Muskets and bayonets aboard the frigate Grand Turk.

A musket is a muzzleloading, smoothbore firearm, which is meant to be fired from the shoulder.

The musket is the weapon that replaced the arquebus, and was then replaced by the rifle. But the word musket is also used to describe a number of different weapons including:

• a long, heavy weapon with a matchlock or wheellock and loose powder fired with the gun barrel resting on a stand
• a lighter weapon with a flintlock or percussion cap firing mechanism, with a bayonet.