something to note: one of humanity's specialties is throwing things. other primates can kind of throw like humans do, and there are animals that have their own ways of "throwing", but humans throw the fastest and most accurately by far. from what i can find this is mainly due to how our thumbs...
well...not really. the main reason firearms caught on was logistics. it's a lot easier to train a bunch of peasants to fire guns then use bows, and it's a lot easier to transport barrels of powder and lead then it is to transport arrows or bolts or train your peasants to fletch them on the road...
i mean, he'd probably want something with a flip-down visor - flip it up and out of the way to get a view of the field and issue commands, then flip it back down to protect your face the rest of the time.