Watch: Forgotten Weapons’ Simple Key Pistol

This is one old gun for which Ian has very little information, but it’s interesting nonetheless. It’s an old-fashioned key with about the simplest possible type of gun built into it.

It’s basically a pair of holes drilled into the key; the stem is hollowed to form a chamber and barrel, and a touch hole is drilled into the top (indicated by the arrow in the photo above), above the chamber area where the powder would lie when it’s loaded.

The notion would be that as long as the guard had a flaming brand of some sort–such as a lit cigar–he could use the ember on its end to ignite the powder and fire the gun.

I suppose it worked some of the time, but for my part, I’m pretty glad that guns have gotten a whole lot better over the years.

Check it out in the video below.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.