An excellent assemblage of 17th-century musket barrels and gun parts
have been recovered from the Jamestown soil, reminiscent of times when
Indians attempted to wipe out the small settlement.
Among the gunlocks found are matchlocks, wheel-locks, snaphaunces,
"doglocks," and flintlocks. The first settlers were equipped with both
wheel-lock and matchlock muskets. Some of the muskets were so heavy,
they required a forked ground-rest to shoot (parts of two forked
ground-rests have been excavated). Other muskets, like the caliver, were
light, and could be fired without the use of a support.
The standard musket during the early years of the settlement was the
matchlock. By 1625, however, the picture had changed, for the
wheel-lock, snaphaunce, and "doglock," were being used in large numbers,
and the matchlock had become obsolete.