![]() A double-barreled flintlock gave you a second chance, however. When it didn’t work, it was called a “flash in the pan,” an unkind metaphor used today for a short-lived success, but in the 1700s, at the very best it meant a missed shot at dinner. If everything worked, the burning priming powder was drawn into the touch hole, igniting the powder charge in the barrel. ![]() With the hammer fully cocked (it was usually placed in the half-cock position for safety), pulling the trigger released the sear, allowing the hammer to fall and strike the backside of the pan cover, or leaf, driving it forward to expose the priming charge while the flint scraped against the steel surface, creating sparks to ignite the priming powder. The flintlock design used a new L-shaped frizzen hinged at its toe and closed (pushed rearward) to cover the priming charge in the pan. The flintlock mechanism was more efficient, less complicated to manufacture, more robust and easier to operate than any of its predecessors. Flintlocks first began to appear between 15 using an improved firing mechanism with a steel surface for the flint, in the jaws of the cock, to strike against. ![]() The flintlock as we know it today evolved from a more primitive mechanism known as a “snaphance” or “snap lock” developed in Europe, principally in Germany, Italy, England, France, Scotland and Spain, during the mid to late 1500s. ![]() ‘Godless’ Firepower: 9 Guns Used in Netflix’s Western Miniseries
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