Musket was the firearm that infantry soldiers used before the perfection of the rifle. The name was first used in Italy in the 1500’s to describe heavy handguns. It may have come from the Italian word moschetto, meaning young sparrowhawk, or from the name of an Italian inventor, Moschetta of Feltro.
A musket had a smooth bore (inside of the barrel). By contrast, a rifle bore has curved grooves.
Early muskets were 6 or 7 feet (1.8 to 2.1 meters) long and weighed as much as 40 pounds (18 kilograms). They fired either single round balls or round balls with smaller lead balls called buckshot. They were loaded from the muzzle. The first muskets were matchlocks, guns in which a cord match set off the powder charge. They were followed by wheel locks, in which a revolving wheel set off sparks; flintlocks, in which a flint struck a piece of steel to make sparks; and caplocks, in which an explosive cap set off the powder charge. Muskets were so inaccurate that it was difficult to hit a target more than 100 yards (91 meters) away. But the military used muskets long after the development of the first accurate rifle in about 1655. Muskets were considered more convenient because a musket ball slid easily down the barrel. Rifle bullets had to be pounded down to fit into the grooves.
