Poor discipline and training, at least as much as inferior weaponry, resulted in their failure to prevail in the battle. Had trained gunners taken part in the fray, confident in their fortified positions and abilities, then the results may well have been different. The most dramatic proof that the idea of obsolescence is relative, of course, is when an army equipped with inferior weapons decisively thrashes a better-equipped force. For example, at the 1879 Battle of Isandhlwana during the Zulu Wars, a Zulu army armed with spears eliminated a British force armed with rifles, largely because the British could not quickly enough distribute ammunition to their troops. Because they could not even be fired, those rifles were worth less than spears they faced.
More modern illustrations are just as poignant.
Home-ground advantage, guerilla tactics, and many other factors overcame the disadvantages of inferior weaponry. Weapons can become obsolete, and this term is not always used incorrectly.