musket

n. heavy gun that was formerly used by infantry soldiers before the development of the rifle

A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smoothbore long gun, which is intended to be fired from the shoulder. The date of origin of muskets remains unknown, but they are mentioned as early as the late 14th century in Chinese military books such as Huo Long Jing. Muskets were primarily designed for use by infantry. Improved with the introduction of  rifling around 1800, muzzle loading rifled muskets (of the kind common during the Crimean War) became obsolete by the late 19th century, as cartridge breechloading repeaters superseded them. However, rifled muskets were the most common weapon used up until the late 1870s. Typical musket calibres ranged from .50 to .80 inches (12.7 to 20.3mm). Depending on the type and calibre, it could hit a man's torso at up to 200 yards, though it was only reliably accurate to about seventy yards. A soldier primarily armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

Noun
1. a muzzle-loading shoulder gun with a long barrel; formerly used by infantrymen
(hypernym) muzzle loader
(hyponym) blunderbuss

n. musket

(n.)
The male of the sparrow hawk.
  

(n.)
A species of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army. It was originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical appliances (including the flintlock, and finally the percussion lock) were successively substituted. This arm has been generally superseded by the rifle.