Kilts in the English Civil Wars/War of the Three Kingdoms

[BoldHighlander]

...a few more of the Middlesex Village Trading Company Doglock Pistol in action:

[Piper]

I have one of those horse pistols myself. It's been languishing in a drawer for the last couple of years (since it's arrival), because I've drifted away from shooting much. I've got grandkids starting to request range time now, so I'm getting anxious to get it out and give it a try. Is that a live round you're firing in the picture? And if so, how was the experience (recoil, accuracy, etc)? I've dry fired mine a couple of times, and I think I've got to take some off the mainspring, or it's really going to eat flints.

[BoldHighlander]

I have one of those horse pistols myself. It's been languishing in a drawer for the last couple of years (since it's arrival), because I've drifted away from shooting much. I've got grandkids starting to request range time now, so I'm getting anxious to get it out and give it a try. Is that a live round you're firing in the picture? And if so, how was the experience (recoil, accuracy, etc)? I've dry fired mine a couple of times, and I think I've got to take some off the mainspring, or it's really going to eat flints.

Actually those were from a review done by Gordon Frye on the Middlesex Village Trading Company Doglock Pistol. He does a great job reviewing it, answers most all of your questions. Sorry for the confusion, though the chin whiskers sticking out of that helmet does bear some passing resemblence...

[Woodsheal]

Nice looking pieces! Getting back to strictly Highland weaponry, clansmen (those that could afford them) would carry these sorts of firearms (plus various sorts of imports) during the mid 1600s:

[Woodsheal]

This is the style of Dutch gun that appears in my earlier photo. Trade guns with this type of lock were exported in large numbers beginning ca. 1630. They've been dug up in N. American sites, too....

[Slowburn]

I may be off on time period at what was custom at the time but kilted highland wariors often disrobed for combat and left their kilts behind for battle and charged wearing only their liens in most earlier accounts of battles that i have read.

[Woodsheal]

I may be off on time period at what was custom at the time but kilted highland wariors often disrobed for combat and left their kilts behind for battle and charged wearing only their liens in most earlier accounts of battles that i have read.

There is only one battle where it is related that it was so hot that the clansmen shed their plaids, and fought in their shirttails (and it's probably not true):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Shirts

[Copperheid]

I may be off on time period at what was custom at the time but kilted highland wariors often disrobed for combat and left their kilts behind for battle and charged wearing only their liens in most earlier accounts of battles that i have read.

Having witnessed one of the members here (Mark E.) doing some one on one, two on one, and three on one fighting with blades and polearms (they were doing it just to see if there was any great advanatage, or benefit). I can say with pretty much good authority that there are only two benefits to fighting in just a shirt-It greatly disguises the muscle play in the upper torso, therefore making predicting immediate action tricky, as well as allowing a lot of freedom fighting on the ground. The unfortunate side effects are that you give up your pistol ammunition (if the conflict is in the late 16th thru 18th centuries), you expose pretty much your entire leg to horizontal slashing (we tested the resistance of a free-hanging pleated kilt material section against slashing at a different point). Heat...You are likely in a full blown adrenaline rush, and it's always hot on the field-staying cool is a misnomer on the battlefield, unlike modern sports clothing that addresses such annoyances.

[Woodsheal]

Just recently spent a weekend at a '45 reenactment event in Ft. Erie, Ontario. Battle scenarios were held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and both were hot days. As I've noted at similar events in the past, the belted plaid is no impediment to running, jumping, going prone, loading and firing a musket, or wielding a broadsword and targe. Nor do you drop dead from heat exhaustion from being so garbed. I don't buy these legends of "plaid shedding" before battles....

[Matt Richards]

Beautiful weapons, Woodsheal. Interesting how much of a downward hook those musket stocks have in comparison to the matchlocks.