EARLY INVENTION OF RIFLING.
In Sir Hugh Plat’s Jewel-House of Art and Nature, 1653, (1st edition 1594) the 17th article runs thus:—
How to make a Pistol, whose Barrel is 2 Foot in Length, to deliver a Bullet point blank at Eightscore.
A pistol of the aforesaid length, and being of the petronel bore, or a bore higher, having eight gutters somewhat deep in the inside of the barrel, and the bullet a thought bigger than the bore, and so rammed in at the first three or four inches at the least, and after driven down with the scouring stick, will deliver his bullet at such distance. This I had of an English gentleman of good note for an approved experiment.