An ancient gun mainly refers to a muzzle loader, but a large number of several kinds of guns were imported, such as an early breech loader, Spencer Carbine which was the main force gun of the Saga clan (later it became the original form of Winchester rifle), Chassepot rifle which was the main force gun in the Franco-Prussian War (later it became the basis for the development of the Murata-style gun), Dreyse needle-gun (Zundnadel gun) and so on.
古式銃とは主に前装式銃砲のことを言うが、初期の後装銃も佐賀藩の主力銃であったスペンサー銃（のちにウインチェスター銃の祖形となった）をはじめ、普仏戦争の主要銃であったシャスポー銃（後に村田式の開発の淵源となった）やドライゼ銃（ツンナール）など類種のものも相当数輸入されていた。