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Early German musket with serpentine lock. A matchlock or firelock [1] is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of flammable cord or twine that is in contact with the gunpowder through a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with their finger.
A firelock is a firearm in which the priming is ignited by sparks. [3] [4] [5] More specifically, it refers to the mechanism or lock of such firearms. It may also refer to a gun's lock which uses slow match to ignite the powder charge. [6] [7] The matchlock was a lever mechanism that simplified the ergonomics of firing. Slow match would be held ...
The term, however, remained and musket became a generic descriptor for smoothbore gunpowder weapons fired from the shoulder ("shoulder arms") into the mid-19th century. [18] At least on one occasion musket and arquebus were used interchangeably to refer to the same weapon, [ 19 ] and even referred to as an arquebus musket . [ 20 ]
Percussion caps have been manufactured in various sizes to fit snugly over different sized nipples. Nipples for 4.5mm and 6mm percussion caps. The percussion cap, percussion primer, or caplock, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. [1]
A musket was a muzzle-loading smoothbore long gun that was loaded with a round lead ball, but it could also be loaded with shot for hunting. For military purposes, the weapon was loaded with ball, or a mixture of ball with several large shot (called buck and ball ), and had an effective range of about 75–100 m (246–328 ft).
Muskets of the 16th to 19th centuries were accurate enough to hit a target of 50 cm (20 in) in diameter at a distance of 100 m (330 ft). At the same distance, musket bullets could penetrate a steel bib about 4 mm (0.16 in) thick, or a wooden shield about 130 mm (5.1 in) thick. The maximum range of the bullet was 1,100 m (1,200 yd).
‘I’m a Reproductive Oncologist, and This is the One Vitamin I’m Suggesting My Patients to Get More Of’
The French-made Tulle musket or Fusil de chasse (fu-zi dee chā-se), originally meaning "gun of the hunt", was a light smoothbore flintlock musket designed for hunting. A later military variant known as the Fusil marine ordinaire, or "common naval musket" was issued to the French marines during the French and Indian War and American War of Independence.