BULLET DIAMETER – 8 mm (0.31 in) Pea Gravel, 10 pellets per load *
BULLET WEIGHT – 8 g/pellet (123 grains) 80 g (1,230 grains) per load *
MUZZLE VELOCITY – 122 m/s (400 fps) *
MUZZLE ENERGY – 59 j (44 ft/lb) per pellet, 593 j (437 ft/lb) per load *
WEIGHT (EMPTY) – 3.55 kg (7 lb 13.2 oz)
WEIGHT (LOADED) – 3.64 kg (8 lb 0.4 oz) *
WEIGHT LOADED WITH STOCK –5.35 kg (11 lb 12.7 oz) *
STOCK WEIGHT – 1.71 kg (3 lb 12.3 oz) *
SIGHTS – None
EFFECTIVE RANGE – 15 m (16.4 yards) *
OPERATION – Manual, external application of ignition source
TYPE OF FIRE – Single shot
RATE OF FIRE – 1 to 2 rounds per minute *
FEED DEVICE – Loose black powder (Serpentine), wadding, shot (Gravel)
FEED DEVICE WEIGHT (LOADED) – 9 g (139 grains) powder, 80 g (1,230 grains) shot *
STATUS – Antique
SERVICE – Localized Chinese military
This weapon has been established as the oldest confirmed example of an individual firearm discovered so far. The hand cannon was found during an archaeological dig by Wei Guozhong in the 1970s. A number of bronze artifacts were found along with the hand cannon, all of which were made in the style of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty. That dynasty ended when the are was overrun by Mongols in 1234. That indicates that the hand cannon can be dated to the 13th Century at the earliest. Major battles took place in 1287 and 1288 near the site where the hand cannon was found. This makes it very reasonable that the weapon was lost by the troops during the fighting. It has been found in written records that a Commander Li Ting led a group of soldiers armed with hand cannons during the 1287 battle. The weapons were again used in the 1288 fight. They were effective in that they “caused great damage” as well as great confusion among the enemy troops.
According to the records, the soldiers carried the hand cannons “on their backs.” The weapon would have been hard for a single individual to both carry, aim, and ignite in combat. That would make the hand cannon one of the early “crew-served” weapons. One soldier would carry the weapon, presumably on his back, and bend forward to aim it at the enemy. A second soldier would prime the weapon and use some source of ignition, hot coal, burning cord, or small torch, to fire the gun.
The Heilongjiang hand cannon is the type of firearm known as a socketed hand-cannon. In this type of weapon, a pole or “tiller” is inserted into a socket formed at the back of the cannon tube. No intact tillers have been discovered with hand-cannon specimens so the overall length of the device is up for conjecture. The Heilongjiang specimen is of case bronze with a relatively short barrel. At the base of the barrel section, the body Is swollen out to give the powder chamber a greater thickness of metal in order to better withstand the pressure of firing. A smaller bore of the barrel is at the firing chamber to accept the charge of ground black powder, known as “Serpentine” powder. The smaller diameter powder chamber helps keep the Serpentine powder from being compacted in the loading process, compacting the powder prevents a good wave front of fire from passing through the charge.
Projectiles, placed between pieces of wadding, could be river pebbles (pea gravel) or bits of broken pottery. Firing the weapon would launch these projectiles at a fair velocity, along with a loud nose and billows of stinking white smoke. The hand cannon would be pointed rather than aimed, there being no sights on the device. It is the noise and smoke, along with the damaging swarm of projectiles that cause the confusion among the enemy soldiers, especially among their horses. Utilizing a hand cannon requires relatively little skill and pairs of troops could be trained to employ one very quickly
