(no subject)

[titusnowl]

Programs and essays which mention flintlocks - especially in terms of duelling - usually mention that "flintlocks often misfired." Now, I realize I haven't been shooting that much, and I've only used my gun under fairly optimal conditions - dry day, so the powder's not at all damp - but I've only had one misfire, and even it would have been preventable if I'd been cleaning my touchhole every few shots. One would assume that duellists would be very careful to keep their equipment in pristine condition and to try their best to have appropriate weather to minimize misfires, so I can't see how the guns would misfire THAT often.

They're notoriously inaccurate, slow to reload and a bitch to clean, but that doesn't mean they're completely useless.

The biggest reason that a pistol duel was less likely to be lethal is the fact that duelling guns were unrifled, making them even LESS accurate than your normal mediocre-aiming flintlock.

Comments

[mnementh.livejournal.com]

As a complete aside, did you get my email? I used the address in your profile, but I've no idea if that's the one to use or not.

[chikkiboo.livejournal.com]

Doh. Yes, I did. Thank you. I flagged it to respond to and then never did.

Stupid sword people not making usable heavy cavalry swords and selling them to me for $10.

[joeycooper.livejournal.com]

You shooting Pyrodex or black powder?

They didn't have a climate controlled enviroment to keep their powder in, either. A humid climate with no A/C would be hard on blackpowder.

[3weasel.livejournal.com]

Real black powder, that's been in the original tightly closed (and probably still airtight) metal cans that had been opened and partially used before being stored in a non-climate-controlled shed for 22 years. My parents used to shoot muzzleloaders before I was born, and we're using their old powder.

Pyrodex and the other substitutes don't work well in flints. You can use it, but you still need 4F black powder for the priming and under the main charge to get enough oomph to light the Pyrodex.

[weirddave.livejournal.com]

AND, as a point of fact to the last statement you made, a lot of dueling flintlocks were designed to cheat- they had what is know as "blind" rifling. The barrels were rifled, but it ended before the end of the barrel, so that one looking in couldn't see the rifling. "Gentleman's" method of settling differences, duels were deadly serious.

[chikkiboo.livejournal.com]

Getting caught using one of those, of course, would probably get you killed even if you survived the duel by using it. I don't believe the majority of dueling pistols were rifled at all, although there's no denying that you're right about a fair number.

Pistols are generally cited by these programs as being one of the least-deadly weapons to duel with.