Tactical Flintlock? Own This Light-Equipped Pistol from 1800
Russ Chastain 11.22.15
When a photo of this little jewel wandered across my Facebook feed recently, I figured it would be one of those vague things of which I would find photos everydamnwhere, but no real info.
Happily, I was wrong.
Turns out, this delightful and inventive old gun is currently listed as available on the Proxibid auction website. Sweet!
Unlike other flintlock muzzleloading pistols, this one has a vertical grip that comes UP from the rear of the barrel. The grip has finger grooves and a trigger, which is apparently linked to the gun’s action via a link running down through the grip.
A large trigger guard extends in front of the grip, encompassing all of the user’s fingers.
In front of the trigger guard is a lamp, described by the auction company as “an iron lamp with candle holder and lens, with opening screen and double cover.”
Manufacture date is estimated as “circa 1800.”
It’s hard to say, but the lens may be a magnifying lens to get the most light out of the candle. Hopefully, the original user of this gun could see far enough to be effective. If not, the light probably made him a fairly easy target.
The auction describes the barrel as “17 mm cal.”
Like other flintlocks, this lantern gun has a cock to hold the flint, which interacts with the frizzen and pan to ignite the charge inside the barrel.
Heck, even the ramrod is still there (although the original cock screw is gone).
Pretty cool!
