skirmishing troops during the 18th century but muzzle loading delayed development of a modern bullet.

>TL;DR

Rifling was hard to make until the late 19th century

A conical projectile offered almost no benefit over a round ball when the firearm being used has no rifling.

Said conical projectile would also be hard or impossible to load into a muzzle loading firearm. Trying to stuff a bullet into the wrong end of a modern rifle is generally considered a bad idea.